How to Find an Agent for a Cartoonist

For creative talent, noting is more rewarding than finding an agent! (Or an agent finding them!) Not likely to happen if one sits around and waits for it to happen... So how do you go get your own agent? By going where the agents are. In the books!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time
• Access to a library
• Patience

1. Locate books similar in genre to the one you would like to publish, or typically like to write. (Such as cartoon strips.) Collect books by several different authors, and put in one location.

2. At the beginning of each book there is often a page of recognition, thanking people who have made the book possible. The agent is often included in this section, especially in the earlier books of authors. You may have to "read between the lines" to see if they are talking about their agent. If you are looking for an agent, you may be able to recognize an author complimenting one in a covert way.

3. Jot down the names of the agents mentioned. Flip through the front few pages of the book for additional information to fill in gaps of information. Indicate next to the possible agent the publisher name, author, and the book name.

4. Pull up the names online to verify the names, as well as locate the addresses and phone numbers of the agent. The benefit to tracking the agents this way is that they already have an interest in this type of material!

Tips & Warnings

• Reference the book, publisher, any info you have, when you contact the agent.
• Always be sincere, and see if you can find a common connection between the two of you, (Like the same college, or both of you think beets are the best vegetable on the face of the earth,)
• Talk, talk, talk... Call publishers, ask questions. Ask about agents. Ask about editors. Call the editors, and ask them about agents. People like to talk about other people, so let them, to your benefit.
• Do NOT say anything insincere to an agent, publisher, editor, etc., to get a foot in the door. They can smell insincerity a mile away and you will not get what you want. Be honest and sincere.
• This is not a quick process! Finding an agent is work, but worth the effort!