It’s not a secret. Agents tell what they are interested in. They tell at conferences, on sites such as querytracker and publishers marketplace, their agency websites, on blogs, and even on twitter chats such as #askagent. Here’s a collection of recent “what agents want” for you.
Amanda Luedeke with MacGregor Literary was interviewed by Janet Fogg on the Chiseled in Rock blog on April 9th.
Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency was interviewed by Authoress on her Miss Snark’s First Victim blog on April 12th. Did you know she’s an author, too?
During an #askagent on March 20, 2012 Bree Ogden at D4EO Literary Agency (@breeogden) replied to a question with this: “I rep children’s, YA, graphic novels & art books. I prefer dark and realistic NO paranormal.”
Erzsi Deàk of HEN & ink was interviewed here by Nicky Schmidt in midFebruary 2012.
Marie Lamba, an assistant agent at the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency was interviewed in early February 2012 by Tori Bond.
Nicole Resciniti of the Seymour Agency was interviewed for Writer’s Digest.
Agent Susan Hawk Talks Picture Books – this is an interview done by Heather Ayris Burnell’s blog on February 21, 2012. AND on her blog Susan shares her novel wish list. Susan is with The Bent Agency.
Do you have any agent sightings to share? Feel free to use the comment box.
Thanks for the links! This clip from Marie’s interview was shocking:
“In the query, if you don’t include my name, if you address the query To Whom It May Concern, or you misspell my name, things start off on a bad foot right away. If your letter is riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors, I’m going to be really turned off… And if you show off a bad attitude in your query, saying things like “I know you agents don’t really care and I’m pretty sick of trying to get your attention,” or “If you know what’s good for you, then you’d better write back to me right away,” then there is no way I’m going to want to work with you.”
Shocking, but these examples of how writers query agents is so common that I’ve read many agents report similar stories! It makes me wonder what people are thinking when they are marketing their work. Apparently, they aren’t using a brain.
Robink
Thanks, Sue! I’ll check these out. 🙂
Great post. So nice to see some compiled information. The #askagent sessions on Twitter are a terrific source of information directly from agents, if you can catch them!
All the best,
Tim