Website of the Week: Guide to Literary Agents

The Website of the Week is the Guide to Literary Agents blog. It gives new writers tips to make sure literary agents take their work seriously and notice them. The most recent post details what is acceptable in query letters to agents and what is not acceptable. Perhaps my favorite one pertains to making of e-mail queries look neat. "Colorful border, graphics or emoticons are not only unprofessional, but they're often caught by spam blockers," the tip reads. Moral of the story: Don't pretend your potential literary agent is your best friend forever and put a bunch of =) or =( or even =D emoticons, let alone pictures of your cat.

The site also has a post that trails a success story of an author using Twitter to follow literary agents. This is how she realized she was going to get an offer for representation. Who ever thought Twitter's 140 characters would be so vital to getting a literary agent? Maybe a Twitter account is the key to getting represented by an agent. Or maybe this is a freak occurrence. But I guess a Twitter account can't hurt. So after you are done reading this post, I suggest you make an account on Twitter. Or Facebook. Or Tumblr. It seems social media has moved into the realm of literary agents and publishing as well.

If you are an emerging writer, or even a veteran writer, the site is definitely worth a look. It sometimes has multiple posts per day, so there are always things to read.