Lists of agents

Taylor

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I'm ready to start querying, but are there any lists of agents to query?

I saw that sticky post above this called "Lists of Agent Blogs" and I will start there, but is there something like Duotrope for agents?

Help is much appreciated! Thanks!
 

Drachen Jager

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You should do a search before asking questions, this has been asked three times in the last week.

As mentioned above, QueryTracker is a great start, AgentQuery is good as well. Publisher's Marketplace and the AAR homepage are also good spots to look.
 

Taylor

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What about Writersmarket.com, do you think that's good? It seems useful, but I can't tell for certain. Thanks again!
 

Colossus

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As with any list, once you get a name see if they have their own website. Some of the info on the lists is dated, and you may find that an agent is/isn't accepting new clients.
You also may find that they work for a totally new company, or any other major changes.
 

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Remember to only use such lists as a starting-point for your research. Once you've assembled a list of possible agents, who you know look at work of your genre, check each one out before you submit. And don't ignore the value of looking out for writers whose work is similar to your own, and then finding out who represents them.
 

lauralam

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Also, don't rush into querying. Work really hard on your query (we have a query subforum under 'Share Your Work') and make sure you're really ready to go. Research, research, research. Once you query that agent, that's it. I burned through about 20 names by querying before I was ready, which in retrospect I really regret. Wasted their time and mine.
 

HoneyBadger

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Here's an example of my QT notes for a favorite agent:

"query, synopsis, first 3, bio STEPHANIE ONLY YES 6% full"
What the agent wants submitted is first, any excitement I have for the agent is next, then, for fun, I added their average full request rate at the end.

Here's another:
"query, likes Temple Grandin personalize, 2%p 1%f, TOP 10+"
The agent wants just a query, and as she wrote that she loves Temple Grandin and my novel has an autistic 1st person-POV, I'll say a little something about that as personalization. She requests partials from 2% and fulls from 1% of her submissions. Also I apparently like this agent a lot.

I actually prefer agents with low request rates, as, to me, that means they're pretty discriminating. I'd rather my agent only request things she/he has a VERY strong feeling about to begin with.
 

Taylor

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Sure but, fulls from 1% of her submissions? ONE PERCENT? Good luck with that.
 

HoneyBadger

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Never think about it that way. If you think your novel's ready to be published, you'd better feel totally confident that it's better than 99% of submissions.

Let's break it down:

90%- literally unpublishable. These aren't just boring stories written with a lot of adverbs, these are manuscripts that may not even be written entirely in letters recognizable to humans.
5%- while still better than 90% of the other submissions, these manuscripts aren't great. Sure, they tell a story, but it's a boring story, or it's a great story that's been told to death.
4%- These manuscripts are fine. Compelling, well-written, but they're not what the agent's looking for.
1%- This is where your MS should be before you query. Well-written, compelling, and *for the agent you're querying.*

That means don't shop your SF/F saga to an agent who doesn't rep SF/F, or maybe she does, but has only sold a tiny fraction of those books. That means research agents: for me, I'm putting agents who are passionate about insider stories with strong voice and dark humor way above the agents who like more lyrical literary family sagas.

100% of 90% of submitted queries will never be represented or sold, so don't worry about those guys. Either you're in that 90%, or you're not. If you're not, focus on beating out the remaining 9%. If an agent gets 100 queries a week, 90 of them will be auto-rejects. Just make your query, your story, better than 9 other ones. It's that easy.

(So sayeth the woman who is baking her story until it's ready to go, and is researching agents until she finds the exact right top ones.)
 

Taylor

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Those are pretty good points. I'm just not convinced 90% of those submissions are as bad as you make them sound.

Have you been following Janet Reid's contest she's running now? She got 400 submissions and according to her tweets etc. they are overwhelmingly good submissions.

Maybe it's different in your genre of literary fiction, but I have my doubts.

Now I sound like a huge downer but whatever, I just can't believe that there is such a high preponderance of terrible submissions.
 

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Trust me, Taylor, there is.

Only around 5% of submissions are in the appropriate genre for the agent or publisher they're sent to; show that the author has a reasonable grasp of spelling, grammar and punctuation; and are fully comprehensible.

That 5% isn't necessarily good, though. A lot of it is dull, repetetive, and derivative. But it's the right sort of genre for the receiving agent, and it's readable. The rest? Not so much.

Read "Slushkiller" on Making Light for a good breakdown.
 

wampuscat

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Sure but, fulls from 1% of her submissions? ONE PERCENT? Good luck with that.

I may be wrong, but I don't it's that unusual.

ETA: Also, I would guess that the people submitting on Janet Reid's contest are fairly well researched, but many people who send queries are not.
 
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HoneyBadger

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Like, seriously.

I thought the same thing everyone else (including my mom, who thinks my novel is "just like a real book!" but is 100% convinced it won't be published because "well, it's impossible!" which... yeah) thought until I learned it's *not* hyperbole.

LITERALLY 8-9 out of 10 manuscripts aren't even close to being LEGIBLE, never mind publishable. The odds for a strong writer with a fresh, cohesive plot are really very good.

Everyone seems to think Dan Brown is some mysteriously published awful writer. Guess what? His books are *STILL* better than 90% of manuscripts submitted.
 

Old Hack

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Slushkiller. Read it now, please, everyone. (Although judging by recent comments there, Taylor might have already done so.)
 

kobold

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HoneyBadger,

Your query/submission system reads not unlike my own. I hope you're experiencing a little better luck with it than I.

I'm always amazed how so many writers send their ms. to agents who do not represent the type of work being submitted. Not researching an agent before querying or submitting is flying blind.
 

lauralam

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If you have a kickass query and an interesting premise and the query pages are awesome and it's what they represent but don't have anything too similar already, they'll request. That's it. 99% of a lot of slushpiles don't do this.
 

MrsBrommers

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The other thing to keep in mind is if the agent is new and/or actively seeking new clients. Established agents who've been around for a while might well be in that 1% of full manuscripts requested. I once asked how many clients she signs a year. Her answer? 0-3 new clients per year out of around a hundred query letters a week. Other agents who are newer and eager to build their list, their request rate might be a skosh higher. It doesn't mean you shouldn't submit to established agents, but it does mean your MS has to be that much more polished.
 

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I <3 Slushkiller. I go to read it for a boost of confidence now and again
 

Drachen Jager

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90%- literally unpublishable. These aren't just boring stories written with a lot of adverbs, these are manuscripts that may not even be written entirely in letters recognizable to humans.
5%- while still better than 90% of the other submissions, these manuscripts aren't great. Sure, they tell a story, but it's a boring story, or it's a great story that's been told to death.
4%- These manuscripts are fine. Compelling, well-written, but they're not what the agent's looking for.
1%- This is where your MS should be before you query. Well-written, compelling, and *for the agent you're querying.*

That's probably not far off. Take QueryTracker. There are 51,000 members and only 744 have found representation.

Arguably those 51,000 writers are a cut above. They did put the work into finding this stuff out after all.

So, about 1.5% of QT members found representation? Well, not necessarily. I know for a fact that some writers go through the process several times before they find an agent who fits. There are a lot of overworked, lazy, incompetent, or just plain fraudulent agents out there.

Considering the QT members are almost certainly in the top half of all writers (at least on average) the odds of any given manuscript being picked up seem to be in the order of about .5%.

Then the agent has to actually SELL the damn thing. Which does not happen as often as everyone would like.
 

HoneyBadger

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The .5% thing, I still maintain (in my optimistic delusional way) is a slight misrepresentation.

100% of x-number of authors have 0% chance of being published. Reading around the QT forums suggests that, while I agree QT members at least know enough to research stuff, they're still, by and large (just like we are here), submitting unpublishable stuff, for any number of reasons.

But, really. Writing's easy in terms of knowing how to write words down. Writing well is *hard.* Writing's weird, too, though, because it requres a lot of time and an obsessive nature. Someone, maybe in the Slushkiller article, said that only crazy people write books, because, who else has the time or drive? Some of those crazy people write because they're crazed with genius. The rest? Not so much.

Our goals, as writers, should include being the best damn crazy people we can be!