Which Agents Should I Query How to find literary agents to query for my book | Query Research Tips

Knowing which agents to query was something 2010 M.K. had no clue about. And there are more and better resources today than there were back then, but there were in fact resources. I just didn’t use them. So today I’ll tell you how 2023 M.K. even made a list of which agents to query. 1 Acknowledgement To dive right in, my first and best way to get my list started was with … books! I read many books that piqued my interest because they seemed to touch on similar themes as my then work in progress, now it is the completed project I’m querying. If I enjoyed the book (I rarely DNF books so chances are I liked the books discussing similar themes), I would look at the acknowledgments page and see who the agent was. I did this with books not at all comparable to my book. Because agents represent multiple genres and they may not represent my genre, but someone at their agency might. 2. “Author + Agent” That was a start. Then if I read a book a while ago and didn’t have it in hand or I knew of an author that I admired I would search for the author's name plus “literary agent”. Sometimes this was a little tricky, especially if the author switched agents or the agent switched agencies. But that gave me another list to search through. Since some agencies had policies of “if it is a pass from one of us, it is a pass from all of us” I knew I had to really decide which agent from that agency made it onto my list. 3. Searching for top agents in “Genre” I found a couple of comprehensive lists of best agents for “X genre.” They seemed to be a good jumping-off point for more research. I didn’t just blind-add these agents to my list. 4. Social media Also, while I’m no longer using Twitter, while I was and I started to follow authors and agents and editors, they began to recommend more to me. I found some agents who were posting helpful tips or just funny items I related to and followed them. Then you bet I did my research on their MSWL. 5. MSWL Oh yeah, MSWL was a HUGE help! I could search by genre, but I also looked for specific subgenres and read through their description of their ideal next books. This was a very helpful website when deciding which agents to add or between two agents at the same agency. 6. Query Tracker You know, the premium subscription I paid for that allows me to search based on multiple genres. While I have represented my book as women’s fiction I think there are other genres it could align with, and other genres I plan to write in, so I wanted to find agents who had all those genres on their list. I kept a good old-fashioned Google sheet with the name of the agent, their agency, any social media handles, how I found them or notes of why I wanted to query them, links to their submission requirements or query manager form, and details of when to assume it was a pass. From that, I found 98 agents I’ve queried 53 I’ve received 31 passes 4 full requests And…. 1 Offer of Rep!!! What methods have you used that I missed? https://writerbeware.blog/ https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/ Join this channel to get access to perks: /channel/UCjvBO4kjuBSYe6Bi3RYQAQA/join Music from: Wondershare Filmora Sounds: "Something Cheer You Up" How You Can Support This Channel and My Work: 👍Like, Subscribe, and Comment on this video! ✉️Subscribe to my monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/52c7cd246b5b/authoryourambition ➕Follow me on my other channels: FB | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads https://www.facebook.com/1mkwilliams/ https://twitter.com/1mkwilliams https://www.instagram.com/1mkwilliams/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14420756.M_K_Williams ☕️Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/1mkwilliams 📚Check out my books and purchase them or request them at your library: https://1mkwilliams.com or https://payhip.com/MKWilliamsPublishingLLC Author Your Ambition Merch on Etsy: 📖https://www.etsy.com/shop/AuthorYourAmbition Need help with your book? 📞You can actually do 1-on-1 coaching with me, learn more about the services available here: https://calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-coach-consultation Need help with your author business? 📈 You can book time with me to go over your author business and overcome your current roadblocks: https://calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-biz Partnership Opportunities: Interested in working together to collaborate on an upcoming video? Let's connect: http://authoryourambition.com/partnership-opportunities/ DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you, but it can help me continue to create and put out more content. Thank you for supporting my channel so I can continue to provide you with free content each week!

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