Monday, August 27, 2007

Agent Reference Sites

I'm using agentquery.com. The profiles of your agents clearly state that your agency doesn't represent children's books, but when I search using "children's books," several of your agents' names come up in the search. I'm going to notify the site, but if I were you, I'd complain!

Thank you so much for the heads-up. Unfortunately this is the number-one reason why I tell authors to research, research, research. Few of these agent research Web sites and even books ask agents directly what they are looking for, and even those that do often manage to get the information wrong. When researching agents always go to an agent’s Web site when possible. This is the one place where you should be guaranteed to get the correct information.

Jessica

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agentquery.com is an excellent place to start your query search, but it should never be the only place. Always double check every agency using the agency's own website, Preditors & Editors, and the Absolute Write message boards before querying.

Anonymous said...

The reference site also don't always list all the agents--neither does the Writer's Market. I've found some by reading Publisher's Weekly, looking in the acknowledges in an author's book, or even looking at sites covering book fests. And then I've always gone back to P&E to check the agent and then hunt for the agent's Web site.

Anonymous said...

Not all agents update their websites as often as you believe. Cross reference before querying . . . although what do you have to lose besides a stamp?

Anonymous said...

I just looked at agentquery.com and the agent profiles for Jessica, Jacky, and Kim don't list children's books (or middle grade or YA) as genres that they represent.

Anonymous said...

When I researched agents that handle fantasy using Agentquery.com, I noticed that it sometimes pulled up agents that had a client book listed as genre "YA fantasy" while the line telling which genre they do and do not accept made it clear that they don't accept fantasy. I made it a point to double-check the "fiction genre" accepted on Agentquery.com. I also checked on the agent's website as well. After all, I was already going there to research the agent. ;)

jjdebenedictis said...

[The agent's website] is the one place where you should be guaranteed to get the correct information.

Unless the agent is a scammer, in which case their website is going to look awesome but be flat-out misleading.

Always double-check the agent's reputation at Preditors and Editors.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused... Jessica, Jacky and Kim DO rep YA or DO NOT rep YA?

Spy Scribbler said...

Well, since you brought it up ... :-)

I swear I've seen/heard you say you want thrillers. But then, I swear I saw that you didn't, like a year or so ago. And then your website doesn't mention them (last time I checked), but then a few agent search sites do.

So even though I read your blog every day and try to keep up with who wants what, I'm confused, LOL.

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