Literary Agents and copyright.?

Question

How do I go about choosing a literary agent, is there an association which guarantees quality? How do I protect the copyright of my work when submitting it to agents? Any help would be gratefully received.

Answer 1

Writers Market costs 30 bucks and you can buy one anywhere. It is a good buy. However, Literary Marketplace is much better and more comprehensive. It costs 300 but is available in library reference sections.

What you have to do is spend a lot of time reading and making notes. You need to look for agents who represent the genre you write in. Then, make notes on their submission requirements. What do they want? Query letter? Synopsis? You must send EXACTLY what they ask for and nothing more. If they want more, they will contact you and request it. Then do they want you to snail mail or e mail? Make all these notes.

That is only the beginning. You must research anyone before you send them anything. Check with Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write Water Cooler's Bewares and Background Checks, Writers Wall, Writers Weekly and many more. If there are any complaints against this agent, they will show up and then you should run far and fast.

It is a long drawn out procedure. Expect a lot of rejections. Mostly it isn't personal. These people are inundated with queries from every person from age 12 up who thinks they are they next Shakespeare. They can only handle so many clients. If they are nice, they will include a little bit about why they rejected you, but mostly you will get form letters. Keep sending. Gone with the Wind got over 50 rejections. Learn to develop a hide thicker than a herd of buffalo. You will need it.

Then once the agent has you signed, the process has just begun. They will want a book proposal from you. That is the tool they will use to sell your book to a publisher. That can take a long time. There are books that teach you how to write a great proposal, but to be perfectly honest, you should hire an editor before you try to sell the book. Editors know what sells. They are used to dealing with publishers. They also know how to write great proposals.

An agent doesn't charge you to work for them, but they can charge you legally for incidentals like copies of your manuscript, mailing costs, long distance calls etc. An editor will charge, but a good editor is worth his or her weight in gold.

As for copyrighting your work, NO NO NO never do it. You own your work the minute you write it. Copyrighting yourself is considered amateur and unprofessional. It shows an agent or publisher you don't trust them. If the agent sells your work for you, it will be copyrighted in your name as a part of your contract.

I have starred many questions on different writing topics. If you add me as a fan, you can access them and print them out. It saves the time of surfing through Resolved Questions. I keep adding more all the time. There is a lot of good information here. If you save up all the starred questions, you will learn a lot about the process and the business of writing.
Good luck to you. Pax- C

Answer 2

A confused question. If you write a book, you own the copyright to it. I can't quite comprehend how there might be a copyright owner of a book you've not written yet. Unless we're in the realm of fan fiction or "borrowing" another author's characters and/or milieu. In which case write it for fun but don;t expect it to see the light of day. In general, however, a literary agent negotiates with the publisher on behalf of the copyright owner (aka the author).

Answer 3

Your work is concidered copyrighted from the time you put it on paper or disk... you can register it with the government before its published.

There is no more of a guarantee with hiring an agent than there is with hiring a contractor to build a house. You need to check with other writers (at conferences, workshops, online) and check the internet for any articles that say they are good or not good... published authors sometimes put the names of their agents in the acknowledgement page of their books, look there.

and

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm

(end that won't print out is /pubagent.htm ) this is the preditors and editors listing of agents and publishers with comments from those who've had experiences with them