Are we talking hypothetical situation here? Or are you experiencing this?

Agents will haggle with a new author if multiple agents are interested. It shows them that not only they were interested and that maybe you really do have a good book. Agents will play this process with the publishers too. If they get more than one offer, they'll hold a sort of auction (these are handled in various ways) to drive up the price of the book.

Which one has had the most success with your genre and subgenre and especially titles which are somewhat similar to yours--this will have a BIG affect on their success with your work. Which one does best with foreign rights? Which one do you feel more confortable with?

I know absolutely without doubt who my dream agent is. If he offered me a contract I would turn down anyone short of god. So it can depend on the situation.

http://www.agentquery.com/ is a good place to start. You can also learn a lot from their Web sites. I'm sure there are others, too.

The professional resource is Publisher's Marketplace. A subscription costs $20 a month but well worth the cost for a month or two in order to really be able to research. Not to mention it's a fascinating look at the REAL world of publishing. Little things like who are the top selling agents (not necessarily the best for SF/F) and who's hiring who. Not all deals are reported to PM but by far the majority. $20 a month is (for my budget anyway) a lot, but you only need to keep it a month or two.

This is how I can say with absolute certainty in a letter to an agent "You are the agent for EPIC NOVEL by FANTASY WRITER, and I believe my novel would interest the same readers." (or something of the sort.) This approach takes you out of the clueless category and out of the "spamming every agent in NY" category both of which agents constantly complain about not to mention starting the letter out talking about the recipient which has obvious psychological advantages.

But beyond that it shows you that the agent actually has good contacts with the publishers like Tor that you want to sell to and that they can successfully market that kind of novel.

I don't know why no one tells writers about this resource. I wouldn't consider signing with an agent without having researched them here. Their databases of WHO REPRESENTS WHO and DEALS is just amazing.

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

Now an agent with a track record on PM is highly unlikely to be a scammer but just to be SURE I wouldn't consider querying one without checking them on Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors.

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/

What a lot of people don't tell you is there are a fair number of incompetent/dishonest people out there presenting themselves as agents. You do NOT want to unknowingly get sucked in by one of them. Here is an important quote from Writer Beware: Writer Beware has files on nearly 400 questionable agencies, and we learn about a new one every few weeks.

So before you even do your queries, do your homework. Besides then you look more professional to the agents who respect people who are knowledgeable and careful enough to do this.

Edit: By using PM you actually know--usually--exactly what an agents deals are. Have they ACTUALLY sold epic fantasy? How often and what? I was amazed to discover a huge percentage of the business out there in spec fiction is done by a relatively small number of agents.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited November 04, 2007).]

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited November 04, 2007).]

In the end, I chose the agent I felt most comfortable with. But, as JeanneT pointed out, PublishersMarkeplace was well worth the $20/month to check their sales histories.

When a publishers asked for a full on one of my novel mss., because it was a small press that I didn't know much about I asked for a list of authors I could talk to. She was happy to provide it, saying that if more authors did that fewer would end up in trouble. I think a legit agent would feel the same way.

I just got a request for a partial from Kristin Nelson!!

I am so excited I can't even finish my writing schedule for the night. This is my first partial request.

I sent out 10 queries total to my top picks in agents. One immediately hated it and sent me a no within a few hours. Ms. Nelson obviously liked it. The others I still haven't heard from. I still have twelve agents left on my "good epic fiction agents" list. (I didn't lie when I said I was being picky) By doing it in stages, if this letter didn't work I would still have some to try with a revised version.

At least only one of them was an instant no, so I have hopes for getting some more positives. Some seem to have a fast turn around if they really hate your letter. If I get more positives on this letter, I'll go ahead and query the rest on my list. But I wanted to be absolutely sure this was a good letter by trying it out on actual live agents.