How Do I Find a Literary Agent?

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Part of the video series: Writing & Publishing Tips

Summary: Find a literary agent by researching different agents through the Internet, looking for an agent that represents similar writers, writing a color letter about your background and submitting the letter to a variety of literary agents. Wait several weeks before following up with a literary agent using advice from a writer and instructor in this free video on literary agents.

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By Laura Turner
eHow Presenter

Laura Turner received her B.A. in English from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., graduating magna cum laude with honors. She then attended the University of Nevada, Las...read more

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"Hi, my name is Laura and today I'm going to talk with you about how to find a literary agent. Finding a literary agent is basically like applying for a job. You're going to try to make yourself as attractive as possible to the person that you're submitting your stuff to. But, in order to do that, you first of course, have to figure out where the jobs are, right. So, where are the literary agents? You can actually go online to aar-online.org and you can find the associated authors representatives there and then figure out who corresponds with your specific genre or the type of things that you write. And, then you're going to want to research any similar books that they have published. So, just like any other job, you're going to want to figure out you know, what does this, what does this company specialize in, right, so what does this person in this agency, what do they like to publish and what kinds of books have they published. Then you're going to want to check out the number of clients that each agent represents. And, you're going to want to feel out whether or not they like to represent new talent, because that's one thing that's going to be going against you if you don't already have an agent, is finding an agent, so it's a catch twenty two. So, you're going to really want to see if you can find the person who is most open to representing new people. Then, of course, you're going to want to write your color letter, once you've found the right person for you, containing your education information and all of the information about your publication and the kind of things that you write. And, also of course, people that you have in common, people that you know together so that you can throw a name drop and get yourself in that way. And, then finally, after you've submitted your color letter, make sure you just wait a good length of time, six weeks is about enough until you sort of follow up on your essentially application, for them to take you on and represent you. So, good luck!"

eHow Article: How Do I Find a Literary Agent?