How do I get an agent?

Sometimes it’s harder to get a good agent than to get published. And you want a GOOD agent. A bad agent can do more damage to your career than you can imagine.

Sometimes it’s harder to get a good agent than to get published. And you want a GOOD agent. A bad agent can do more damage to your career than you can imagine.
Never agree to work with any agent off the street (or the internet). Do your research, check them out, talk to their clients, find out what they’ve sold and to which publishers. Anyone can hang up an agent shingle and say they’re an agent, that doesn’t make them one. And never, EVER, pay an agent to read your work. That’s their job. If they charge a fee, they cannot be a member of the AAR, which is the Association for Author’s Representatives. There’s a reason for that. It isn’t kosher to charge money to read work being offered for representation. Agents make their money when they sell the work. If they’re making money off just reading it, where is the motivation to SELL it?

The best way to find a good agent is to look in the acknowledgement/dedication sections of books that are “like” yours. Find out who is representing similar works. Then check them out. You should have joined a writers’ association for whatever type of books you are writing. Ask questions of other authors. There is nothing authors like more than to talk about writing. If there is bad juju out there on an agent, you WILL hear about it. And while some of that may be the work of a disgruntled author, if you hear a lot of bad things and the SAME bad things from more than one author, heed the warning.

What are bad things? Long response times, lack of response, lack of follow up, low offers, bad advice, too many authors, rudeness to clients, slow payment of royalties, non-payment of royalties. All of these are BAD things.

Make sure the agent has sold a lot of books to the types of publishers you are interested in. It doesn’t pay for you to hire an agent who sells mostly non-fiction to sell your romance. Agents need to have working relationships with viable publishers and editors who publish what you are writing.