Drill down in Publishers Marketplace for successful agent-hunting

Publishers Marketplace is a rich mine of information that can help writers focus and sharpen queries to agents for their books, whether fiction or non-fiction. Once I concocted the following approach for finding an agent, I received requests for materials from 8 of the next 10 agents I queried about my novel (most of the queries were by email, too). While things were in process, I ended up signing with an agent I noticed in the Publishers Marketplace New proposals & offerings section. I can help you get the door open…but the rest will be up to you.

You'll need a membership in Publishers Marketplace (PM), available for $15 a month. In return, you gain access to a gem-studded database and tools to dig with. Once you’re a member, here's how to prospect for the agents most likely to take a look at your work.

After you log in, click on deals in the left-hand navigation column on PM's home page. You’ll go to a page titled “The latest deals.” Scroll down and you'll find search dialogue boxes. A handy feature is the drop-down list in the right-hand box “category:” box. Let’s say you’re a writer with a debut thriller novel to market—here’s what you do (these techniques work for non-fiction equally well).

You choose the Debut category for your first search and type thriller in the search terms box. Just leave the search by month box as it is for now, but you may have to manipulate this value after the turn of the year.

Today this search produced 7 results. Six gave the name of the agent who made the deal as well as the publisher and a brief description of the novel; the seventh appeared to have been sold by the author.

So now you know 6 names of agents who will work with a thriller first novel. But you’re not done…weirdly, when I selected the Thriller category and typed "debut" in search terms, I got just 2 results—and they were different from the 7 found in the first search. Moral: experiment with your search terms and try variations.

But wait, there's more...

Expand your list of agents to contact. Choose the Fiction category and enter "debut" (without the quotes) in the search terms box. The day I wrote this the search found 223 listings of agents who have made deals for first novels. It's easy enough to scroll through them and look for books that resemble yours.

But wait, there's...

Categorizing by "debut" and other terms is fairly new at PM, and you'll miss older deals if you limit your exploration to the default categories. So now type "first novel" (with the quotes) in search terms, select the Fiction category, and go. My search produced 460 deals dating back to the year 2000, all by agents who will work with an author on a first novel.

Now you can generate a focused list of agents that you know have sold first efforts in your category. It can be cookbooks, or Sci-Fi, or How-To, or Young Adult, etc. Because categorization is new at PM, it’s intelligent to search for your interest in various ways. For example, searching the term debut in the Young Adult category yielded 16 deals, then entering "young adult" (with quotes) in the search terms box and selecting the Fiction category yielded 12 deals, but many were different from the first search.

But wait...

You can also search for other keywords. For example, you have book on How To Make a Fortune with Pickled Broccoli. Search for broccoli and pickled broccoli and you may find agents with expertise in your area. I just searched for “vampire” and found 27 deal reports. Now all I need is a vampire novel.

You’re ready for the next step: Since you're a member of Publishers Marketplace, you can search the Contacts database for the agents you've identified as prospects. Click search contacts in PM's left-hand navigation column. On the Search contents page, enter an agent name in the appropriate box and search. If the agent is in the database, you'll come up with contact information and, very possibly, a listing of his/her most recent deals! More gold to glean for when you make your approach.

Final step: you can gain an edge with a targeted approach. While you're gathering contact information, you're also acquiring information for the lead sentence of your query email/letter so you can use personal, specific things you’ve learned about each agent. The opening that worked for me went something like this...

Dear Specific Agent Name,

I came across the deal report on Publishers Marketplace for your sale of the debut thriller The Blah Agenda and I seek representation for my thriller, The Head-Hopper.

You’ll find your own words to instantly establish a connection with the agent by demonstrating that you are knowledgeable about his/her work, are someone who does his/her homework, and are cool enough to be an initiate of the publishing pro’s favorite website, Publishers Marketplace. What agent wouldn't read on?

You follow with your pitch. By targeting agents who represent your kind of project and introducing yourself in this way, you've opened the door considerably wider than a letter based on a generic “thriller” listing in Writers Market. This is laser prospecting. Yeah, you still have to craft a grabber of a pitch, but I guarantee that you increase your odds of getting it read with an appreciative eye if you do the things I've outlined.

One other thing…

Earlier I mentioned finding my agent in Publisher Marketplace’s New proposals & offerings section...that's another smart way to troll for an agent interested in your area, and I recommend that, too. You can prowl New proposals & offerings without being a member, but searching the deals database generates more agents who've sold your kind of work, and the contacts database can yield even more useful information.

One thing about emailing...

I received a note from an agent/blogger, Miss Snark, and she had this to say:

"Any query that mentions a book I've sold is automatically given more attention than the generic (and often times wrong) "you're so fabulous we just had to query you" opening.

"One tiny note of caution. Doublecheck whether the agents accept e-queries. Our agency doesn't. We delete them unread after a nasty nasty bout of something called "split infinitive modifier" virus.  If you don't hear back from someone you emailed it may not be that the agency isn't interested. It may be that they don't take equeries."

Hey, if you try my approach, let me know how you do, okay?

RR

Let me hear from you. If I can help you with a question about your writing, email me and I'll apply a beady eye to it. Tell me if I can share it in a post or if you want a private consultation.

© Ray Rhamey 2004