Should I Go to a Literary Agent? Full Sail Assignment Recap

The Independent Argument_ Kurtz and McCloud_

For the first two weeks of my media distribution class, I had to research and do work related to getting a book deal. Because, I’m trying to make my web comic project into a series of graphic novels, I realized a literary agent may be something valuable along with the classic go to cons and try and sell.

However, If you agree with Kurtz and his analysis of the newspaper cartoon strip as an industry (i.e. the funnies), then a creator will not see any profitability in trying to make the next "Garfield" or "Peanuts" to make a living. On the other hand, if you had a collection of strips and decided to a put a book together, a literary agent may help... finding a agent was something talked about when I took the McCloud class.


What do I need to get started?

1.) Enough content to fill a book (i.e. pages)



2.) A letter



3.) Additional Material asked by specific companies.
Usually this is a book packet. Check out the ref below…

Harvest Sun Press, LLC. (2007) Book Proposal Format Retrieved on May 10th 2011 from http://www.harvestsunpress.com/pdf/AGraphicNovelProposal.pdf


Should I Go to a Literary Agent?

Do you feel your work has a market but you feel you have tried everything to market it by yourself? Then yes, you should try a shop around for an agent. A good agent will only take projects they feel they can represent well, but bad agents will take your money and make you fill ill after a while.



It's still tuff to find a agent who can market your book?

The new trend seems to be you have to get the numbers or a book deal in progress before you can attract a literary agent. Case in point...



In this example, Kibuishi had two companies seeking his projects. The agent was needed to get the best deal for him; however, he already had many projects on the market as noted.

Where can I find a literary agent?

Niki Smith put a really great list of agents if you are interested.

http://niki-smith.com/about/graphic-novel-agents/

Thanks Niki, you made my homework all so easy.


Cheers_ Zon