A writer friend recently emailed to ask me how she should go about landing an agent. This is a question I receive fairly often, so I thought I’d share my response to her with you, as well:

In my humble opinion, the best way to get a literary agent is to research agents in an annual book called the “Writer’s Market” to find out which agents represent the genre in which you’re writing (romance, Christian fiction, mystery). If you have published author friends in that same genre, you can also ask them for recommendations.

Then, do an online search for information on those agents to try and find out their schedules and whether they’ll be speaking at any upcoming writers’ conferences. Plan to attend at least one of these conferences and try to schedule an appointment with your agent of interest, or prepare to meet the agent (or agents) at a general session and chat with him or her briefly about your project.

If/when the agent invites you to send in a proposal or the manuscript, mention in your cover letter when and where you two met, and remind the agent that this material was requested.  (They receive tons of mail, so reminders are helpful at jogging their memories.) Plus, this always helps move you to the top of the pile.

The networking and face time you have with editors and agents at conferences is invaluable. If you can’t get to a conference any time soon, also research blogs that these agents may frequent and try to comment regularly enough (with helpful, professional information) that may get you noticed in a postive way.

If you don’t have one particular agent in mind that you’d like to pursue, consider attending professional writers’ conferences that focus on your genre and you’ll undoubtedly have opportunities there to network with agents and book editors who are interested in the type of manusript you’re writing.

I hope this helps!

Again, this is my informal response to an email I received, but I do hope you’ll find it helpful as well. You can find more detailed information about building a writing career on my website Writer’s Gallery page, at http://stacyhawkinsadams.com/writers-medley/words-for-writers.html

All the Best!

Stacy