With the Internet, we writers have access to numerous tools, services, and pieces of advice for everything from writing to submitting to acquiring book agents.
But along with good book agents, there are a slew of bad ones - and how do you tell the good ones from the bad ones? Following are some book agent sources you may find useful:
Finding Legitimate Book Agents
The Burry Man Writer's Center - This is a comprehensive site with thousands of job leads as well as hundreds of links for writers seeking to find agents in most genres ... from mystery to romance to fiction and more.
Author Link.com - not just a place to find agents, but a venue for talking about books, writing, and publishing.
Literary Agents Directory - As its name suggests, this site is devoted to writers who want to find agents for every genre, from nonfiction, fiction, and reference to poetry and children's prose and in every country, from here to Holland and back.
Identifying and Avoiding Bad Book Agents
These writers and writer sites/pages include directories and/or forums defining, determining, and discussing those con artists who have scammed writers in the past and who are now caught or still out there lurking, sniffing, and hoping to pounce:
Editors Directory at Another Realm (a.k.a. Predators and Editors site).
Whispers and Warnings at Angela Hoy's Writers Weekly
The Water Cooler at Absolute Write
The Warnings Forum at Brady Magazine
The Writer Beware Pages at SFWA's site (http://www.sfwa.org/beware/agents.html) -SFWA has a second reputation of protecting writers.
Other Book Agent Resources
Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing, Propagandaville
and Tinseltown, Too, is a Worthless, Superfluous, Giddy, Giggly,
Chickenhearted, Money-Grubbing, Nazi Moron [go to the U.S. Literary Agents section(s) at everyonewhosanyone.com] - This is an absolutely hilarious approach, the writer getting apoplectic about rejection, decides to not only query every single agent in the United States but posts their responses and lists their contact info. Lesson? You'll figure it out.
The Randy Murray Literary Agency - This agency features a guide for "how to impress a literary agency." It speaks to the Murray Agency specifically, but establishes sensible protocol for approaching book agents in general, as well.
