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Jane Friedman Profile picture
@JaneFriedman
Mar 1, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Many writers ask me if I can "find them an agent." But I'm not a matchmaker and it's really best to undertake this research yourself. It's about more than just who represents work like yours. It's about personality, fit, and what you're looking for in the relationship.
IMHO, the best agents are akin to career managers and often take on the role of informal therapist as well, helping you through the highs and lows of your book's lifespan. This is someone you should be able to trust—they are a fiduciary.
While you may end up changing agents over the duration of your career (there are many reasons this might happen, and not all of them bad), the agent who sells your books will typically remain tied to those deals until the contract terminates with the publisher.
When researching agents, I send writers to three resources: (1) PublishersMarketplace.com ($25/month) to research publishing deals, which include the agent of record if there was one. Some agents also have informative profiles at the site.
Aside from identifying the agents associated with publishing deals, PublishersMarketplace just a great education for anyone in the publishing industry. By reading deal reports, you see how books get pitched and sold in a few words. You start to pick up on trends + agents' tastes.
(2) QueryTracker.com ($25/year for premium), which has helpful insights into how agents respond to materials—very difficult to find such info and probably doesn't exist anywhere else in such comprehensive form.
(3) Duotrope ($5/month), which has a searchable database of agents, publishers, and literary journals.
Always supplement these tools with your own research into the agent's website, social presence, recent interviews, and so on. See if they've tweeted with hashtags like #querytip or #mswl to understand what they're looking for.
If you'd like more guidance on finding and working with the right literary agent for you, join me for an online class on Thursday with @hyyoon, who has been working in book publishing since 1992: janefriedman.com/finding-workin…
And I also have a free, comprehensive post here on how to find agents, which mentions all of the resources above: janefriedman.com/find-literary-…

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More from @JaneFriedman

Jane Friedman Profile picture
Nov 17, 2021
As long as I've been in publishing, there's been an ongoing "self-pub vs. traditional pub" argument and divide among authors. One side tends to see the other as "lesser than," and there's a continual game of one-upmanship. [a long thread]
This is human and understandable; who publishes you and what you earn is wrapped up in your status and prestige in the literary world. Still, I've been hoping to see this divide fade with time, esp. now that most authors don't have to choose. You can do both.
Most days, I think self-pub authors are just a little too eager to trash talk "trad" publishing. This can result from a long history of rejection from the industry. (I've seen rejection fuel entire careers to prove the gatekeepers wrong. And good for them.)
Read 20 tweets
Jane Friedman Profile picture
Oct 17, 2021
Currently attending a query critique panel with agents at @MarylandWriters annual conference. Two out of the three agents do not like rhetorical questions in queries. They prefer direct, strong story statements. #braintobookshelf21
Re: comp titles, agents agree it's OK to use TV/movies to show what your book is like and who it is for.
Re: comps, you may need to be specific about why you're choosing a comp. Similarity of the protagonist? Voice or writing style? Humor? Plot line? Etc.
Read 11 tweets
Jane Friedman Profile picture
Oct 16, 2021
For cozy mystery: (1) Identify your sleuth and her intriguing profession to unlock the door to your story. What unique setting and secondary characters come to mind? says @ajthenovelist
Develop a character problem the sleuth will need to overcome to eventually see the solution to the crime. How can this problem help or hinder her while investigating?
Outline a personal reason for the sleuth to get involved and a reason the police can't be trusted to solve the crime. These will provide plausible and powerful internal and external motivation to act. What's odd about the murder to the sleuth? Why is she so invested?
Read 4 tweets
Jane Friedman Profile picture
Jun 11, 2020
Let's talk about the NYT bestseller list (a thread): People *care* about this list + according to a 2004 study, it increases book sales. Even if it doesn't, I think it's fair to say that authors dream of hitting that list and it matters to marketing.
The list has often been criticized (for sooo many things), and it's a pretty open secret that it's not really a straight/factual accounting of bestsellers if you were to go strictly by the numbers or volume of sales.
So it annoyed me a little when—in response to recent criticism tied to #PublishingPaidMe —the NYT recently tweeted that the list is not "curated." That strikes me as somewhat disingenuous.
Read 20 tweets
Jane Friedman Profile picture
Jan 8, 2019
Thread: You'll see many headlines this week about declining author incomes b/c there's a new study out from the US-based Authors Guild. I have great respect for the Guild, which does essential work on behalf authors. However, I have continuing skepticism about all such studies.
These studies are based on a self-selecting sample. Surveyed authors may not be representative of the population of books recently published. That doesn’t mean the study is devoid of value, but the data isn’t verifiable. I'm not convinced incomes are on the decline on the whole.
As you consider the results of any such study, remember it is always done to support arguments and legislation for protecting authors in some way, sometimes through stronger copyright legislation or to point a finger of blame at Amazon and/or big publishers.
Read 7 tweets

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