1999 Guide to Literary Agents: 500 Agents Who Sell What You Write [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ Donya Dickerson (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It is increasingly difficult, these days, to get an editor to look at an "unagented" manuscript. The right agent can provide entrée to the right editors, and Writer's Digest's annual Guide to Literary Agents will help you determine just who those right agents are. Though some of the top literary agencies go missing here, this annual tome is still the most comprehensive of its kind. The 550 agencies listed are divided by type and cross-referenced by specialty, location, and "openness to submissions." While this guide's primary value is in its listings, the articles are worth noting, as well. Aside from the usual pieces on queries, rights, and agents from hell, this year's edition features a discussion with two agents about the effect of the conglomeration of the publishing business on writers.

For the best insight into an agency, check out the "Tips" section at the end of its listing. While one recommends you "sell yourself like a product" (Bart Andrews & Associates), another "will ignore the adjectives you may choose to describe your own work" (Jabberwocky Literary Agency). The Linda Roghaar Literary Agency advises unappetizingly that "the process of finding the right agent is like eating an elephant--you do it one bite at a time." And agent Malaga Baldi once again provides the best description of the many roles an agent may play in a writer's life. "To one author I may serve as a nudge," she says, "to another a confidante, and to many simply as a supportive friend. I am also a critic, researcher, legal expert, messenger, diplomat, listener, counselor and source of publishing information and gossip." --Jane Steinberg

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; illustrated edition edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898798787
• ISBN-13: 978-0898798784
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,624,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars indispensable - and entertaining, April 8, 1999

By A Customer

An indispensable book for anyone unfortunate enough to be looking for an agent. No other guide to agents is as well laid-out, as comprehensive, or as up to date. There's also entertainment value in comparing the arrogant posturing of so many agents, who act like they'll only accept the Great American Novel (and even then only if the manuscript is double-spaced!), with the kind of discount-table fodder they've succeeded in foisting onto publishers. But as long as publishers are too lazy to do their own reading, aspiring writers will need agents - and this superb guide to them.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the standard directory of literary agents, February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This is the 1999 version of the standard guide to literary agents. It has the same strengths and same weaknesses as the 1998 and earlier editions of this same work. Aside from the usual additions and subtractions in the listing pages, the only major difference from last year's book is the new introductory articles. Most of these articles are reprints from previous issues of Writers Digest magazine, but they're generally well worth reading. (Of course, this book is kinda like Playboy Magazine in that no one buys it for the articles, excellent though they may be in some cases.)

The listings are useful, but incomplete. Many important agencies have been left out for one reason or another.

Happily, fee-charging agencies are strictly segregated from the non-fee-charging agencies (which are the only ones you want to do business with.) Even if you are foolish enough to go with a fee-charging agency, you can at least assume that the agencies in this book do occasionally actually sell books to publishers.

(I might add that the editor of the 1999 edition, Donya Dickerson, is my second cousin's ex-wife. I've never even met the woman, and the generally positive nature of my review is not due to this rather attenuated family tie.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable for authors with a finished manuscript in hand, November 21, 2000

By	Gregory McMahan (Tottori, Japan) - See all my reviews

I got the 1999 copy of this incredible guide from a friend who is currently writing her own non-fiction book. It is an incredible resource for both the aspiring and the accomplished writer. Of course, the listings of agents will change from year to year, but what is most useful about this guide is its articles on agents and the publishing industry. The authors have also done a very good job of including a list of helpful resources and organizations for writers of all stripes.

However, this book is most useful to those have a finished manuscript in hand, and want to get it in print. Aspiring writers like myself do learn from this volume how not to get taken by unscrupulous literary agents. We also learn what role(s) the agent plays, and we also learn what gets the agent's attention.

"Forewarned is fore-armed", said a wise man a long time ago. This guide and its later volumes can teach intrepid writers a lot. For the aspiring author, two other books along these lines that are worthwhile reads are Michael Larsen's How to Write a Book Proposal and Guide to Literary Agents.