It is acceptable to submit your work to more than one agent at a time, however, you should let them know your work has been sent to other agents.

Many agents will not accept queries by phone, fax or email, so you should use snail mail for all submissions. Upon request, you can submit additional information, such as writing sample and story synopsis.

Once you have retained services of an agent, you can expect them to provide guidance regarding quality and marketability of your work. According to AAR, your agent may:

•Offer editorial guidance. •Establish contacts for you with firms and persons who are acquiring rights to literary and/or dramatic material. •Advise you about current trends conditions, practices, and contractual terms. •Market your literary material and rights therein. Negotiate and review licensing agreements. •Review royalty statements. •Monitor licensees' marketing of your work.

Agent representation is valuable when it comes to submitting works to publishers. Publishers depend on agents as a first screen to marketable work. Inept agents who submit marginal work to a plethora of publishers will develop a poor reputation and likely be ignored. Agents must exercise discretion, and best agents will be highly selective when taking on new clients.

Holly Lisle, author of several published works including: Fire in Mist, Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons, and Courage of Falcons offers advise on finding right agent @ http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/faqs3.html. “The majority of queries any agent receives---probably around 99%---are rejected because they lack whatever spark that agent is looking for. This doesn't mean they're hopeless---what is wrong for one agent might be right for another. Remember that agent you want will love genre you work in and know publishers and editors who publish it, and will love work you do. Make sure work you send out is your best, that it is professionally formatted, free of errors, and entirely yours.” She also recommends that you research type of work an agent represents. "Read their descriptions of what they're looking for and believe them---an agent who doesn't like science fiction won't like your science fiction, and won't appreciate having his time wasted by yet another beginner who has proved by querying him that he is a beginner, and worse yet, can't follow instructions.”

Do you still wonder whether or not you need an agent? I guess question to you would be: “Do you want to be a writer, or do you want to be an agent?” Lisle offers final bit of advice on subject: “Good agents do much more than find homes for manuscripts. If he (or she) did nothing more for you than remove bad clauses from contracts, agent would be worth his ten or fifteen percent.”

© Copyright 2004 Lisa Hood. All rights reserved.

Here are nine prompts to help you expand your experience. * Write words describing your atmosphere--the quality of air. * What are clouds doing? Can you see animals in their shapes? * The temperature of your location. * The source of light and its quality. * Where are people standing or sitting? * Shadows, are they're any? Where and how do they fall? * Predominant colors, wall colors, wallpaper, molding, chair railing, textured ceiling. * What do you smell? Using comparisons are a great way to relate to your reader. The air feels like just getting out of fogged shower stall. * Are there other people around you? How do they smell, their clothes, their shoes? Guess at what they might do for a living. Are they dressed like someone on their way to work, doesn't work, a mom, dad, baker, or what?

After you are comfortable describing your environment, spice exercise up another notch. Compare your descriptive words to something else. For example: The room you are sitting in feels like a sauna with my clothes on.

Continue spicing up exercise to increase your awareness and descriptive powers--use people and objects. Since you are most familiar with yourself, begin there.

After practicing on most familiar subject, yourself, create a list of other familiar people in your life. Then sort list from most familiar to least. Continue down list. Somewhere during these lists and practice sessions, you will begin to feel comfortable with your skill.

You can continue taking exercise to another level. This time you are ready to expand your awareness and adaptation to words. Visit local mall; sit in food court for smorgasbord of new enriching thoughts-to-words experiences.

Here are 11 prompts to help you expand your levels: * Describe what you are wearing. * How does your body feel? * What are your hands doing? * How does your throat feel? * How are you holding your mouth? * Eye movement * Breathing * How do you feel in general, in detail? * Name your mood. Does it have a flavor and color? * Describe your feelings with reference to music. A certain song or type of music. * How does your hair smell, clothes, chair you're sitting on, book you're reading?

Be patient with yourself while practicing. This exercise isn't easiest to complete, however, it is most effective. Even if you aren't a writer, this exercise will help you triple your awareness skills in a short time period1. This exercise also helps police officers, speakers, judges, attorneys, or anyone else that uses their awareness skills to see and put it into words. This is also a NLP--neurolinguistics programming skill--for those aware of this process.