Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2011, 21e: Who They Are! What They Want! How to Win Them Over! [Paperback]

As the book proclaims on its cover that it will tell you who wants what, you should know that there is a name index only. If you already know who you're looking for, this book provides a wealth of information on most but not all major agents; but if you you want to know which publishers and/or agents are interested in what material, you are out of luck. There is no idex for that. Know what you're getting.

You're a writer. You need reliable contacts either for screenplays, novels, etc.

Herman has an excellent and professional approach to providing a listing, with useful information which goes well beyond most internet listings or other sources.

Unfortunately, he felt it necessary to provide all sorts of agent-centric viewpoints (mostly his own) about the business, which are not really useful at best, and at worst irritating.

Looking at listings, you'll just have to ignore the "worst client" categories he proposed to agents... where agents had the opportunity to reply with things like "sends packages impossible to open..." (what an incredibly difficult life agents has, with such a clientele...). This is really worthless stuff, designed to belittle people and make them feel like supplicants. Which, is ass-backwards. Agents should be grateful that writers ask them for help. Agents should see themselves as FULL partners (and lucky to be so...) in a project.

Don't be put off with, or buy into, the crybaby agent-centric stuff Herman throws out about how agents receive 90 percent garbage... that they have to "wade through" it. At least... don't buy how boring and painful that is. Because: That's. Their. Job.

Writers have a tough job, too. They spend months and even years developing an idea... character development, style, point of view, a general knowledge of humanity/the universe/etc... and agents take about 15 minutes to decide if they like it or not.

Don't be fooled. These people aren't "experts". They work the way a reader works in a bookstore: pick up... like/dislike. Put back or buy. But in their case, they decide on pick up or buy based on their personal contacts in publishing companies. They base their decisions on who they know, and the tastes of those people. In general, they don't know squat about the real intricacies of writing, except that -- to be fair -- they can recognize when something is acceptable or not (although not always, if you look at quite a bit of the stuff that gets published).

So... don't base your personal sense of self-worth... or model your writing approach... on that attitude. Write what you need to write, with all the conviction you have, and if it works, it works.

If it doesn't... it doesn't.

But ignore all this agent whining about how tough it is to winnow through the thousands of manuscripts they get. Poor them.

THIS book, is indeed useful because when Herman has gotten away from his ego essays (some of which are outright incomprehensible, especially when he launches into attempts at humor), he does provide a useful list.

Good luck. But don't be cowed by this agent-looking-down approach.

You're the writer. YOU'RE the one these people are making money on the backs of.

Don't forget it.

I am brand new to the idea of writing and I picked up the 2009 edition of this book at the library. I really liked it and was excited to find the new 2010 edition here. I was happy to see that it really was updated and I found information I had not seen in the earlier edition. I especially like the fact that they list recent titles that the literary agents have sold. I found that very helpful. I also really like the type of questions that were asked of agents, as they were much more in depth than I had found in other books on literary agents. I found an agent listed with similar interests to mine. When I looked her up in other "literary agent" books, that specific personal information was not listed. Therefore, I might have missed out on an appropriate agent to query. I recommend this book.

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