Searching for Literary Agent, How to?

[Craig CPM]

Hello all. I have completed my book, "The Bruiser and the Buddha" and am searching for a literary agent to help me get published. The book is my autobiography and is about growing up as a streetifighter and then my spiritual journey in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It's quite lively and fun, full of struggle and joy.

Quite a few friends have read it and so far it has been all positive feedback, several people could not put it down and they read it straight through in two days. Obviously it has to be tested in other ways, and may need some further shaping, but I would like to find an agent to help me take it the rest of the way to publication.

I know about the Literary Marketplace online, but I am wondering if there is a streamlined method anyone knows of, where I can post my book query and agents will find it. Does something like this exist?

[Lea Zalas]

Hi Craig. Your book sounds interesting, which is good for a memoir. As for a place to post your query where agents will go looking for it - sorry. Agents receive so many queries each week, that they have no need to go looking for more.

Check out AgentQuery. You can search for agents by genre, name, etc. Also, QueryTracker, which you have to join (about $25) will help you track which agents you send queries to and responses.

Hope this helps.

[Craig CPM]

Hi Lea, Many thanks for your reply. I did check out AgentQuery today. It looks like there are no short cuts, I'll have to put in the same energy I gave to writing the book. OK, here we go!

[Lea Zalas]

Good luck!

[John Oberon]

Oo rah!

[Debbi V]

Hi Craig. Welcome.

I might be wrong, but it sounds like you have not edited your book, rewritten, hacked at it - whatever. This is essential to get it as perfect as it can be before you approach an agent. A famous quote frem Ernest Hemingway: "The first draft of anything is sh1t." How true that is, and oftentimes the only person who can not see it is the person that wrote it.

Like I said, I could be misreading your post and maybe it was perfectomundo before you gave it to your friends to read. But.. friends and family will not point out all your grammatical and spelling errors, and they certainly won't tell you it sucked! They love you and don't want to hurt your feelings.

Posting an excerpt on here (if you are brave and thick skinned enough!! ) might give you some idea from your peers and fellow writers, about how your style rolls and how it might be received by the big bad publishing wolves?

[Lyle Ven]

Also check out WWW.AUTHONOMY.COM

Lot's of writers who will trade edits with your own MS and dont hold back -- tense changes, lacking dialogue in one chapter, too much description in another, etc. And, apparently, some literary agents browse through the site to check prospective MS (though this is VERY RARELY a success).

[pickwriter]

Check out "Preditors and Editors" for reputable agents.

[SapphireBlue]

Craig, that's a great title and sounds like a good idea for a book. Like Debbi said, be sure your manuscript is tightly edited and paced. An agent won't "take you the rest of the way" if that includes major edits. The websites everyone recommended are good ones, and you might also look at duotrope.com to manage your submissions, if interested.