This won’t be a long post, but it will be a helpful one. There’s one tool that I believe is the best kept secret: Publisher’s Marketplace.
Publisher’s Marketplace is the platform that industry people live on. Every deal—book acquisition, international rights, film & tv rights—is reported on here. It also has the contact information for agents, editors, and everyone else in the industry. And when you look someone up, you can see who they represent; when you look up a book you can see who edited and published it, which agent did the deal, if it’s been acquired internationally or if the film and tv rights have been sold.
If you know how to use it, it will be your best friend. Let’s take an example: you’re writing a commercial thriller and you’re at the part of the process where you’re looking for an agent. Perhaps your comps are Ruth Ware, Laura Dave, and Lucy Foley. The first thing you do is search “Lucy Foley”. Here’s what you’ll see:
This shows you who Lucy’s agent is and also shows you the most recent deals that mention Lucy Foley. That’s helpful because you can then click into those deals and see who brokered them, giving you even more insight into agents. If you then search “Cathryn Summerhayes”, Lucy’s agent, here’s what you’ll see:
Now you have her contact information and you can see who else she represents.
Let’s say you’re dead set on ultimately selling your book rights for film & tv and you want to see if Ruth Ware has sold some of her film & tv rights. Looks like she’s done at least two deals:
This indicates that maybe you might want to look into The Gotham Group and/or Eve White Literary Agency.
You’ll also find job boards, bestseller lists, awards lists, book club picks, and so much more on here. You’ll be able to see how publishers describe their books, the comps they use, everything.
And for about $25/month, you can get full access.
Happy researching!