Tools to Find an Agent For Your Book

Looking for a literary agent for your book?

Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons under Creative CommonThe conventional route involves creating a list of agents who handle books like yours and contacting them. You can look in the acknowledgements of recently published books comparable to yours. Then use Jeff Herman’s Guide to Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents or The Writer’s Market to learn more about them and their submission guidelines. We described the whole process in our post How Do I Find a Literary Agent?

Let’s look at some online tools you might want to add to your agent search toolbox.

AgentQuery Connect is a website that offers both expertise and emotional support. It offers an informative blog; forums where you can find examples of successful queries, get a critique of your own query or synopsis, explore the depth of your Query Angst or Ask an Expert; and some very active chat rooms where you can discuss the agent search process, triumphs, frustrations of puzzlements with fellow authors.

If you are not using Twitter to look for interested agents, you should be. Many successful agents use Twitter to search for new talent. Learn what they are looking for when you check the hash tag #MSWL (Manuscript Wish List). You’ll learn a lot. Check out Alan Rinzler’s post, How to Find a Hungry Editor, for some advice on dos and don’ts when using Twitter.

Want to see some pitch letters that worked? Galley Cat offers a list of successful letters in each of 23 genres which should provide some excellent ideas for your own.