Is There a List of the 20 ‘Best’ Agents?
Q. Just bought your 2009 Guide from Amazon and am reading through it. I’d love to see a listing of 20 agents who have enough “clout” so that they would…
Q. Just bought your 2009 Guide from Amazon and am reading through it. I'd love to see a listing of 20 agents who have enough "clout" so that they would get the attention of a publisher; a publisher who'd say, "Well, if this agent thinks a book is good, I'm going to give it a serious look." Could you provide such a list?
- Meyer
A. Unfortunately, Meyer, no such magic list exists.
Let's examine this concept of a list for a second. If we were to compile a list of the 20 "biggest" agents making the "biggest" deals, that list would be of no value to you. A huge agent in DC or NYC who is selling multi-million-dollar celebrity biographies is not open for cold querying, so you can't contact them. What you should be looking for is an agent who has a track record of sales in the category/genre you write. Anybody who has a good track record obviously can get publishers' attention, so you know you're in good hands.
Also, I should say that list of sales is important, but it isn't the end-all-be-all factor here. You want to find someone who likes your writing, who is on the same page with you career-wise, and who you can get along with for years to come.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
