Blogs by writers and by literary agents gives us some almost insider information that wasn’t available before blogging. If you’re looking for an agent you could do worse than search out their blogs. Here are a few agents and a couple of authors sharing their experiences with agency.
THE NEW LITERARY AGENTS – chatty blog from agents who are fairly new to agenting.
Guide to Literary Agents – a blog about finding and using agents by the author Chuck Sambuchino. Worth spending some time with.
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management – interviews with their authors plus posts by the agents themselves.
How To Get …read more

The wonderful, spectacular success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has every writer, including me, green with envy and wondering how she did it. Most of us know the story – young, broke, etc. etc. etc.
But I didn’t know much of her success really started with a literary agency. Terry Whalin, an agent, writer, editor and creator of The Writing Life blog links to a story in The Observer, then admits Rowling has had incredible luck. But he doesn’t stop there.
He talks about agents in general, his own agency, and what he considers most important in The Observer’s article. …read more

It should have been obvious. After all, two days ago I did a post about Publisher’s Blogs. But it took going to Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog and chasing some links on his post Pub Rants that I stumbled on PubRants the blog. (I know, the blogosphere does get, if not confusing, a bit recursive at times.)
PubRants is by an agent calling herself Agent Kristin. She natters on most days about what’s going on in her life as a literary agent (and what she listens to on her iPod) and provides her thinking about whatever comes up.
For example, in …read more

A member of our forum pointed to a great article on firstwriter.com that outlines how to avoid scams involving agency for writers. Written by J. Paul Dyson
Managing Editor there, Avoiding literary agency scams makes it clear that fees for reading and representation are certain signs of a scam.
Dyson then goes on to explain the pros and cons of other fees an literary agent may request or require. It’s a great overview.
I’m not familiar with First Writer – but it looks like a site worth getting to know, with a ton of helpful resources.
Write well and often,

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Hey Anne,
I’m writing a memoir. Some people know that, some don’t. I blog about it from time to time. Anyway, I spent a couple of hours last night with my nose buried in 2007 Writer’s Markets. Read up on literary agents, made note of those who represent memoirs, and studied the examples for good and bad nonfiction book queries.
My problem is, I don’t really understand the chain-of-command, so to speak. How it all works. Do I query a literary agent about my memoir, or a publisher? What about an editor – where …read more