Although I'm still in two minds about the rights and wrongs of it, I grudgingly accept that there is a brute reality of the industry to be dealt with and that means I'm going to have to consider searching for an agent.

That said, there is even less to go on in choosing an agent than there is in choosing a publisher - at least publishers have websites with booklists to compare.

Beyond the obvious, (yes, I have Writer's Handbook; yes, I know what the little star means; yes, I am dreading doing the legwork of reading through the equivalent of a phone-book) are there any databases, fora or other resources that can help to weed out the wheat (defined as those who might give a damn) from the chaff (defined as those who wouldn't want to represent me even if my work was the best written of its genre)? Equally, is there any way to find out about the quality of representation of the various agents?

I know, it's hard. The WW Directory is a bit of a goldmine of up-to-date info. I think you have to be prepared to try lots, and not feel you've failed if you have no luck with the first few. If you exclude anyone who says 'no submissions' ('no unsolicited MS', on the other hand, doesn't mean no partial submissions) and include only the ones who say they deal in your kind of fiction, then the list gets shorter quite quickly. But yes, you may have to do 20-30. If you're good enough, you'll get there.

Apologies if you know all this, but someone reading this thread may not. Avoid: anyone who asks for money in any form other than a commision on what they sell; anyone who can't tell you what they've sold recently; anyone whose list of sales can't be found in bookshops; anyone who sounds too keen for your business before they've read your work; anyone who tries to sell you editorial services.

Pick lots of books that are the kind of thing you write off a bookshop's shelves, and look at the acknowledgements. Authors often thank their agents. Subscribe to The Bookseller and see who's doing deals. Do general submissions to the well-known agencies; they do get read, in the end, and will be passed on to the most suitable person. Publishers don't usually give away who their authors' agents are, but if you have a secret way of finding out, try it for authors you admire. Batten onto friends of friends who know names. They may be wrong, but it'll get you read. You have to get out there.

As Miss Snark would say: Write. Write well. Write better. Then query. Query widely.

You'll only know if you're right for each other when you have that first, long, heart-thumping, sticky-palmed conversation.

Emma

<Added>

I have posted a few more thoughts on the end of your earlier thread.

when you have that first, long, heart-thumping, sticky-palmed conversation.

Eek! And there was me thinking it was nothing more than a professional service of representation...

the ones who say they deal in your kind of fiction

This one'll take some working out, hence the issue with no booklists / websites for agents. I know what my stuff _is_ but not what to call it. For publishers, I was able to scan the list of recent publications to get a feel for what they like (hence, I probably won't send to Penguin Ireland...). For the agents, the few who have websites don't seem to have lists of what they like.

Either way,

Thanks,

G

WAYB and The Writer's Handbook give some kind of idea of what an agent deals in at least as in 'no children's, sf/f, plays, poetry' or whatever, though I know 'general fiction' covers a multitude of possibilities. Their websites do list clients, too, don't they? I know my agent's does.

Eek! And there was me thinking it was nothing more than a professional service of representation...

Well, yes it is in some ways - most agents won't be asking you to their daughter's christening any time soon. On the other hand, it's a bit like the relationship you have with a counsellor, say: it is professional, with those limits to it, but to be much use it has to work in a personal way too - you have to like and trust each other. That's one of the reasons agents have to fall in love with your work, though not you, before they'll represent you.

Emma

Their websites do list clients, too, don't they? I know my agent's does.

Well, yes, but...

ALRIGHT! I confess, mea culpa in fact, mea molto culpa (apologies to any Latin scholars). I am just being lazy in the hope that somebody else was lazy enough to build a database...

The authors whose names I recognise are the big ones and those whose content/market in any way matches my own are invariably with agents that are no longer considering first-timers. (This is stated on their websites, in their entries in WAYB and in one memorably depressing case, on the phone.) Therefore, I have to do a succession of Amazon look-ups for authors, many of whom are unknowns or only notionally published.

While I am now resigned to doing this, prevaricating around the bush on WW fora is more enjoyable.

For the record: I am unsure if my fiction has reached the rank of General, but I hope it is good enough to be promoted from Private. On the plus side, it is quite certainly not a criminal child scientist's fantasy. I am literate, but I have no way to tell if that makes my fiction literary, I suspect that it doesn't. Equally, it is my profound hope that it is not the "unsaleable mediocrity" that Paterson Marsh Ltd (Writer's Handbook 2006, p. 223) choose not to represent.