Searching for an agent is difficult enough without worrying about whether the agent is dishonest. Unfortunately, you do need to worry. Too many agents engage in abuses--charging up-front fees, participating in kickback referral schemes, urging writers to pay for expensive editing services--for you to assume that every agent who expresses interest in your manuscript is reputable.

To give you some idea of the magnitude of the problem: Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group of which I'm a staff member, has assembled documentation on more than 300 agents in the US, UK, and Australia who engage in the practices mentioned above. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the US, for instance, there may be as many as 900 people doing business as literary agents, but only about 400-450 of these can be considered reputable (about 350 members of the Association of Authors' Representatives--the only professional trade group for agents in the US--and perhaps 50-100 more who choose not to join). The problem is less widespread in other countries, but it does exist.

Most aspiring writers know the basic drill: assemble a list of agents, prepare and polish a synopsis and sample chapters, write a dynamite query letter, send out submission packets...and wait. To this must be added another step: weeding out the questionable agents who will inevitably wind up on your query list.

The Procedure

1. Begin with a couple of good market guides. For US-based writers, I recommend Literary Marketplace (available in your local library), Jeff Herman's Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, and Rachel Vater's Guide to Literary Agents. In the UK, Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and Writer's Handbook are both comprehensive resources. I suggest you use more than one guide, because all have a different mix of information (and some can be out of date).

Also very helpful is John Baker's Literary Agents: A Writer's Introduction--not so much for the agent listings, which though useful are somewhat idiosyncratic, but for the insight it provides into the way agents work.

Unfortunately, there's not a market guide in existence that doesn't contain at least some questionable agents--hence the steps below--but the ones listed above seem to have fewer than others. I don't recommend Writer's Market, which contains a lot of marginal and amateur agents, as well as a good number of fee-chargers hiding out in the non-fee section.

2. Use the information in the guides to make a list of agents who are appropriate for your work. This list can be as big as you like.

3. Expand your list by picking books you think resemble yours, and finding out who agents them. This is not as difficult as it might seem. Some writers thank their agents in the Acknowledgements sections of their books, or name them on their websites. A websearch on the author or the title may yield the information--through a newspaper interview reproduced online, for instance--as may a search of Publisher's Weekly or Publishing News, which regularly report on who's selling what to whom. If you're a genre writer there are even more resources--for instance, both Locus Magazine and Chronicle report on science fiction/fantasy/horror sales. Also, some publishers maintain rights guides on their websites, where agents for recently-published books are listed. (For links to some rights listings, see my related article, Researching an Agent's Track Record.)

4. Obtain the membership roster of the Association of Authors' Representatives (US) or the Association of Authors' Agents (UK). You can obtain these rosters by visiting the AAR website or the AAA Website. Membership in these organizations is an indication of legitimacy: agents must meet competency requirements in order to join, and abide by a code of practice that excludes many common abuses, such as referral kickback schemes.

5. Place a question mark beside any agent who isn't a member. Non-AAR or -AAA membership doesn't necessarily indicate a lack of reputability--a number of successful agents choose not to be members, or are still too new to have fulfilled the membership requirements. But it's wise to do some extra research on agents who aren't members.

6. For agents with a question mark, do any or all of the following:

• This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) I'll go through Writer Beware's complaint archives, and let you know what I find.
• Check the agent listings at Preditors & Editors. This website hosts a large agent listing, with "not recommended" notations to indicate agents who charge fees or engage in other abuses.
• For US writers: use Agent Research & Evaluation's free agent verification service. AR&E maintains an extensive database of agent sales information, and also collects complaints.

The above steps should ensure that you have a list of agents to whom it's appropriate to send your work, and make it less likely you'll query a questionable one. It's not an infallible method, but it does offer more protection than sending out submissions based solely on the information you find in market guides.

7. Some additional recommendations:
Don't use the Internet as your primary source of information. The Internet is an invaluable research tool, but it shouldn't be where you begin your agent search. Lists of agents on the Internet have usually been compiled by people without much knowledge of publishing, or else are databases where anyone can enter information. Most are full of questionable agents. A good print guide like the ones mentioned above is a much better place to start.

Learn the warning signs of a questionable agent. Pay a visit to the Literary Agents Page of Writer Beware. If a questionable agent does slip through your screening process, the tips and information here will help you to identify him/her.

Read trade publications. Knowledge is your best defense. Magazines like Publisher's Weekly and Publishing News report regularly on agents and the deals they make--plus, you'll learn a lot about the publishing industry. Both are available in libraries, or in shortened versions online. There are also some excellent free electronic newsletters, such as Publisher's Lunch.

Some Practical Advice on Querying

1. Queries should be precisely targeted. Pick only agents whose interests and specialties are a good match for your work (apart from the fact that you're more likely to find representation this way, it's simply a waste of time and postage to query an agent if your work doesn't match his/her tastes). Be sure to take the future shape of your writing into account--ideally, your agent won't represent just this one book, but your writing career as a whole.

2. Use up-to-date sources. Print market guides are expensive. I often hear from writers who've picked up a two- or three-year-old edition at a used bookstore as a way to save money. But things change fast in publishing, and even a year-old guide may contain a lot of outdated information. Bite the bullet and spring for a new copy.

3. Be businesslike. Your query letter is your chance to snag an agent's attention. It needs to provide a dynamic and intriguing snapshot of your work--but remember that it's also a business document. Keep it professional, and keep it brief (a single page if possible). Really unusual or inventive or passionate query letters that break the business mold can also work, if you're able to write them--but not many people can. Unless you're really sure you have the skill to carry this off, stick to a business format.

4. Pay attention to the agent's submission requirements. How-to-write books often give general guidelines for what to send (query letter, synopsis, first three chapters). This is fine when an agent doesn't have specific preferences--but many do, and don't want to see all of this initially. Sending a submission that doesn't conform to agents' stated preferences may provide a good reason to set your submission aside. Also, don't send submissions electronically unless the agent's guidelines specifically say you can do so. Most agents still want to receive work in hard copy, via snail mail.

On a related note: keep it plain. Fancy packaging such as colored paper or elaborate binders, or extras such as author photos or mockups of your book cover, are not welcome. They will make your submission stand out--in the wrong way.

5. Spread a wide net. If an agent asks for your entire manuscript, s/he will often request an exclusive reading, but you can query and/or send partials to as many agents as you want.

6. Be bold. Query every agent who might be appropriate, no matter how established and successful they may be. Many new writers limit their queries to small or new or never-heard-of-'em agencies because they believe, or have been told, that established agents don't work with first-time writers. But this is the best way of getting stuck with a scammer or incompetent.

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