Hi
I have almost finished my first novel. I self published my first book (an autobiographical memoir) but I would love to submit my latest offering to some well known literary agents. I can't find a list of the best agents. Everything I have seen has very long lists and it is difficult to decide from those lists to whom I should submit my novel.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
John
There is no list of the best agents, John. Why on earth would there be? Who would decide which names should be on there? Surely any such list would mean that the agents on it would be overwhelmed with submissions, and would soon lose their placing for sheer inability to cope.
You go through the W&A Yearbook; you find the ones who deal with your kind of novel. You do some homework and find out who they represent, how successful those authors are, and whether their novels are in any way similar to yours.
Or you narrow the list down by any other means: their rules - always check out the website, not just the entry in the book, which could be out of date as soon as it's published - or their location (in case anyone wants to meet you in person).
When you've got a selection of names, start sending your manuscript* out - to all at once, if you want. Then you start writing the next one. Don't sit watching the post box or your email account, because some won't answer at all, some will say no at once for any number of reasons, and some will take months to get round to looking at your work. Once it's posted, forget it. Hard to do, but essential - you'll have done all you can for it.
*That's your perfectly copy-edited, formatted, and polished manuscript: give it the best chance it can possibly have. The same goes for the covering letter.
There is no short-cut: you're a writer first, but you have to be a salesman too, so do as much homework as you can. Can't flog a beer to a tee-totaller, after all.
Good luck.
John, some tough love coming up here:
1) You want it all on a plate, don't you? And a golden one at that. Not only don't you want to wade through a long list like the rest of us, you want a short list of the BEST agents.
2) You give us no clue as to what kind of novel you've written. Different agents specialise in different genres. It's no good sending a whodunnit to an agent who only deals with romantic period pieces.
3) What do you mean by "best"? More popular? Best deals arranged for clients? Most time to spend on you individually? Most human? Biggest earners? Smallest cut in your royalties demanded? Some of these categories are mutually exclusive.
4) Unless your novel is really OUTSTANDINGLY BRILLIANT, the best agents are going to turn you down... and it's going to take them time to do so.
5) Frankly, if I had the best possible agent (and I haven't even got the worst possible agent), I wouldn't tell you. Nothing personal, but I'd want her to concentrate as much of her energy as possible on ME... not use it on another new-comer. And if she'd already made the best possible deal for me with the best possible publishers... I'd only pass her name along to close personal friends.
6) Welcome to the shark pool.