Top Non Fiction Literary Agents
Finding A Literary Agent You Can Work With
So you have finally finished writing the book for which you toiled so hard and just like your newborn, is very close to your heart? And you thought that you have crossed the biggest hurdle? Well now comes the tougher part, which is to get your book printed and making it see the light of the day. For this, you would need the services of a book agent. Not just any book agent, but also someone who is good at his work. There are many kinds of literary agents and hence you have to be careful with who you choose to represent you.
To start with, do a background search on the area of specialization of the book agents. This is important since some agents work with fiction, some specialize in poetry whereas other love technical titles. Once you identify a list of agents who deal in your area of work, you would need to zero down on someone who can ensure that your interests are protected. This is difficult since finding agents who know their jobs is very difficult. It’s almost like searching for a needle in a haystack. Don’t be surprised if you keep bumping into scammers disguised as book agents. Though people like these are available in plenty, they are in it only for themselves and can be really terrible at their job.
A good book agent knows his job well, probably would have learnt it by working for some other reputed agent. That would have helped him learn the tricks of the trade by talking independently to the publishers as well as the authors. He would have the gone ahead and set up his own business. These agents toil hard and will be on your side without ever asking you for any monetary benefits. They will also do things like editing your books free of cost.
However, if you land up with a scammer, you will find that he will send you a bill even before the book hit the shelves. This is something that a genuine agent will not do. Once your book starts selling, he gets his money as a share of the amount you get from the proceeds. This can be a real-time filter of isolating a scammer from a genuine agent. Also, a scammer will make you get your revisions and editing done by a third party though it is supposed to be done by him for free. They are book agents after all and it is imperative that they should have editing skills.
In a nutshell, ensure that you do a thorough research on book agents. You should feel comfortable with them right through. However, if you feel that something is not right, switch to another one at the first opportunity. Don’t panic if you find yourself doing this often since it is important that you are working with the right person. After all it is a question of making your dream come true!
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Is this literary agent going to respond?
I sent a query letter to a literary agent and got this e-mail;
The agent writes below;
Forgive the first para. My mistake. We will be in touch if we want to read this.
Sincerely,
In a message dated 3/17/2010 9:45:42 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, hisemail@.com writes:
this is his previous email;
Thank you for the email. I have passed this on to my associate who would normally be in touch if we have any interest in pursuing this. However, I liked your pitch so please submit this to me. I am in Los Angeles next week but back in NYC on the 30th.
One of PMA’s biggest fall projects, The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman (Simon & Schuster), was named a USA Today Top 12 Christmas Book of 2010. CBS Films has acquired film rights The Christmas Cookie Club. Wendy Finerman (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “Forrest Gump”) is producing. The Story revolves around an annual holiday celebration in which a dozen women trade their homemade cookies. As the evening unfolds, the friends bare their personal adventures of the past 12 months. hi name here, who is Pearlman’s lit agent, will exec produce.
(as reported in Variety). http://literarylion.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/christmas-cookie-story/
Just out: The Element (Viking) by Sir Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica, a New York Times bestseller, is out in trade paperback (Plume)
Keep an eye out for The Compass by Tammy Kling and John Spencer Ellis as it is PMA’ s next global bestseller. It was published in the US and UK this past summer.
Here is a press release on a movie I am executive producing that should be out in summer/fall 2010: http://www.movieset.com/theirishman/castandcrew/above-the-line
Please also view my Interview at http://www.NewYorkBTV.com Click on Video Vault and find my name,
Enjoy this recent interview too. Click on #3. http://www.whoswhospeaks.com/pre view.html
You can also view my trailer on http://www.YouTube.com by typing in 4 words Author Screenwriter
Here is my latest YouTube posting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONu7wHOA7k0
In case you have any desire to travel to Paris and go on a River Cruise this September, I highly recommend you look at this link You will also be traveling with me and the talented author/screenwriter James Dalessandro.
http://literarylion.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/france-tour/
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AbundantLion”
PMA is very selective about the clients and projects it manages. as we seek long term management relationships with prolific authors who write cutting edge fiction or narrative non fiction with global marketing potential as well as motion picture and television production potential. We are deluged with submissions and are selective about who and what we manage, but we do review everything.
With all good wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours,
, President
I took the agents name out of the email for security reasons.
Anyway Should I send another email after the 30th, or keep looking for other agents? Will they let me know wheter or not I’ve been accepted or rejected? I’d rather be rejected than just ignored so I can know if I need to move on.
Careers and majors, what do you think?
So I’m a junior in high school and its about time I start thinking about the future. I’m a smart kid, excellent in academics and athletics. I’m in all possible AP courses, graduating distinguished, and I should easily make top quarter of my class.
Although I’m good in calculus, physics, chemistry, algebra, etc. I don’t necessarily enjoy doing it. However, I do enjoy English and history, and if I could I would love to pursue these interests as I decide on a career. I’m a great writer and, in fact, I’ve written two novels for the hell of it. I never sent them in to an agent, I just enjoy doing it. My dream job would be to be a writer, but I’m well aware that you can’t just start off making easy money as a non-reputable fiction author. I’ve also dedicated much of my time to researching and learning about history, specifically Italian, and wouldn’t count out any of its fields as a possible career choice.
The problem is that as I research high paying careers the only jobs that I can find that pay well (at least 50,000 a year) deal with mathematics and science. All of the careers I’ve become interested in (journalist, archeologist, literary agent, etc.) don’t typically make much money, from what I’ve seen.
Are there any fields of work in the arts and humanities that make good money to live on? And what are some good majors to consider that will help me do well in these fields of work?
It sounds like you are interested in working from home. A friend of mine recently had great success with writing jobs. You can do this on a part or full-time basis. Many of these jobs are simple online writing tasks, such as blogging about a movie that you recently saw, commenting on what your opinion is of a certain kind of car, proof reading simple documents and more! If you don’t mind writing some short opinions, this may be the perfect opportunity for you!
Good Luck
hey there. I’ve actually published a book before, so I could probably help you out with that. I’m not really sure if this literary agent is credible or not, but if an agent has not responded to you after some time then you should probably move on. I would keep on submitting to other agents in the meantime, but agents are picky when it comes to representing new authors. You might get some rejections. If you can’t get an agent to help you, I recommend that you self-publish as an option. I’m currently doing it, and it is worth it. I recently made a new website that has some information on how to go about publishing a book. It’s called http://www.2publishabook.com. I hope it helps you in your quest. Anyway good luck.