How To Find A Literary Agent (When You’ve Self-Published)

In today's guest post, Laura Cross, author of The Complete Guide To Hiring A Literary Agent, shares some great tips for self-published authors seeking agent representation.

Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Mark Victor Hanson, and Jack Canfield are successful authors who self-published their first books before acquiring literary agents and traditional publishing deals. When your self-published book sells in excess of 10,000 or 20,000 copies, literary agents may be calling you with offers for representation.

If you’ve reached that sales mark and haven’t received a call yet and your goal is to transition into a traditional publishing deal, then it’s time to take action, find a literary agent that’s the right fit for you and your book, and start pitching. Your key selling point: Your sales figures, which indicate there is a strong market for your book.  

(If you’ve sold less than 10,000 copies of your self-published book and are pitching an agent, industry insiders advise against revealing that you’ve already self-published because low sales figures imply the book has low sales potential.)

So how do you go about finding agents to pitch? Here are five ways to get started:

How to Find Agents

There are many avenues available to find a literary agent. Most authors utilize several resources to locate potential agents.

1. Referrals

Referrals are the best avenue for finding and contacting an agent. Agents respect and value referrals from an editor, author-client, bookseller, writing expert, or another agent. Ask your associates, friends and network if they can refer you to an agent.

2. Conferences and literary events

Conferences, seminars, retreats, book festivals, and workshops provide an opportunity to meet an agent in person. Agents expect writers to approach them at these events. Some conferences even schedule sessions for authors to pitch to agents. The goal is to connect with agents and leave them with a positive impression of you and your work for when you submit your pitch package in the future. Some agents may even ask you to send them your book proposal or manuscript.

3. Directories

Each year, several literary agent directories are published. Each guide provides detailed information on individual agents, which include the literary agency where the agent works, his contact information, the types of writing he represents, and his submission guidelines. Additional information may also be included such as recent sales, number of annual sales, professional memberships, and total years in business. Three popular directories are:

• Guide to Literary Agents
• Literary Market Place
• Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents

4. The Internet

The array and magnitude of information available via the Internet makes it easier than ever to find literary agents for your book. Forums, blogs, online magazines and directories, and search engines offer an abundance of resources.

• Publisher’s Lunch
• Publisher’s Marketplace
• Publishers Weekly
• Writer’s Market
• Guide to Literary Agents Blog
• Agent Query
• QueryTracker
• Agent Research

5. Agent’s Blogs

Agents have their own blogs where they write posts about the publishing industry, their expectations, what they are looking for, their clients’ book releases, recent sales, and how to submit a pitch. You can use the Google Blog Search function to find a listing of literary agent blogs:

Popular agent blogs include: 

• Nathan Bransford
• Rachelle Gardner
• Kristin Nelson
• Janet Reid
• Jessica Faust

Laura Cross is an author, ghostwriter, freelance book editor, and writing coach specializing in nonfiction books. She authors the popular blog Nonfiction Ink and teaches an online ghostwriting course. Her latest book is The Complete Guide To Hiring A Literary Agent: Everything You Need To Know To Become Successfully Published.

Comments

[bookwhirl]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful tips, I'm sure it will be very helpful for the self published authors.

[Patsy Whyte]

Hi Dana,

Very interesting article indeed. I've read all sorts of figures with regard to the number of self-published books sold in order to attract attention - 1,000...1,500...10,000...20,000!!! The numbers keep on rising (sigh).

And I thought I was doing well selling a few hundred over the last few months.

Shameless plug for my memoir (hey, no one else is going to do it for me) - No Easy Road by Patsy Whyte, available on Amazon.

I read the other day that 7% of all authors account for nearly 100% of the sales revenue generated by mainstream publishers. Some 90% or more of all books published sell 1,000 copies or less. Interesting.

Dana, many thanks for the info.

[Lexi Revellian]

Laura, what you don't address is why an author capable of selling 10 - 20,000 books on his own would go looking for an agent; someone who will take a share of his profits, and get him tied into restrictive deals which will limit his freedom in the way he sells his work.

Any agent would have to be able to get me one hell of a contract, if I were in that position. I certainly wouldn't bother chasing them.

[Carroll English]

lAURA, I have two published books that I want to sell. One is a memoir of my time in Cuba during the revolution there, and the other is a book of poetry containing various chapters/themes written over 55 years. Both contain pictures that make them visually attractive.
What I need are venues at which to appear or places who will carry them. Any time I read before a group, there is interest in the work, but finding groups to read to is my issue. (I live way out in the country.)
Having edited and proofread for decades, I can vouch for the quality of the works. I have ideas for other books I want to publish, but don't want to branch out to produce them until I can find places to carry the two already-published books. It seems like a distributer who would pick up on these two and offer them to a wide public would be the indicated party to take an interest in them. It seems like an agent would be the appropriate vehicle through whom to accomplish this. Thank you for any attention you are willing to give this matter!