Literary Agents Part 1. How to Choose Them

[BookWhispers]

There are hundreds of literary agencies. And thousands of literary agents. One of them can be the champion of your work. They will secure the best deals for you, guide you through the marketing process, and support you and your work until your book finds a solid place on as many bookshelves as possible. But the majority of the agents are not the right ones for you. Not because you were a bad writer. But the agents specify a lot and the literature world is very rich. You need to send your queries to people who actually work with books similar to yours. Especially if you write in a marginal genre. How do you choose whom to approach in the first place?

https://mybookwhisperer.org/2020/09/0...

[J.]

Literary agents, like editors often specialize, so of course you want to submit your query to an agent (or editor) who represents the category of material that you're writing. You also want to submit that material exactly as specified. If they say query letter, first chapter, synopsis, that's what you send.
I would also strongly advise new writers to bookmark a blog called "Writer Beware". It is very current on publishing scams and pitfalls and also offers a lot of advice useful to new writers. https://accrispin.blogspot.com
One tip I got from someone inside the industry is that if you're submitting to a very large agency, or - unagented - to a publishing house, and you are rejected, one option may be waiting a few months and re-submitting because the initial read in a larger house may be done by an intern or low-level or freelance reader who may cycle out in a few months.
The advantage of an agent, of course, is that he or she may already have established relationships with certain editors, know exactly what they're looking for and have the ability to fast-track a good fit.