Take fifteen percent, please

November 28, 2006 9:26 AM

How can I find the agent of a particular author?

I'm preparing to shop around my first novel. Yikes. I would like to focus on finding agents who already represent authors in my genre (hardboiled crime) that I admire.

Is there a foolproof way of finding out who an author's agent is? I know that you can often find out through the "thanks" page of a novel, and that some authors name their agents on their website, but I'm hoping to find a more foolproof method than those or Google.

posted by Bookhouse to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Best answer: call the publisher...they'll have the information. Bypass all the nonsense and just ask for the 'theatrical rights department' and ask the person there.
posted by ryecatcher at 9:46 AM on November 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I always call the publisher. If it's a fairly recent book, they know.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:47 AM on November 28, 2006

You might try looking in the archives of Media Bistro for articles like this (or join their AvantGuild). This guy has hunted down a ton of agents if you are looking for a specific contact. But yeah, call the publisher, ask to speak to someone in subsidiary rights, say you are an author yourself, etc.
posted by mattbucher at 10:03 AM on November 28, 2006

Best answer: Here is an agent specializing in crime fiction: Richard Henshaw.
posted by mattbucher at 10:06 AM on November 28, 2006

Also, searching Agent Query for crime or True Crime brings up 60 names or so.
posted by mattbucher at 10:12 AM on November 28, 2006