Looking Up Comparable Titles
When you’re looking for comparable titles, there are better resources (a good ol’ Google search to start), but Publisher’s Marketplace has links to several reputable bestseller lists to widen your search. Where Publisher’s Marketplace is most helpful is in confirming that a book you plan to reference was indeed the bestseller you’re thinking it was (there’s no point in comparing your book to a title only a few people have read; the idea is to give the agent/publisher a basis for comparison). You can search their bestseller database using the title, author, or ISBN of the book in question.
Finding an Agent
While you’re double-checking the best-selling status of comparable book titles, you can have a peek at the agent who represents that author.
In most cases you’re able to click through to the listed agent’s Agent Page, which gives all sorts of useful information, such as the number of deals they’ve snagged (how seasoned are they?), date of their last deal (are they still active?), the books they’ve represented (do you recognize any of them?), recent deals, and their email address and website (in the example below, the agent has passed (RIP!) so no contact information is included, but contact info would normally be listed in the top left box). These last two can be used to query the agent with your own book proposal. Some in the industry recommend always emailing an agent. To me that seems a little invasive, so I’ll check their website and see how they prefer to be contacted first (sometimes it’s through a web form). Then I’ll follow up with an email. But I haven’t sold my book, yet, so take that suggestion with a grain of salt!
An alternative to finding an agent/publisher/editor through a known author is to use the Publisher’s Marketplace Dealmakers feature. This lets you browse dealmakers that have had deals for books in your specific genre in the past year. In the example below I’m looking for agencies representing debut fiction authors.
Truly the list of agents on their website is overwhelming. It can be hard to know who to start contacting. For this reason, Publisher’s Marketplace has introduced an Agent Matcher tool to help you narrow down the list of agents to start querying. My initial impression was favorable: the list of agents returned did seem to match up with my requirements fairly well. However, the tool is still in beta, so use it with caution. You may need to play around with the inputs to receive a reasonable list.
Helping Agents Find You
Publisher’s Marketplace does allow you to advertise your project in case an agent is looking for one to take on. I’ve not heard of this being a successful route to a published product (I suspect the supply/demand balance dictates the process currently in place; a lot of us authors are seeking to publish our labors of love!), but it probably doesn’t hurt to try. You can create your own Member Page with links to your email and website and a list of your skills and preferred genres. You can also post a Rights Offering with details about your project for browsing industry insiders.
Have you used Publisher’s Marketplace? What’s your verdict? Have any tips to share? If so, leave a comment.
- Tracking Agent Queries with QueryTracker - August 17, 2024
- Writers’ Resource: Publisher’s Marketplace - July 17, 2024
- Writing a Book Proposal - June 14, 2024
Thanks Autumn for your research. Big scary & expensive world out there.