Researching

The first thing I needed to do was to figure out how to even look for an agent. Fortunately, we live in a time where that information is readily available.

I fired up the ol’ web browser and typed “how to find a literary agent.” Yes, that simple. The search engine did not skimp on results.

I found articles, videos, articles with videos, videos with links to articles, and on and on. I tried to find common themes in the advice, best practices, if you will. Links to sites with useful resources, some of which were incredibly useful. I found a number of YouTube videos that were incredibly helpful, as was this column by Jane Friedman, who has a ton of goodness on her site. It took a little time, but I started forming a game plan.

I knew I was looking for an agent with a track record of making sales in the SF genre. It wouldn’t make sense to query an agent who specialized in biographies of Civil War figures. Duh. I also wanted someone with demonstrable sales to publishers, not someone brand-new to the game who would use my manuscript to try and develop new networks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I wanted someone who knew the ins and outs.

Also on my list was that I wanted someone I could work with. We didn’t need to have identical worldviews, but I sure didn’t want to work with someone whose worldview is the complete opposite of mine. As we’ll see in future posts (spoiler alert) that turned out to be one of the toughest requirements.

Once I had an overall plan in place, it was time to start assembling what I would need.