In theory, this is how the process of getting an agent works. (In theory. More on that later.)
1. You select a handful of agents you think you would be interested in and send them a query letter. (Don’t worry, I’m going to expand on all of this.)
That is a very, very, very simplified version of how you get an agent. Two other ways are through a referral (where a writing friend of yours refers you to their agent), or through a writing conference. Most writers I know acquired agents through these two methods, including myself. I met my first agent at a conference, and my current agent and I were referred to each other by the lovely and talented Jenny B. Jones.
But I’m guessing if you’re like me in high school, you don’t have author friends or a thousandish bucks to spend on a conference, so we’ll start with the basic query letter method.
I’m going to break this topic down into several posts. Today we’ll just talk about how you find these agents.
One way that you can find out about agents is to join a writing community. Pretty much every genre has one, and you can find free ones on Yahoo Groups just by doing a search, or you can Google whatever genre it is you write. Like, “Resources for romance writers.” A few examples are:
If you write for children or teens, you can join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
If you write Christian fiction, head to the American Christian Fiction Writers‘ page.
There are many, many others. I’m positive that every genre has a group these days.
By joining groups like these, you network with other writers and gain knowledge. You learn who has an agent they love, what agent just left their agency and is starting up their own thing, etc. So something like that is an excellent place to start.
Another option, and what’s more along the route I took, is to check out AgentQuery where you can get a list of agents who represent your genre or authors you admire. You can also see who’s interested in taking on new clients, what they’re looking for, and what they’re NOT looking for.
You can also buy a book like Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Agents. It’s been ages since I looked for a literary agent like this, so I’m not sure what advantages and disadvantages there are to a book versus AgentQuery. You’ll have to let me know.
Come back on Thursday and we’ll talk about query letters! In the meantime, if you have questions, shoot me an e-mail.