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| There are 60,000 titles published each year in the U.S. (more than 300,000 worldwide). If you assume, probably conservatively, that publishers get 20 submissions for every book they ultimately purchase, it’s not difficult to imagine that most of the envelopes never even get opened. And it becomes much easier to understand the important role that literary agents play in helping to vet manuscripts for publishers.
Agents also add value to the process from the writer’s perspective. They maintain personal relationships with acquisitions editors, and they develop and implement a marketing strategy to ensure that an author’s work ultimately commands the best possible price. As writers and artists, most of us would like to believe that, when it comes to getting published, a good book will sell itself. It doesn’t.
Yet getting noticed by a reputable agent is almost as difficult as getting noticed by a publisher. At the Iowa Wordwrights, we maintain relationships with a roster of agents. When and if our staff reaches a consensus that a client’s manuscript is likely to find a publisher—both because of its commercial potential and its quality—we are happy to refer it on to one of the agents with whom we have worked.
We don’t recommend a large volume of manuscripts to agents; a particular agent might see one or two a year from us. As a result of our selectivity, our reputation, and our personal relationships with these agents, clients whom we refer are more likely to get a serious review of their work.
Agents with whom our editors have worked in the last two years include:
▪ International Creative Management (ICM)
▪ Lowenstein-Yost Associates
▪ William Morris Agency
▪ Marly Rusoff & Associates
We do not charge clients a fee for agent referrals. And while we can’t guarantee that a client will ultimately be accepted for representation, we can say that a manuscript coming with a recommendation from an Iowa Wordwrights editor is more likely to get noticed than an unsolicited manuscript in a big yellow envelope. |
|  Oh, that my words were now written. Oh, that they were printed in a book.
- Job |
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