How to Get a Literary Agent
Description
Written by a top literary agent who gives writers an insider's view of how to find and work with an agent throughout the process of getting published. Includes: -- How to know that you're ready for an agent -- 7 ways to find an agent -- Writing a cover letter that grabs attention -- What to do with an agent once you've got one -- What you can expect and what you'd better not hope for -- Making sure this is the right agent for you -- Congratulations, now you have an agent AND an editor -- How to avoid the 7 worst pitfalls for aspiring writers -- And much, much more. In today's highly competitive publishing industry, literary agents are more important than ever. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, reference or children's books, here is everything you need to know about using an agent to launch and sustain your literary career.a
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Content
Prologue. Making Bigger Better for You: An Instant Portrait of Publishing
Introduction. Read This Way
Part 1: Hiring the Agent You Need
Chapter 1. Making the Connection: Using the Write Stuff to Attract an Agent
Chapter 2. Can You Name That Tuna?Eleven Ways to Find the Right Agent for You and Your Book
Chapter 3. Getting Your Agent before You Know Who It Is: Why Writing a Must-Read Query Letter Is Simple
Chapter 4. Joining the "2 Percent" Club: A Crash Course on Rising from Rejection to Acceptance
Chapter 5. A Study in Read and Green: Six Criteria for Choosing the Right Agent for You
Chapter 6. Taking the Vows for Your Working Marriage: The Author-Agency Contract
Chapter 7. Life after Yes: Eleven Steps to Matrimonial Bliss
Part 2: Understanding Your Agent
Chapter 8. Transforming a Writer into an Author: What Your Agent Does before the Sale
Interlude 1. Paper Cuts: A Terrible Day in the Life of an Agent
Chapter 9. The Publishing Contract: Tiptoeing through a Diamond-Studded Minefield
Chapter 10. Following the Money: What an Agent Does after the Sale
Interlude 2. Hooked on Books: A Terrific Day in the Life of an Agent
Chapter 11. Terminal Transgressions: What to Do if Your Working Marriage Fails
Chapter 12. Why Hire an Agent? Why You May Not Need an Agent and Why You May Need One More Than Ever
Part 3: The Prequel: What To Know before You Go
Chapter 13. Understand How Publishers Work: The Book Business in a Nutshell
Chapter 14. Whining and Dining on the Spaghetti Factor: How Publishing Went from Class to Mass
Chapter 15. The Spirit of Enterprise: What Publishers Are Buying and Why
Chapter 16. The Editor as Hero: An Homage to Your Other Agent
Chapter 17. Leaving Out the Parts That People Skip: How to Make Your Craft Seaworthy
Chapter 18. The Difference between a Pig and a Chicken: Why Your Goals Will Determine Your Future
Chapter 19. English Lit-How About You?Reinventing Yourself as an Authorpreneur
Chapter 20. You Deserve All the Help You Need: Mobilizing Your Networks
Chapter 21. From Slo-Mo to Promo: Kicking Your Book's Promotion Campaign into High Gear
Chapter 22. Building Your Platform and Converting It into Your Promotion Plan
Chapter 23. Writing High: The End of the Beginning
Appendix 1. The AAR Checklist of Questions for Authors (and a Few More to Fill in the Blanks)
Appendix 2. Two Agents' Clauses
Appendix 3. The Code of Ethics for the Association of Authors' Representatives
Appendix 4. A Bill of Rights for Writers and a Bill of Rights for Agents
Appendix 5. Three Author-Agent Contracts
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
