This week I’ll sharing notes from my workshop, HOW TO LAND AN AGENT: STEP BY STEP. Today, I’m discussing Steps 3 and 4.

STEP 3: Research Agents

You’ve finished your query letter and/or your synopsis. Now you’re ready to do some research. There are several ways to do this. Here are some of the places I did my research.

Favorite Books/Authors

I either went to my bookcase or to the bookstore/library and looked up all my favorite books or authors. I then went to the acknowledgment page and saw if they thanked their agent. If an agent is good, most always, the author puts them in their acknowledgments. This is how I found out about my agent—I saw her name mentioned in several of my favorite author’s acknowledgment pages.

Trade Books

A lot of these books have indexes that you look up based on genre and age group. Some of these books include the following:

Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market
Guide to Literary Agents
Jeff Herman’s Guide to Agents
Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market

Web

You can also utilize the internet to help with your web search. Here are some places to start:

Agent Query
Preditors and Editors
Guide to Literary Agents
Publisher’s Marketplace
Absolute Write Forum
Verla Kay’s Blue Board

Specific Agent Blogs/Websites: A lot of agents have their own website and blog.

After you have a list of potential agents, you need to make sure that you understand what the agent requires for communication:

Email or Snail Mail (Lot of agents are now using email as the delivery method)

Package Contents:
Query Letter (usually required)
Sample Chapters?
Synopsis?

STEP 4: Agent Checklist

Now that you’ve done some research and have a better idea of agents and how they work, you need to start thinking about what kind of agent you want. Know up front what you want from your agent. Remember the agent works for you.

Here are some things you may want on your checklist:

Do you want an editorial agent? Someone who looks over your work and asks for revisions before sending out to editors? Or do you want someone who just tells you what’s not working at a reader level and trusts you to fix it.

How much do you want to communicate with your agent? Only when you are submitting or at regular intervals? Do you want to communicate via phone or email?

Do you want to see your submission list? Do you want to see the editor responses?

Do you want to have a contract or will a verbal agreement work for you?

So those are Steps 3 and 4. Check in tomorrow and I’ll share Steps 5 and 6 of How to Land An Agent.