Literary Agents (a resource for writers)

If a reputable agency accepts your work, they will charge from 20% to 25% of all monies that they make for you.

Any agency that demands a "reading fee" or up-front money by any other name is a scam.

More and more book and magazine publishers are refusing to deal with free lance, "over the transom" submissions. The legendary slush piles are gone with global warming.

Since an agent makes no money unless your work sells, they will accept only those clients with work that they consider marketable--time is money and they don't want to waste either.

In serch for a good literary agent-First time Author
Hello,
I am a first time author or potential author in search of a literary agent. I am in the USA but not in the hot spot of New York city. I have searched but how do you know if the agent is good at what they do? Some seem so scary that you don't want to apply because its too daunting. Is it perhaps better to look to another country for an agent and get published/accepted this way?Like Spain or London?
I still have work on my manuscript...but I have started looking. It's a lot of work and brick walls.

My work is of a Spiritual and Philosophical nature. Can maybe someone guide me to a potential literary agent who deals with this? Also with philosophical and Art?
I would appreciate any help...
Thanks.

Cloakd--

Welcome to A2K.

Sorry, I don't think there are any shortcuts to finding a literary agent. Do you have a full outline of your project and a sample chapter to submit?

Manuscript-Literary search
yes I do. The manuscript is not entirely complete but I have the title and table of contents complete and the basic manuscript complete but it needs a lot of proofreading by me and than other sources.

The second book is an illuminated book with my original Art(copies) with a spiritual/philosophical discourse as the Introduction. I still need to complete the text for each of the Art pieces. So yes i do have the chapters clearly laid out for this one....with table of contents, they have to be completed.

You are right...I already have been browsing. Gone through 600 Agents.
But I still don't know which to choose out of the non-fiction. There's soooo many who could help or could not. My work is spiritually inclined towards the Islamic world different from what we are being told and described...I don't know who would accept work speaking about this area? I rather go towards a source someone has already used with credentials. Of course there's no guarantee I will be accepted.
anyhow thank you for your effort and reply. I appreciate it.

I may go directly to the publisher maybe? Do you recommend this?

Sustainably,
cloakd1

Cloakd--

You aren't ready for an agent yet.

Agents are not editors. They sell manuscripts. They don't copyread them or polish them. They need a finished product to sell.

For a first time author, this generally means a completed book--finished and polished.

Your agent has to convince a publisher that your book is worth investing money in. He needs a completed product to sell.

Good luck.

You need to pull together a proposal. This should consist of a fairly detailed outline and two chapters that are in final, or close to final, form. You also need information on the market and a bio.

I refer you to a book called Putting Your Passion into Print by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry (Workman Publishing Company, 2005). There's enough info in that book to give you a good idea of what you need to do.

Good luck.

A good place to get some great information from a literary agent is from Nathan Bransford of the Curtis Brown Agency. Nathan has a great blog and posts daily with information concerning the publishing industry, has great advice on how to query an agent, what to expect and even a weekly rundown on publishing in the news.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com