How To Decide If You Need a Literary Agent Washington DC

"You have to find an agent," said a fellow writer friend over lunch. "It's that important in today's industry!" I rolled my eyes and quickly stuffed the Reuben sandwich in my mouth. The thought of finding an agent scared me. Still, many questions arose, and so in my search to find an agent who would represent me, I discovered something else. It's not easy to find an agent! Here are some steps to help you determine if you need a literary agent and to find one if you do.

1. Do You Really Need an Agent? Each year, market guidelines put out by book publishers change. Their needs are different. These guidelines are to help the editors find the best writers out there for them and weed out the rest. Each year, there has been a gradual change in how editors accept manuscripts. A publisher that accepted unsolicited manuscripts five years ago may now only accept material from published writers or members of SCBWI. In a year or so, this same publisher will most likely only accept submissions from agents. Why? Agents do the filtering for editors. Placing the right story and writer with the right editor is key to success in publishing, and agents are better able to do that," says Erin Murphy of Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

   When a smaller publishing house like Dutton receives 3500 queries a year, you can imagine they are struggling to keep up with the flow of incoming mail. Most queries and manuscripts never make it to an editor's desk and most will be rejected. Houghton Mifflin receives 15,000 queries yearly and still accepts unsolicited manuscripts, but keeping up with this much mail gets to be hard! You always increase your chances of having an editor read your work by mailing your material to the attention of a specific editor. Many writers do not and so the lucky mail person in the basement of the building gets to read your work! But an agent knows who the editors are and what they want. This is what a writer needs to be published!

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Author: jennifer reed