Literary Agents

Literary Agencies:

2012 Guide to Literary Agents
Click to order via Amazon

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Writers Digest Books (September 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599632292
ISBN-13: 978-1599632292

New and reinvented for 2012!

Guide to Literary Agents is a writer?s best resource for finding a literary agent who can represent their work to publishing houses, big and small. The days when a writer could deal directly with a large publisher are over. Literary agents represent writers and shepherd manuscripts to the right editor; and a good representative is the difference between a published book and a manuscript that never gets read.

Detailing more than 550+ literary agencies, Guide to Literary Agents has always been the biggest, the most comprehensive and complete, and the most respected guide. As an added bonus, this edition also includes an exclusive webinar available for download on demand. With it, readers will learn how to find an approach, secure and find the agent that can best represent their work.

The 2012 Guide to Literary Agents also includes:

More editorial content, more interviews--more everything!
A free downloadable webinar created exclusively for readers of Guide to Literary Agents detailing step by step how and why to secure an agent in the current era of publishing instability
Twelve month subscription to www.writersmarket.com/agents

From the 2009 edition:

Cardinal Rules of Manuscript Submission

Find out the rules of submission.
So many manuscripts get turned down for violating these rules. Some houses, like Berkeley, only accept agented submissions. Very few big houses nowadays accept unsolicited pieces; the science-fiction house Tor is an exception.
Find out what the house publishes.
Again, critical information. You wouldn't send a mystery novel to a house that specializes in historical romances. Not only is it a waste of time, it's also a clear sign of ignorance.
Find out who the manuscript should be sent to.
Often, the editor who was in one house last year turns up in someone else's house the next year. Submitting a manuscript to the attention of an anonymous editor doesn't help at all.
If you find a house you'd like to submit to, be sure to send a query letter first.
A query letter is exactly what it sounds like, a letter asking if a house would be interested in looking at your work. A query also helps avoid the frustration of rejection later on down the road. A number of resources are available, most notably from Writer's Digest Books, to help authors with the ins and outs of publication. WDB annually publishes The Writer's Market series, which includes volumes on general fiction, romance, science fiction and fantasy, songwriting, and children's books...

There are other resources as well...Check out your local library or bookstore for the latest!!"

Notes Courtesy of Claxton Graham - scifiwriter8502@email.com from a post on Thumper's Corner, the AALBC.com's discussion group (http://aalbc.com)

Should an agent charge fees?

Someone doesn't need to pass a test or be licensed to become an agent (though you do have to have a certain amount of experience and recommendations to join the Association of Authors Representatives or AAR). You can just hang up your shingle and become one.
The practice of charging fees used to be far more common than it is now. Though the practice is not unheard of now, it tends to be frowned upon (I know new members of the AAR cannot charge fees; ones who were already members and did when the practice was more acceptable can continue). It was more common a while ago but it's basically dying out.

About the Author

Chuck Sambuchino is an editor for Writer's Digest Books (an imprint of F+W Media). He is the the author of a humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK (Sept. 2010; Ten Speed Press), which has been featured by Reader's Digest, USA Today, The NY Times, and AOL News.

He is the editor of GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS, as well as as CHILDREN'S WRITER'S & ILLUSTRATOR'S MARKET (both Writer's Digest Books).

He recently helmed the third edition of FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT (a WD trade book), released in 2009. Chuck is a former staffer of several newspapers and magazines - most notably Writer's Digest. During his tenure as a newspaper reporter, he won awards from both the Kentucky Press Association and the Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists.

He is a produced playwright, with both original and commissioned works produced. His work has appeared in national and regional magazines, with recent articles in Watercolor Artist, Pennsylvania Magazine, The Pastel Journal, Cincinnati Magazine, Romance Writers Report and New Mexico Magazine. During the past decade, more than 650 of his articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and books.

Besides writing, Chuck loves music, and plays guitar and piano in a rock cover band. He also has an insatiable sweet tooth and is forever searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. He and his wife have a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham, and they live in Ohio.

AUTHOR SITE: www.chucksambuchino.com