Agents of Good or Evil?
A good agent can open doors you couldn't open yourself. A good agent is actively engaged, bringing opportunities you might not have thought of yourself. A good agent expects a reasonable gain for the effort of representing you, but recognizes your interests are his or her own. A bad agent won't do much you couldn't do for yourself, and gets paid for the privilege.
The problem is, how do you get a good agent? There's always the chicken-and-egg problem. It's easier to to sell with a good agent, but it's easier to find an agent if you've sold. Good writing, simplistic as it may sound, is the key, and we can't help you with that.
And what about fees, contracts, etc.? Some agents charge reading fees--does that mean they're trying to take you for a ride? What's an agent get paid?
Thankfully, there are lots of writers willing to talk about it and offer advice, and because they're writers, they've also writtn good articles. We've selected a few as starting points, listed below.
The Safest Way to Search for an Agent
This is a terrific roadmap of the agent selection process. Besides providing a logical process, it points to some great industry standard resources, online and print. Books include genre market guides as wells as guides to literary agents. Also, some pitfalls to avoid--like relying TOO MUCH on the Internet. By Victoria Strauss, hosted by
From the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer of America, here's advice that writers in any genre can use. Questions to ask, what to avoid, what to look for. Make sure to click on "Links" at the end of the article. It supplies a passle of resources like online alerts to scams, and articles with titles like "Preditors and Editors." Can't be too careful.
Book Doctors: Warnings and Cautions
There's a relatively new class of professional who help you get published. They're called book doctors, and they're part publisher, part agent. They might help you package your book--from editing to design--to improve your chances of getting published. But you have to be careful.
Association of Author's Representatives
A membership group for agents, the writer can consider AAR a sort of screening mechanism. This site has a code of ethics its members are to adhere to, and between that and an FAQ addressed to writers, you get a pretty good map of what you should expect from your agent.
Agents for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators: A Primer
Here's a guide for agents that targets the children's market. But apart from the market-specific advice, it's got links to the best directories of agents--they're in print, not online--and where to get them. It's at the Purple Crayon, a great overall resource for children's writers and illustrators.
Agents give you a glimpse of the view from their side of the table, with enlightening stories of note worthy authors, and the experience of working with them.
This site provides many services, including a full report on a given agent, plus a newsletter that had a good deal of useful inside information--for a fee. You'll have to let your own judgment and circumstances guide you on what you can pay for.
The Agency Agreement
Written by an agent who's also a lawyer, this article is a guide to the fine print and legalese you should be aware of before entering into a representation agreement. By Ivan Hoffman, J.D.