A strong blacklist

One of the first things you need to understand about submitting your work to an agent is that, like it or not, you're sort of at their mercy. If that's too unfair for you, you'll just have to stick with self publishing.

You'll find time and time again that publishing is a very small world considering the vast number of books published each year. There's a lot of reasons for this. The relative intimacy of agents and editors with their authors, the constant inter-departmental meetings within a company, and the extremely fluid nature of people's careers as they frequently move from one department to another, one company to another, and from major publishers, to small ones. Indeed, most good agents are going to have an editorial background. My boss is only in his forties and held editorial positions for three companies I know about, now owns his own agency, and was, once upon a time, a school teacher. It's not a field where people stay still.

This is important because for an agent to sell your book, they have to have contacts. Agents and editors put their reputation on the line every time they represent you. Furthermore, they're in surprisingly close contact with one another, so word gets around. And though they may not remember you as a random author seeking representation, you don't want to risk making yourself look bad. It is entirely posible to get yourself blacklisted by both agents and publishers.

For the next few weeks, I'll be explaining how not to step on agent's toes so you don't reduce the chance of them responding favorably at some other time or refusing to give you a referral, or worst, advising their colleagues to stay the hell away from you if they know what's good for 'em.