(1) Paul Thompson

(1) Paul Thompson WRITERS & ARTISTS
A few tips to find an agent that is suitable for your work.



Why would you, as an unpublished writer, want to find an agent?

An agent will represent your work and sell it to publishers.
Many writers see being taken on by an agent as the first step in getting taken on by a publisher, because it is so difficult to get publishers to pay attention to unagented writers.
Agents use their contacts and knowledge of the publishing business on their clients’ behalf, selling their work and then continuing to look after their authors’ interests.
How to go about finding an agent:

Find an agency that represents the kind of work you are producing. This may seem obvious, but many agencies have special areas of expertise. Scour the UK and US agent listings on our site. Most specify kinds of work that they do not handle, such as scripts, academic books or children’s writing.
Don’t just go for the ‘star’ agents mentioned in the press unless you feel convinced your work is really bestseller material. They won’t be interested in you unless they have some evidence that your work has major potential and you are obviously promotable.
The list of authors already represented by the agency may be some guide to the kind of writers they are looking for, although I am inclined to feel that agencies with big lists of clients are less likely to be looking for new authors.
There are two types of agency: purely literary and multi-media agents. Look carefully at the entries and consider whether you would prefer to be represented by a big professional agency with all-singing, all-dancing film and TV departments to back up the book agents, or whether you would be better served by a small independent agency.
Use any contacts you may have to find a personal recommendation. This is not only the best way to track down a good agent, but also the most reliable way to make sure that the agent in question will take a good look at your work.
It may be easier to get yourself taken on by an agency operating outside the major English language publishing centres of London, New York, Sydney and Toronto. They may be keen to build a list of local authors. There used to be relatively few agents outside these cities, but improvements in communication and the use of email have made it possible for agents to work just as well from Devon, Scotland, Spain or California. Check out our list of international agents or look carefully at agents' addresses.
Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry’ for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established agent might take on something like four new authors a year (this figure came from two agents I spoke to recently), but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions. Don’t forget that ‘hungry’ agents may exist inside big agencies, as junior agents build their client lists. So it is better to send material to a named agent, rather than the agency, where it will become part of the submission stockpile.

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The date when the agency was set up is a useful guide, as most long-established agents will offer to represent very few new clients – their time is already taken up with looking after their existing list of authors.
Make sure that you present your material as professionally as possible (see Submissions and Your submission package) and that you follow the agencies’ submission procedures. Do not telephone or email unless they indicate that this is acceptable. Always provide return postage. Make your submission letter short and snappy. Don’t dwell on near misses with other agencies or publishers, as you don’t want to give the impression that your material has already been submitted widely.
Make sure that your work is in the best possible shape before you send it to an agent. In the past an agent might have taken you on even if your manuscript needed work. These days most won’t do so because the publishing houses in their turn are unwilling to commit to the editorial time required to get the manuscript into shape. If you don't know how to get your work into shape, investigate our services. If our editors have reported favourably on your work, then we will recommend it to agents we work with.

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Try not to let rejection get you down. Many unpublished writers who later become successful authors receive plenty of rejections before they find an agent. Be persistent and think through the best way of presenting your work.

Agents listings

© Chris Holifield 2002-8

Search for authors and see the agency that represents them. Then check the agent's site to see if they are taking on new writers.

Try a search for a particular genre such as science fiction (but the search might also list genres they DO NOT want!)

Look through the agents with websites

Use the index page to browse through the agents.


WritersServices agents' listings have been compiled from the information they publish and especially their web presence. Most agents have some useful information about making submissions and you must check these.

We know it is immensely frustrating to submit your work without getting a response, perhaps having to wait months before you hear anything about your submission.

These are difficult times in publishing and the best advice we can give is to do some careful research to select the right agent(s) before sending your work.

And make sure that you make a good first impression by getting your submission package effective. There are some pages of advice.



Do check the submission conditions from each agent.

Some agents have closed their list so please check carefully.

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'A review of the UK children’s publishing scene by Caroline Horn in this week’s Bookseller provides an interesting picture of a part of the publishing business which is in pretty good shape. There is a strong feeling in the trade that the focus has shifted to bestsellers, bestselling authors and brand-name series. This makes it hard for new authors to get a sympathetic view taken of their work. The view is that nobody is interested in unknowns unless they are likely to be instant bestseller material.' News Review takes a look.

'Many of us who have worked in the publishing business have long expected hardbacks to be superseded by paperbacks. But over the years hardbacks have been surprisingly durable in their grip on the book-buyer, with various come-backs affecting how much they are produced. Although it’s obviously going against normal pricing rules, the more expensive hardback edition survives partly because of the gift market and partly because readers don’t want to wait to read their favourite novelist. But why not publish that novel straight into paperback? News Review muses on the latest trend.

'Certain genre areas of fiction publishing seem to be coming into their own in a big way at the moment, which is good news if that’s the area you write in. Science fiction and fantasy are particularly popular. Last month major SFF author Terry Pratchett’s new novel became the fastest selling adult hardback novel by a British novelist since records began, selling no less than 31,094 copies in its first full week... News Review looks at the boom in genre publishing.

'Amazon has been much in the news this last week. After the announcement of it first big purchase for its new publishing arm at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which sent tremors through the publishing world, it is now consolidating its position on e-books. The deal in question may have garnered the book for Amazon because of the high ebook royalty offered. But the question is going to be whether the company can get the book into the book trade – or will Amazon sales be enough? News Review reports.

'There is an increasing trend for older people to write their own memoir and then to self-publish it, sometimes in a nice gift edition. For many people looking back over their lives, the motivation for this is to set it all down for the family, particularly the grand-children, so that the story of their lives will not be lost but can be passed down through the generations. To have a handsome volume to give to your relatives is one thing, but for your own personal slice of family history to be preserved for the future is also a great motivator.' News Review looks at the trend.

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'We've arrived at this place where we just thoughtlessly plunge towards whatever the thing is that will allow us to make less of an effort. We know we're diminishing experience. We know that it was richer to walk to the store, talk to the bookseller, maybe meet your neighbour than it is to click online. But we can't stop ourselves...' Nicole Krauss, author of Great House, in the Observer

‘The world does not have tidy endings. The world does not have neat connections. It is not filled with epiphanies that work perfectly at the moment that you need them...' Dennis Lehane, author of Moonlight Mile in The Independent on Sunday.

'Books have always been defined by their physical presence. Those under 50,000 words do not give customers value for money, books much over 200,000 words are cumbersome to read and prohibitively expensive to produce. Ebooks make those rules redundant. Piers Blofeld, agent at Sheil Land, in the Bookseller.
'There's just too much stress on authors. The business model seems to be that publishers want a book a year. I wanted to spend time on my novels, but that isn't economically viable... Steph Swainston, fantasy author, who is abandoning writing to become a chemistry teacher, in the Independent on Sunday.
'Peter (Kravitz - her editor) said to me, I'll give you money for this. It had never occurred to me that anyone would give you money for writing: I thought writers were wealthy people who just wrote things out of the goodness of their heart and gave them as gifts. Janice Galloway, author of All Made Up, in the Guardian
Writers' Quote

'The majority of poems one outgrows and outlives, as one outgrows and outlives the majority of human passions.'
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Historical Events
Writing Historical Fiction


So you want to write historical fiction?

Well, your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category.

The market

Older readers may have read Anya Seton, Rosemary Sutcliff, Henry Treece, Mary Renault, Norah Lofts and other stalwarts of historical fiction in their younger days, but many of their books have been out of print or just not very visible, replaced on booksellers’ shelves by other categories such as fantasy and crime.

The resurgence of historical fiction has been much appreciated by readers who have always enjoyed it and who for many years have had little new material to read. There have of course always been historical novels being published, but what has changed is that there is now a definable market for them, which means that publishers are looking for historical fiction and are much more open to taking it on. The result has been big reissue programmes involving many of the authors mentioned above but also publishers looking out for authors working in this genre.

Historical fiction has also invaded the literary area, in fact the 2009 Booker Prize winner, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, is a historical novel. (It was also the first bookies’ favourite to win the Prize for some years, which looks like the result of those who’d read and enjoyed it betting on it).

History publishing

The category has also been very much affected by the enormous growth in popular interest in history, with many very successful non-fiction history books published and a surge of interest in local history and family history. Many with an interest in history find non-fiction harder going and turn to historical fiction. Caroline Corby, author of the Before they Were Famous series, says: 'Non-fiction is heavy going. A story with characters is going to carry along the reader and make them want to turn the page in the way that a straight history doesn't. It is that great pull of a story.'

So, what does this mean for you as an author, if you are thinking of writing historical fiction, or are already engaged in doing so? The first thing is to take heart, because there is clearly currently a market for good historical fiction.

Well-researched and accurate

The second thing is to realise the importance from the outset of getting the historical background right. This presents an extra challenge for writers and it’s advisable to dedicate plenty of time to researching your chosen period to make sure all the details are correct, unless it’s something you’re already familiar with. Precisely because they are more knowledgeable and enthusiastic readers for these books, modern historical fiction buffs are even more likely to spot errors if you make historical gaffes, and will need convincing that your story is plausible within the confines of the historical period you have decided to set it in.

It’s also crucial to make it accurate in relation to the historical record, ie what is known of events and people known to history. For instance, if you’re writing a novel about Alexander the Great, you can’t invent wives he didn’t have, although illegitimate children, who have been unknown to history, might be a different matter. Of course you can make up and elaborate on what happened behind the scenes, but be careful how you do this and do your research first.

Don’t on the other hand get so enthusiastic about your research that you put large chunks of it into your novel. This is a common beginners’ fault and it is really important to ‘wear your learning lightly’. The research should form a firm foundation for your work, but don’t leave the foundations visible.

Which period?
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Thirdly, do think hard about the period in which you are going to set your work. Of course it should be a period which interests you, but do spare a thought for what will interest readers too. Something unusual, or which has a new angle on a historical period or event, might attract extra attention through its theme. Alternatively it’s easy to spot that some periods are already done to death - English history in the Tudor period, for instance, with Philippa Gregory now joined by Alison Weir and many other contenders too.

It still needs to work as fiction

The fourth thing to remember is that your historical novel needs to fulfil all the criteria for fiction. Does it have a strong, compelling story? Are the characters well-drawn and interesting? If the real history gets in the way of the story then it may indicate that your story might not work as fiction and still manage to retain its plausibility. It’s difficult to generalise about the solution here, but before you start it’s worth giving some hard thought to how you can deliver a good story whilst getting the history right, or at least believable.

Debbie Taylor’s The Fourth Queen, for instance, is based on a true story of a Scottish girl who was captured by pirates and ended up in the Sultan’s harem. It’s a very good story but based on fact in an entirely believable way.

Getting published

Once you’ve written your historical novel and got it into the best shape you can, how should you go about finding a publisher for it? Well, historical novels are sufficiently close to the mainstream that there aren’t going to be many agents who don’t handle them, but perhaps it would make sense to try to find someone who already represents a historical fiction author whose work you admire. Agents will know which publishers to try.

So only remains to wish you good luck!

Research - Writers' Factsheet 4 by Michael Leggat

The web as a research tool

Our review of Research for Writers

Other articles in this series

Writing Crime Fiction

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Writing Romance

Writing Non-fiction
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© Chris Holifield 2009
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We invite author-reviewers to recommend their favourite books for writers.

Maureen Kincaid Speller, freelance editor, reviewer, writer and former librarian, is our first reviewer. Her views are her own and she is completely independent of WritersServices.

She has chosen:

The Writing Workshop Notebook by Alan Ziegler

The Arvon Book of Life Writing by Sally Cline and Carole Angier

A Creative Writing Handbook: Developing Dramatic Technique, Individual Style and Voice edited by Derek Neale


The Weekend Novelist Redrafts the Novel by Robert J Ray

Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook updated for 2009

The Handbook of Creative Writing edited by Steven Earnshaw

The Art Of Punctuation by Noah Lukeman

Writing fantasy and science fiction by Lisa Tuttle

Solutions for Novelists by Sol Stein

Mortification: Writers’ stories of their public shame edited by Robin Robertson
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An Author’s Guide to Literary Agents

Do you need an agent if you want to get published? How do you get one? What will it cost and is it worth it? What do agents actually do? These are amongst the questions Michael Legat answers in this book, which provides an invaluable guide for any writer thinking about getting an agent. It is especially recommended for any writer who has had difficulty finding an agent to represent them.

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