Finding An Agent
by Judith Bowen 

Finding the right agent for you can be as tough as making that first sale. The market has tightened over the past few years and agents can pick and choose their clients. Their first choices, in many instances, are authors who are already selling books. After all, they know they can count on 15% from these people and they have bills to pay and kids in college. A new author is always an unknown quantity. 

There are many types of agents representing romance fiction. A quick glance through some of the resources on my bookshelf reveals that some agents represent a wide range of material from, say, series romance to mystery novels and nonfiction; others represent mainly romance fiction, or what is increasingly known as "women's fiction." You want to find an agent who will represent all of your work. 

The best advice is to start your search for an agent long before you need one. Check out books in the library that list literary agents. See if they are members of reputable professional organizations. Go to writers' conferences. Talk to other published authors. Gradually put together your own short list and send out query letters describing your manuscript--the fact that yours is completed is a plus-- starting with the first agent on your list and working your way down. Chances
are, none of them will take you on. 

Don't give up. Get out there and sell your manuscript to a publisher. Contrary to what you might have imagined - that it's the agent's job to sell your book - the truth is, your book is going to have to sell itself, whether you send it out or an agent does. Then, when you're offered that contract, contact your short list of agents again, starting at the top, and mention you've got a contract to negotiate and you'll be pretty pleased to find that the response will be quite different. Maybe your first choice or your second still won't be interested, but your third or fourth will. If you've done your research, he or she will still be a fine agent with a good reputation. 

A contract in the hand is worth a lot. You may say, well, heck, I made the sale, why should I pay out 15% to an agent? That agent knows how to negotiate the best possible contract for you and will no doubt save you her fee in better terms. As one publisher says, "We know we're the ones who pay the agent's fee." 

One drawback to this method is that some houses won't accept unagented manuscripts. However, many do. Harlequin/Silhouette, the biggest player in the romance world, welcomes unagented manuscripts. So does Ballantine and Harper Paperbacks, for instance. Other publishers, such as Kensington, do not. A current "Writers' Digest" will be invaluable here. 

Strange as it may seem, many years from now you may look back at that first sale and realize that while, sure, you made a few dollars, the best thing you got out of it was your wonderful agent! 


Judith Bowen is an award-winning romance author and currently teaches classes on writing popular fiction in Vancouver, Canada. 

Copyright © 1996-1999 by Judith Bowen. All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission.