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What I really dislike about looking for a literary agent is the uncertainty. You never know what the agent is really going to be like until you start to work together. You can talk on the phone, read up on the agent, and google the agent, but there’s nothing like working together for a few years to tell you what someone is really like.

So how can you evaluate a literary agent thoroughly beforehand? Is it even possible?

EVALUATING LITERARY AGENCIES

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Joel writes books about baseball. He’s a good writer, and his angle is the psychology of sports. The only problem is that Joel is such a fanatic about getting all the science right that he seldom stops to think about the way to sell his work.

When I coached Joel, I told him my first secret: Be commercial. This doesn’t mean you need to forget the science or be crass. But it does mean you need to look at the marketplace.

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Working on a book proposal can sometimes be an exhilarating process, and sometimes it’s just a bore. The reason it’s exhilarating is because you’re imagining the success you could have with the book. The reason it can be a bore is because the book proposal isn’t the book itself, it’s the marketing tool for the book. As a marketing tool it has a decidedly business plan feel to it, and business things can often bore a creative writer. Nevertheless, there are ways to make the process more enjoyable, and one of the best ways to do this is to find some fun facts out about the various literary agents you’re planning to contact.

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