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British Agent

JP Harker

Scribe
UK agents would probably be a better title but British Agent makes me think of James Bond so I couldn't not call the post that.

I'm very new to all this so sorry if this is obvious but I'm trying to find out what the best agents are for fantasy writers in the UK. I took a quick look through and saw a fair few threads from the US and I saw a post on UK ones a while back but it looks like it's years old and one or two of the links no longer work. Can any of my fellow Brits recommend a good agency to start with? I've sent my first three chaps off to Conville and Walsh and to Hanbury but there seem to be an awful lot of agencies out there.

Any thoughts?

cheers
 

Russ

Istar
There are a few ways to go about finding out who the best UK agents that will fit your work are.

Firstly you can do the research and dig out who represents successful authors in the UK with work similar to yours.

Secondly you could track for a time who is selling books in your field through PW or similar sources and figure out who is a) doing a lot of deals and b) doing a high proportion of high value deals.

Thirdly you could go to a few literary festivals etc and meet some agents to see what you think of them in person.

And, of course, you can read through a ton of their websites to see who they represent and what they are looking for to figure out which ones match your work.
 

JP Harker

Scribe
Mostly that's what I've been doing already - to be honest I was just looking to cheat and see if anyone knew the best/worst of them!

cheers, will keep looking
 

Russ

Istar
Mostly that's what I've been doing already - to be honest I was just looking to cheat and see if anyone knew the best/worst of them!

cheers, will keep looking

The best cheat is to go to a conference where there are some fantasy writers who have been around for a while, buy them a drink in the bar and ask them for the low down.

I could give you some ideas in NA but for the UK I would not know where to start.
 
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