I had an agent for about a year.  He was based in Colorado.  We did business by email and phone, and I doubt if many agents and authors meet often if at all.  I don't think there's any advantage to having an agent close to where you live.  You'd rather they be close to where they are selling your book so they can use their contacts, which is NYC if you aspire to reach a mainstream publishing house.  However, if you are researching smaller, independent publishers, they are all over the place.

If you live outside the U.S. and you want your book published in, say, Canada, best to look for an agent in Canada.  If you want it published here, you'd be silly to have an agent in Canada.

Hope this helps.  Good luck in your search.
Sue

As far as I can tell, there's no advantage to having an agent, especially for your first novel.  I'd submit directly to publishers (and yes, many houses, both large and small, accept unagented publications) as much as possible.  Once you're offered a contract, it'll be easy to track down an agent to help you negotiate it, if you so desire.

Also, as a cautionary note on NYC, I overheard this comment from an editor at a conference this weekend:

New York is killing itself.  New York is chewing its leg off in the night just to get away.

In other words, the future of publishing may no longer be in New York, so whether or not your agent is there may not matter a few years down the road anyway.

(Of course, I've got no corroboration for this claim yet, but I thought it an interesting declaration & something to keep an eye on.)

Last edited by rita aguilar (05-29-2011 12:35:10)

rita aguilar wrote:

As far as I can tell, there's no advantage to having an agent, especially for your first novel.  I'd submit directly to publishers (and yes, many houses, both large and small, accept unagented publications) as much as possible.  Once you're offered a contract, it'll be easy to track down an agent to help you negotiate it, if you so desire.

My plan exactly. Maybe agents will become the new Blacksmiths?

Last edited by s_thatcher (05-29-2011 14:41:44)

s_thatcher wrote:

Susan Stec wrote:

To agent or not to agent?  Basically I agree with Rita.  I saw no need to find one with the first book.  I submitted directly to publishers as well. But I did recently query an agent for another one of my books, and they responded by asking for the full manuscript, but because I always put my Amazon page and blog address in my queries, they also enquired about The Grateful Undead series. Wanted to know if I had an agent and if the contract I signed has exclusive rights to the other two books in the series.  I emailed them back with the information - so now I wait. 

Susan

You're now in the position to interview THEM. I'd ask for their client list and ask what they've sold lately, what they're stats are... What they can and will do for me.

That info and more is typically on their web sites, especially most members of Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR), whose members are "bound" by a code of ethics. Take care. Vern

Last edited by vern (05-29-2011 18:56:13)

Oh, Ann.

I'm sorry it didn't work out, but you're right.  If one publisher took an interest, another one surely will eventually.

Madison