Hello ,

My mum has been writing poems and stories - these mostly for children - and would love to try and get them published. She knows that if she sent them directly to a publishers they may be sat on a pile for ages , but knows that you can use agents who get them noticed quicker.

What I am really asking is does anyone know of , or can reccommend , a good agent for this sort of thing. My mum has found a book with a list of agents in in the library but isin't sure how to choose a good one and I thought that someone on here may be able to help?

Any advice would be very much appreciated , thanks.

Kate

The best information I can give is to take out a subscription to
Writing Magazine   as a subscriber you will then recieve Writers News which gives excellent advice on all aspects of getting published in all areas of the industry.   There are many pitfalls and scams for poetry writers and new authors, but there are also legitimate competitions and pubishers out there too :)  and this magazine and supplement will help you find them.

You can also find copies of Writing Magazine in WH Smiths etc.

Good luck :)

Marianne ( Goldmali) is a writer I'm sure she'll be along in a minute ...otherwise why not PM her for some advice ?

Yvonne

Personally I have never used agents (although JK Rowling is a good example of somebody who DOES! :) ) as the downside of course is that a) the work has to be accepted not once by twice -first by the agent, then by a publisher. (The upside being if an agent has accepted it, you can be more sure that it IS worthwhile persuing!) and b) you end up not getting all the money for yourself. :) I'm not actually sure it is much quicker to use an agent as after all they will have other clients and will have to approach publishers and they publisher will still want to read part of the manuscript (they do not usually want the whole thing, just enough to give them an idea of what it is like).

There is a book called "The Writers and Artists yearbook", published every year, which lists all UK publishers and also agents and it does give details such as what type of book they publish, how to approach each one etc. Amazon usually has it.

Be aware that getting something published can take a very long time -especially if it is intended for children, as there are so many people submitting manuscripts and only a small amount gets accepted. It took me 18 months to get my first book accepted, but often it pays not to give up -again lots of famous writers were initially turned down.

Good luck to your mum!

and you could always go for self publishng, a frend of mine did that & has now sold over 1000 copies!!

I've just seen that there's also a Poetry Writers' Yearbook  it contains articles on getting your work into print, promoting your work etc. 

Perhaps you can check it out at the library before buying it :) :)

Good luck