2007 Guide To Literary Agents
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at
11:03 am
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both would help even more
Finding a good Literary Agent?
Without anyone telling me to look in resolved questions or buy the 2007 guide to literary agents (which i have on order), I want to know anyone knows of an agent that will only try to sell your work to the top 5 publishers.
Im interested in getting my book published but I will self-publish before i go with anyone other than the top 5.
To tell the truth, I would rather self-publish, but I am getting pressure from family to at least submit my work to some publishers.
Queenbean, I’m not one of these writers that expects a handout, or is waiting for something to be given to me. I have a very in depth marketing plan for my book already and several back up marketing plans. And as for your comment “If you have to consider self-publishing, you are not apt to be a writer” Well how do you explain Grisham, Redfield, Paolini, and L. Ron Hubbard? All self-publishers.
Loryntoo…All publishers speak the same language…money. If a publisher see’s dollar signs in your book it does not matter if you have a track record, but like i said before, i could really care less if a publisher buys my book. I would rather self-publish first and maybe sell out later.
I’ve got a lot of respect for the Hellcat, even when I disagree with her and I would not have seen this question if it wasn’t for her. I need to say that because I am going to disagree with her again. I have at least two very good friends whose creative work obtained copyright on behalf of the publishing company they were trying to sign with. One regained the rights to her material, the other did not. He is a joint owner, but will forever be tied to a publishing company that does not have his best interest at heart. It is not amateurish to copyright your material before you send it out, but it can be expensive.
If you cannot afford the copyright process but still want protection, you can always send the material Registered, return receipt requested. the thing about that it that it is more expensive than the whole copyrighting process if you send it to enough places.
If you believe in your work and want to protect it, Copyright is the Gold Standard. It doesn’t say that you don’t trust the agent. It really says that you know how to take care of yourself. For shorter works, bundle them into a collection before you submit them. The publisher will know what to do with the individual work if they are interested in it, but that way you only pay one fee for getting the protection instead of a separate fee for each work.
It is your agent’s job to get the work published though. Once you sign with an Agent, you may even agree to let the Agency obtain the copyright. It is part of the service and you might as well make use of it. If you get it published yourself, there is really nothing left for the Agent to do, you have in effect become your own Agent. If you are speaking of Vanity Publishing, where you get a few hundred to a few thousand copies to distribute yourself, that will give you a nicer book to shop around with, but sometimes it scares legitimate publishers off because they don’t generally enjoy dealing with people who want to do their job for them.
I will say that it certainly worked for Christopher Paolini, who self published Eragon and shopped it around to school Libraries before he got it accepted by his current publisher, so don’t take any advice as the absolute word!
Best of luck in your endeavors in any case and I hope to see you on the bestseller rack in B&N soon.
This will take some research on your part and here’s what I’d suggest:
Find books published by those top publishers you choose and sift through the author acknowledgments. Find the names of their agents and then look up the agents to find out what literary agencies they work for.
Also, go to the preditors/editors website and sift through the agent listings and find those that are “highly recommended” (noted in pink.)
Off the top of my head, some of the top agencies (and top agencies, in my opinion, mean those who are well-known, have well-known clients) are Donald Maas, The Knight Agency and Writer’s House.
Also, check the websites of literary agents to see who their clients are, what books they’ve published and through which publishers.
This is going to take a lot of work on your part and I’m afraid you’re setting yourself up for major disappointment. While I have little doubt you are talented and determined, I’m not sure if you’re being entirely realistic in your goals. I’d suggest broadening your submission scope a bit, but you seem pretty decided.
Best of luck! Let us know when you’ve got some work published!
Is copyrighting material amateurish?
Well, I’m an aspiring writer and I know that I have talent in writing. I recently bought a book called “Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents 2007”. In the writer’s advice section I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything about copy writing, but if I did get my manuscript copyrighted and got it published and sent to literary agents do you think they would consider that amateurish?
Advice on that is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all the answers guys! They were very helpful!
I didn’t expect so many adults to help a 16 year old girl so much!
Do you need the writers market AND the guide to literary agents, or will just the writers market do?
What about the guide to the novel and short story if you are writing a novel? And do you think it is better to buy it or look at a copy at the library? (though they won’t let you check it out, you have to take notes in one sitting).
Also, if I bought the writers market 2007 right now, do you think it would still be OK? Cause I can get it cheaper used than buying the 2008 brand new. Would the info still be good you think?