Here's a good article by Helen Corner.

Helen set up Cornerstones, the literary consultancy, and she scouts for agents, so this is worth a read.

http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/articles/2006/may29.shtml
Dee

Wow! Clear and thorough and sensible. Great stuff.

Emma

Most of it sounds very helpful indeed, but this part puzzled me a bit (especially the highlighted sentence):

You can either target one agent at a time – but be prepared for one month or so for a response, or you can target a couple at a time. If you do submit to more than one agent it’s important to say this in your letter (you don’t need to say who you’ve submitted to but you do need to be transparent with your approach) – an agent will find it irritating if they think it’s an exclusive submission and then find out that another agent has already shown interest. I would advise against sending out your submission to more than three agents, as it shows a lack of conviction both in your work and in the agent you’re targeting.

Now, I'm by no means an expert on submitting to agents, but... eh?

I know. I suspect she gets a quicker response that any of us would. Or that she's assuming you'd target more closely than we can afford to, knowing less than she does about who might like what. Besides, you don't have to say how many you're submitting to, only whether or not it's exclusive, so how are they to know (till they're keen enough to ask) whether it's three or thirty.

Emma

A really useful website Dee, thanks. Especially interesting to me as i have just finished my first draft.

Casey

I read that line as meaning that, if you have 100% conviction about your work, and believe you’ve done enough research, you’ll feel confident that you only need to offer your work to one agent and they’ll take it.

Of course, this is unrealistic for most of us, but there is an element of defeatism in send the same stuff to 30 agents in a kind of scatter-gun tactic in the hope that one of them will bite.

Dee

Oo-err, it's what I always do, Dee! I think the more the merrier, just to see, and it saves having to wait years to get through them all. Life's way too short to try one agent/publisher at a time!!!

A
xxx

if you have 100% conviction about your work, and believe you’ve done enough research, you’ll feel confident that you only need to offer your work to one agent and they’ll take it.

I'm sure you're right about what she's meaning, but oh, if only! The trouble is, even if you have that conviction, and it's justified, and you've done your research (though there's many a thread discussing how hard it is to do), it's still so personal whether your work clicks with an agent or not. I don't see how you can be so sure that that one single agent will like it, and even querying three or four, serially, could take the best part of a year.

Emma

and even querying three or four, serially, could take the best part of a year.

If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that you have to be patient! But you're right Emma, why make the wait longer than it needs to be.

Thanks for the link, Dee, very interesting. I wandered on from there to Cornerstones' own site and read more about their services. Good stuff indeed, but (given the lack of stated prices) I'm guessing fairly expensive!

Snowcat

They are there, Snowcat… but a tadge hidden.

Go to the Cornerstones home page, click on ‘Reports’ on the left hand side – that lists the different levels of critique they do, then scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘Cornerstones rates’ or ‘Kids Corner rates’ depending on which market you're writing for. Et viola!

I've just sent them The Winter House for an in-depth critique, after a very helpful telephone call from Helen. I expect the report back by mid-December, so I’ll try and remember to post up my reactions to it.

Dee

I'd be very interested to know how you got on, Dee, as i am probably going to use their services in a month or two. They had a look at my synopsis and first chap in July and were very helpful. they seem very genuine.

Casey

I've had a couple of Cornerstones critiques and also been on two brilliant courses that they run. I've found them to be really excellent and would thoroughly recommend their services.
(I don't work for them, honest!)

Ah, now I see them, Dee - thanks for the directions! Like Casey, I'd be really interested to hear what you think when you get the report back - what seems like quite a lot of money at first could be viewed as a very worthwhile investment if the service is good.

Caroline, I hope you don't mind my asking, but which type of reports did you have done (general, in-depth or seriously in-depth!)and what were the courses like?

Snowcat

Snowcat,
No problem at all. I had two of the general reports (that's what they were called, I think, but they were the most in-depth ones) and they helped so much, both in terms of encouraging me and showing me where I was going really badly wrong! I would have carried on making the same mistakes for ever otherwise. The courses are brilliant. The tutor is usually Lee Weatherly who is a successful teenage writer and she has a real gift for teaching this stuff. I just wish I could afford to go on another! They're held in a lovely old house near Oxford. I'm not 100% clear on whether people can go on the courses without having been through their process first. I don't think so, although I'm not sure. Feel free to webmail me if you want to ask more.