How did you find your agent?
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I'd like to hear how agented writers found their agents. I've been writing letters & emails to the point of receiving compliments but no contracts... any hints??
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  • What was your process for deciding which self-publishing company to use? Was it the least expensive? The most services? Just wondering about all the options.

  • Kate,

    I came through the slush pile--no connections. It does happen! I used querytracker.net to sort for agents with the right profile (in NYC, near-ish where I live, interested in historical fiction and women's fiction) and then used it as a jumping-off point for researching them online. The site also has a really helpful mechanism for tracking the status of your queries. The old advice to just keep at it is true. Good luck, and keep us posted!
    Kathy

  • Scenario.  Oprah Winfrey is working on her autobiography.  She is looking for an agent after receiving 20 rejection letters from publishers.  Just kidding.  Publishing is a business so literary agents are not looking for my manuscript. That is why Bill Clinton has a book out and many other former presidents.  I self-published my novel Sweetness after realizing that the traditional publishing route is for people in public life and winners of Survivors or something.  I had to do it myself.  I did not want to go about life thinking about what might have been.  It's a great novel, because i say so. The first person who believes in me, is me.  When you have time go on line and research the number of self-published books out there.  Some of them were so good, commercial publishers picked them up.

    www.sweetnessthenovel.com

  • Rebecca, thanks for your post.  I am standing in your old shoes... writing queries, revising, and revising.  Did you have any quidance when perfecting your query?  If so, would you like to  share?  My genre is inspirational nonfiction.

    Thanks.

  • I sent a query letter, though I was looking for respresentation on a script when the agent only wanted to represent another piece I only included in the letter as a part to identity some of my work. It was a while ago, and being like I was, wanting what I wanted, I moved on. Little did I know I should have followed up on the lead. Oh well...you live and you learn.
  • For a year I did all the things you're supposed to. I researched the web at places like Agent Query and Guide to Literary Agents, looked in the acknowledgments page of books I admired, read agent blogs, told everyone that I was looking, pitched at conferences - all that. The results were a few requests for fulls, but always, ultimately, a rejection. Then one day, my friend Beckie came back from a small lesbian writer's retreat held yearly in south Georgia. She handed me a crumbled slip of paper out her pocket with a name on it. Another attendee had been talking about her agent, and Beckie, who didn't really know what an agent did but knew I wanted one, had written the name down for me. And that was that.