The Writers' Union of Canada : Clause Cautions

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AGENTS: COMMENTS FROM OUR CHAIR

You should check out the submission guidelines on the website of a literary agent before submitting a cover letter with a sample portion of your manuscript. Each agent has slightly different guidelines. Some like email submissions; some don't and so on. And some agencies, like the Anne McDermid and Associates in Toronto, now don't accept unsolicited manuscripts so you would have to get a veteran author to introduce you to their staff.

Unless you have a non-fiction scoop like the secret sex life of Stephen Harper, your manuscript should be finished and very polished before you try to find an agent. AN AGENT WHO HAS REJECTED YOUR UNPOLISHED DRAFT WON'T WANT TO LOOK AT A MORE POLISHED DRAFT. Keep in mind that most agents get between 20 to 30 submissions a day from new clients, and eighty percent of published Canadian writers don't have agents because competition for agents is tough.

Here are some of the reputable Canadian agents I know personally: Denise Bukowski (The Bukowski Agency); Dean Cooke, (The Cooke Agency); Jackie Kaiser, Linda McKnight, Hilary McMahon*, Natasha Daneman*, John Pierce and Bruce Westwood (Westwood Creative Artists.) Ashton Westwood* and Michael Levine handle film and TV rights at Westwood (Westwood Creative Artists); Samantha Haywood* (Transatlantic Agency); Sam Hiyate* (The Rights Factory); Helen Heller (Helen Heller Agency); Anne McDermid (Anne McDermid and Associates Ltd.); Bella Pomer (The Pomer Agency); Beverly Slopen (Beverly Slopen Agency).

* Daneman, Haywood, Hiyate, McMahon, and Ashton Westwood are all young with a
smaller client list and more receptive to younger writers, but if your work is really good most agents will still want you.

Canada has more agents than those listed above. There is more information about agents available on the Writers' Union of Canada website (www.writersunion.ca); www.publishers.ca (under literary agents). P &E Literary Agents (under Preditors and Editors) has information about American agents who are always willing to take on Canadians.

If you want to get your manuscript evaluated before you try to find an agent or a publisher, you can pay for a workshop like the excellent summer program put on by Humber College. Humber also has a correspondence course where unpublished writers mail professional writers like myself installments of their manuscript and get feedback on each section returned to them by mail.

The Wordlounge is a new manuscript evaluation agency that is run out of Toronto by professional novelists Eliza Clark and Marni Woodrow. The Wordlounge will give you quick or lengthy feedback on your work (for a fee); it also runs online workshops that you can register for (for a fee). The Writers' Union of Canada also has a fee based manuscript evaluation service.

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