Getting an Agent

[Matthew]

I have read some great articles recently about trying to find agents. This has lead me to ask several questions about the industry itself. Are agents still absolutely necessary? Who has an agent and how did they get them? Is the market moving away from them or making them more important? I would love to know what some people with agents think versus what the rest of the industry thinks.

Matthew R. Horn
www.matthewrhorn.com

[Iola]

It depends what market you are going for. If you want to be published by one of the major Christian publishers, then you will need an agent. If not, then perhaps not.

Check out some good agent blogs (Rachelle Gardner, Steve Laube, Chip MacGregor), and the online submission guidelines for some of the publishers who you would be interested in submitting to.

[[deleted user]]

Like Iola said, it depends on where you want to submit. If you want to go traditional -- and Christian -- then yes, you'll need an agent, as none of those publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts. However, there are some publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts in the genre fiction world.

To get an agent, you have to submit queries and wait for responses, send partials, or full manuscripts, or what-have-you, and then an agent accepts your manuscript. Or they don't. It just depends, and it takes a lot of time and effort.

I'm not sure what you mean by the market question. Some self-published authors have agents. Most traditionally published authors have agents. I've never had an agent, so I can't say any more than that. Sorry.

[Matthew]

What I meant was that it would seem that the brick/mortar style of traditional publishing is clearly crumbling. Does that mean agents don't have a role in the future?
I published my first book The Good Fight with a small publisher in AZ. They accepted an unsolicited manuscript from me, and they are going to publish my second book as well. However, I would love to get invovled with a larger player that will do a lot more marketing for the book.
Currently, you have to have an agent to get in with a bigger player unless you hit gold somehow on amazon. It seems like a lot of work, but if you find a good agent it might still be worth it?