If you're an unknown author, your agent's reputation will be the first thing that an editor knows about you. It's therefore a very good idea to research agencies to find out how good their reputation is. How do you go about it?

There are directories that list agents (Writers' and Artists' Yearbook~ The Writers' Handbook, Cassell's Directory of Publishing) but agencies seldom list their specialities, or the areas they are not interested in. This is probably because most agents want to keep their options open. Fashions in reading change and agents have to move with the times and markets. Few directories list the agents' clients. And the directories are just that: they give information but they do not comment about levels of performance. The Writers' Handbook does offer more commentary than the other directories, and it lists some of the authors represented by the agencies.

You can call a literary agency and briefly describe your novel: some will tell you immediately if they do not handle certain areas of work. Some may be prepared to recommend agents who specialize in genres such as science fiction, crime or romance. On the whole, people in the writing business tend to be fairly generous with information and contacts. But don't expect them to hand out telephone numbers, contact names or addresses: you must be prepared to do your own research.

The Association of Authors' Agents, while not strictly speaking an information service for the public, do nevertheless have names of agents who specialize in, say, children's books, or science fiction. The officers of the AAA give their time to the organization on a voluntary basis: they are themselves all full-time agents with their own agency work to do. Remember this if you contact them, so as not to take up too much of their (unpaid) time.

The Society of Authors can be extremely helpful to writers looking for agents. They have conducted surveys of agents (the last one in 1998) and through their author members and their own work in the trade have a pretty clear idea of the capabilities and reputation of most of the literary agencies. If you describe your work, the Society may well be able to recommend several agencies.

If you know writers with agents, or you know some publishers, ask them for recommendations. And always ask them who that agent already represents. If you are looking for an agent to represent your romance, you would do well to go to someone who already works in that area, because the agent will already know the editors who buy romance, the magazines who print romance stories and extracts, and the foreign publishers who buy translation rights in the genre.

However tempted you are to sign up with the first agent who offers you representation, be cautious. If at all possible, meet before signing up with an agent, or at the very least talk at some length on the telephone. I represent some clients who joined me in the 1970s when I first became an agent: I'm very proud of that. Every author has a right to expect their agent to be someone they can get on with, someone they feel they can empathize and sympathize with their aims and expectations. And you will be more comfortable in the relationship if you believe the agent will sell you enthusiastically.

A writer friend of mine (not a client, he works in an area that I don't handle) was once complaining gently about his agent and mentioned to me that she was shy. He was astonished when I laughed and suggested his agent was in the wrong job. What good is a shy agent? When part of the job description is enthusiasm and confident selling, shyness is definitely not an asset!

But if you yourself are gentle and not overconfident, you'll want to make sure that your agent isn't brash and overbearing or you'll never get a word in edgeways. A meeting or a conversation is essential to establish a rapport between you.

Other ways to get recommendations to agencies are through writers' groups, staff at a local university, local reviewers, and bookshop staff who will also know the local sales representatives for publishers. Read interviews with writers in the press, read the acknowledgement page in the books of authors you admire, listen to book programmes on the radio and television - they may all mention the names of relevant agents. The main trade reference books can be helpful, also the publishing trade press such as The Bookseller, and Publishing News in the UK, Australian Bookseller in Australia, Quill And Quire in Canada, and Publishers Weekly in America. There is no equivalent trade publication in South Africa. Some of the trade papers report publishing deals done by agents, which can be helpful in revealing the kind of clients they represent.

Go to book festivals and readings in bookshops, join the societies formed around many genres (Romantic Novelists' Association, Crime Writers' Association). Then call the agencies and say what you are writing and a little about your expectations and ask for the name of the most appropriate agent in that agency. Write in first; don't insist on speaking to that agent right away. Busy agents can seldom be expected to accept 'cold calls', and browbeating the person who answered the telephone is not the way to make friends and influence people at an agency you would like to join.

                                                      Copyright © 1999 Carole Blake