posted
The AAR website is another good source. And you can start following the blogs of some agents. Most of them link out to other agents' blogs. If the first agent is, say, a member of AAR, I would think he would be unlikely to link to the website of a sleazy agent. Besides, some agents have very informative and entertaining blogs.
The bottom line is, it takes some research. Which is one reason it's taken me so long to get even 21 queries out there to be rejected.
posted
I like to check out the dedications in the front of books (library books, bookstores, whatever) and look for literary agents there. Figuring, if they got someone published and into a library/bookstore then they're probably legit. Esp. if it's a book that people have heard of, a book of your chosen genre, or both...
Posts: 715 | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
Find out who has agented the books you really like, particularly those sold to the publishing house you really like. (I don't know how to do this, but I know that it can be done via public resources. A reference librarian at your local library can help although I'm certain that Hatrackers can also help.)
Those agents are likely to be into the same kinds of fiction you already are, and thus might be the best audience for your work anyway. If they've also already sold successfully to this publisher - double bonus!
posted
I was just emailing with a friend overseas about this; she got sucked in to one of the fake agent scams. They told her she needed a "professional edit" done, then kept wanting to charge her more before they would publish it. Fortunately, she got out pretty quickly.
posted
Finding and engaging an agent is like romancing a stone. Investigating one's track record, background, preferences, tastes, sentiments, political views, secret interests, creative slant, business acumen, and all that's relevant, dress size, liquor preference. Whatever information can be found out, it's for targeting an audience of one that speaks for the larger audience they in turn target, who in turn target a reading audience.
This agent has a secret reading preference for suburbanite housewife mysteries. That agent has an avowed reading preference for hard science fiction with rigidly plausible science and technology and is regularly disappointed. The next prefers character genre with the freshest perspectives and sharp, eye-cutting prose. This one likes characters that strive mightily in megatropolises, or get bushwacked in the hinterlands, but the agent doesn't consciously know that's his/her preferences. Those agents at that agency like fantasy set in the future as an evolution of the human condition. The agents at that agency all prefer adult, masculine romance, but they don't talk about it outside their offices.
Agents keep up a running relationship with a network of acquisition editors and publishers with similar preferences. They talk. They know each other personally. They party together at trade conventions. They have lunch. They depend on each other for their livelihoods.
The author-literary agent relationship is no different, like a platonic wedding. Investigating-romancing an agent seems like stalking. It is, which is perfectly all right as long as it doesn't get out of control. The ones who are open to approach respond to queries, not just proposed novel queries, they will talk about their agencies, their writing and publishing advices, themselves, as long as the query is about something that isn't readily knowable by examining their Web sites, their client lists, the novels they represent, their published opinions and commentary, and is something engaging and original that's not already been asked an interminable number of times. They put their skivvies on one foot at a time, just like writers do.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited October 07, 2009).]
posted
A comprehensive listing of agents, contact information, their clients, their publishing projects, book lists, submission guidelines, etc., as well as other resources.
posted
Publishers Marketplace is well-worth joining, if only for a month so you can look up agents' sales histories.
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posted
All this is starting to make my head hurt. And I actually wanted to publish works in English...
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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posted
Donald Maass Literary Agency has an overseas agent in your area, MartinV.
Eastern Europe Includes Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania
Ana Milenkovic Prava I Prevodi Yu-Business Centre Blvd. Mihaila Pupina 10B/I 5th Floor, Suite 4 11070 Belgrade Serbia tel. (+381-11) 301 6141 & 311 9880 fax. (+381-11) 311 9879
Edit| Found a plausible e-mail address for her too, ana@pravaiprevodi.org from Prava I Prevodi International Literary Agency. 30,000 hits on search terms "Ana Milenkovic" some interesting public information on her tastes as well.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited October 09, 2009).]
posted
This actually looks promising. Although I'm not from eastern Europe, they are willing to accept a synopsis via e-mail. That was my major issue: imagine sending snail mail packets across seas. Repeatedly. I could go bankrupt.
My thanks, extrinsic. Now all I need to do is finish that story...
posted
I took a look at that overseas agent. This is what they say about themselves: specialises in representing American and British authors in former Eastern Europe.
It is more about protecting the copyright of books published by the mentioned publisher than publishing itself.
What I need is some idea of how and where to submit my own work. If I chose an American publisher, do I submit my work just like any other American or are there any special regulations about this? Must I send my manuscipt via snail-mail across the Atlantic? That can be quite expensive.
posted
Again. Usually, you want to find an agent first, then they use their contacts with editors and publishers to sell your work.
A lot of agents take email queries. If you start with those, you'd probably only need to send snail mail if one of them asks for a partial or full ms. Some of them might even take that by email. I don't know. I haven't gotten that far, yet.
posted
You don't have to repeat yourself, Meredith. I know what to do. I just don't know how to do it. I am living on a different continent, wanting to write in language not my own, publishing in a country not my own. I believe the publishing quest might not be the same for me as for those that publish in their own country.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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Then you should start researching agents who handle the kind of books you want to write, paying special attention to the ones who accept email queries. Several internet tools for researching agents have been mentioned in this thread.
As far as I've been able to tell from agent blogs, etc., it's not unusual for an agent and writer to do most, if not all, of their work together without meeting in person. It shouldn't matter where the agent is located, though having an agent that is closer to you would possibly be preferable, all other things being equal.
As far as any special regulations about doing business overseas, I'd let the agent worry about that. They're supposed to be the experts.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited October 18, 2009).]
posted
Donald Maass Literary Agency accepts e-mail queries. If the agency decides to represent an overseas novelist, they would then assign the novelist to a specific agent closest to the overseas novelist. Which appears to be Ana Milenkovic of the Prava I Prevodi International Literary Agency and that has formal affilitiations with a network of other literary agencies across the globe, several hundred as near as I can tell. Prava also manages foreign publication rights for U.S. agencies, and does other literary business arrangements. Prava has other agents with the firm: Milena Lukic, Lidija Plisic.
If they want to take a deeper look, then they will request sample chapters and a synopsis.
If they want to see more, they will ask for an entire manuscript. Which should be the only item requiring postal mailing to New York. If they're asking for a manuscript, they're on the hook. Fish on!
If they want to represent a manuscript, they will be in touch.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited October 18, 2009).]
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They told her she needed a "professional edit" done, then kept wanting to charge her more before they would publish it. Fortunately, she got out pretty quickly.
