Posted: Tue January 12th, 2010, 10:22 pm
Libby, that really is frustrating. I've read quite a number of blog posts on this subject, including one from agent Jessica Faust at Book Ends LLC.
Most agents who've blogged about this topic seem to feel that in order to take on a client who already has a deal in hand, they need to believe the author has a very long (and lucrative) career ahead of them. Small deals aren't worth it for them, since they'll have to spend just as much time on a client bringing in $5,000/year as they will a client who brings in $50,000.
This is not to say that you've made a small deal (I don't know) or that you don't have a long career ahead of you (I certainly hope you do!), I'm just paraphrasing what these various agents have written.
And David, I know that my new agent, Dan Lazar, is always looking for new clients, including writers of HF. I believe these agents are as well:
Anna Ghosh
Russ Galen
David Forrer
Kim Witherspoon
Nathan Bransford
I really can't recommended Publishers Marketplace highly enough as a resource for this kind of research. While it's definitely true that agents don't want something too similar to what a client of theirs is already producing, there's always room if a novel is spectacular (read fresh, marketable, and well-written) enough!
Most agents who've blogged about this topic seem to feel that in order to take on a client who already has a deal in hand, they need to believe the author has a very long (and lucrative) career ahead of them. Small deals aren't worth it for them, since they'll have to spend just as much time on a client bringing in $5,000/year as they will a client who brings in $50,000.
This is not to say that you've made a small deal (I don't know) or that you don't have a long career ahead of you (I certainly hope you do!), I'm just paraphrasing what these various agents have written.
And David, I know that my new agent, Dan Lazar, is always looking for new clients, including writers of HF. I believe these agents are as well:
Anna Ghosh
Russ Galen
David Forrer
Kim Witherspoon
Nathan Bransford
I really can't recommended Publishers Marketplace highly enough as a resource for this kind of research. While it's definitely true that agents don't want something too similar to what a client of theirs is already producing, there's always room if a novel is spectacular (read fresh, marketable, and well-written) enough!