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From: mab@riacs.ARPA (Matt Bishop)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.wanted,net.research
Subject: Re: getting a book published
Message-ID: <276@hydra.riacs.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 29-Jul-86 11:27:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: hydra.276
Posted: Tue Jul 29 11:27:48 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Jul-86 00:32:17 EDT
References: <171@pecnos.UUCP> <486@valid.UUCP> <206@watmath.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: RIACS, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 22
Summary: Reputable agents do take on previously unpublished authors
Xref: mnetor net.books:2369 net.wanted:3545 net.research:399

In article <206@watmath.UUCP>, credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond) writes:
> For one thing, I am dubious that any reputable agent would take on
> a previously unpublished author.

Sorry, that's simply not true.  There are reputable literary agents who
do take on unpublished authors (my mother is one.) What matters is the
quality of writing, not publications.

In general, authors who deal with publishers directly may not get so good
a deal as those who deal with literary agents -- since the latter do that
all the time, they have a lot more experience than most authors do.  More-
over, editors get to know literary agents, and if the agent is a good
one, editors will pay more attention to manuscripts that agent sends
than to unsolicited manuscripts.

But I'm biased -- my dad's a writer and always worked through literary
agents, and (as I said) my mom's a literary agent.

Matt Bishop

ARPA:	mab@riacs.arpa
UUCP:	{decvax!decwrl,ihnp4!ames}!riacs!mab