What Agents Hate

Here is an informative article from Writer's Digest about what agents hate to read when reading the first chapter of your novel.

Writer’s Digest - What Agents Hate

LitMatch - Literary Agent Directory, Response Times and Submission Tracking

We found another groovy site for finding agents and tracking submissions. Membership is free and they offer a matching search to find agents suitable to your work.

From their site:

LitMatch - Literary Agent Directory, Response Times and Submission Tracking: "More than just a directory, LitMatch is the FREE source for literary agent information that allows writers to organize their search for representation and track their submissions online!"

They are also currently running a one-year anniversary give-away to current and new subscribers (it's free to sign-up!) who sign and enter up by December 31st, 2008, where you can win:

1 - Grand Prize: One FREE online sales class, courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop (a $150 value!) Choose from the following classes:

• Nonfiction Book with nonfiction book editor Stephanie Staal
• How to Sell Your Screenplay with Hollywood insider David Title
• How To Freelance with professional freelancer Cindy Price
• How To Get Published with literary agent Stephen Barbara

2 - One of five, one-year subscriptions to The Writer Magazine.

3- One of three, one-year memberships to TheNextBigWriter.com

LitMatch.net Launches Upgraded Listing Pages

This just in from LitMatch.net:

LitMatch.net, the largest and most complete database of literary agents and agencies on the web, recently launched a major upgrade to their agent and agency listing pages. The new layout was designed with ease of use in mind, and brings key information to the forefront while organizing the rest in a simple, intuitive format.

The new layout features an at-a glance style, with large, friendly icons that indicate an agent or agency’s submission status, if they accept email queries, and if they accept postal queries. Other important information; like response times, comments, and clients & projects; is arranged in a simple, tabbed format on the right side of the page. The tabs keep things organized and allow users to limit their view to only the information that’s of most interest to them. Everything from layout to colors to fonts has been given an update for a fresh, clean look in order to make searching for a literary agent as easy and painless as possible.

“This upgrade represents a big step forward for us, and addresses some issues with the site that have been nagging me since the site launched back in September.” said Christopher Hawkins, creator and lead developer of LitMatch. “We’re excited about the change because it gives our listings a first-class presentation that matches the first-class quality of their content.”

Other features of this upgrade include:

• Clearer division between content areas for faster browsing and increased readability.
• Contact information that’s more prominent and easier to cut and paste into word processing programs.
• A redesigned “Genre Information” section.
• Flag icons that visually identify an agent’s or agency’s country.
• A reformatted user summary area that keeps all queries to a given agent or agency close at hand.
• More prominent hotlist links.
• An updated look to the submission stats table.
• Reformatted comments and comment entry form.