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 comments total)

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

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