Where is the best place to find an agent for a friend who is in the process of writing a nonfiction book?

Question

He is in the process of writing a nonfiction book. He will be sending out a query letter within the next week and would like to find a literary agent in the Boston or New York City area to represent him. What is the best way to go about it and are there any web sites he could visit to see sample query letters, proposals, contacts and to find nonfiction book agents' web sites? Any help would be much appreciated and thanks in advance as always.

Answer 1

Finding a reputable agent is very difficult. Most agencies have thousands of manuscripts sent to them every year and typically, they only select a few that are worthy to represent. DO NOT submit to anyone that requires up front money or "reading" fees. Good agencies will read your book for nothing if they are interested. Reading fees are a rip off.

You can check on legitimate agencies at the "Preditors & Editors" website. They keep an up to date list of current agents and any problems writers have had with them.

As for query letters, try the Absolute Writer website. Oh, and consider paying an editor to proof the work before submitting it--it's worth a few hundred bucks to get your foot in the door with an agent. And don't forget to send a reply envelope with postage on it, or you may never hear back from the agency.

Then, be prepared to wait up a while for an answer. If your work is good, an agency will offer you a contract. From there, it's another 3 month wait (often) for them to find you a publisher. Once you get a publisher, it takes about a year to actually see your book in print.

I hope this helps. If you're serious about getting published, you can make it happen. It takes time, patience and a lot of luck. And as a note of reality, of all the books published in a given year, only about 13% ever sell more than 1,000 copies. Most (75%) sell fewer than 500. For nonfiction, the numbers (and the odds) are somewhat lower. Contrary to popular belief, most authors don't get rich.

Jon F. Baxley (Author, Editor, Ghostwriter and Proofreader)

THE SCYTHIAN STONE (eBook only)
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THE REGENTS OF RHUM (coming fall '07)

(For a FREE copy of The Scythian Stone or a full color, four chapter illustrated demo of The Blackgloom Bounty, email me at [e-mail]).

My author blog: http://the-blackgloom-bounty.blogspot.com/

Answer 2

Has he joined writers groups yet? That's where he can meet and pitch to literary agents.

Here are a list of writers groups. Many have conferences where they invite literary agents and editors too (he can also use the search engines for more):

http://shallabizness.blogspot.com/2006/02/join-writers-associations-and.html

There are also free online writers groups where your friend can meet literary agents:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShalladeGuzman/

At The ShalladeGuzman Writers Group, writers can read and post questions to literary agents (also, introduce themselves, so when he sends the query, he can say, "hi, we met at....").

To check out the list of literary agents interviewed so far (and transcripts of Q&A's):

http://shalladeguzmandotcom.blogspot.com/

The File section also has samples of Queries.

Here's a list of Literary Agents and what they're looking for: (also has links to Preditors and Editors, etc)

http://shalladeguzman.com/ShallaAgentList.php


And he can check out classes for writers that can help him:

http://www.writeruniv.com/

Also, I took a class at Gotham Writers called How to Get Published. It was taught by a literary agent from a top agency in New York. Another great way to network.

Good luck!

Answer 3

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