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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44773
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44773
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It's not easy, but the core answer is: **You need to learn the market.**

Being from outside the U.S., or not having an existing platform, _might_ be issues, but they shouldn't be dealbreakers -- lots of U.S. agents work with foreign clients, and a good book on a good topic can sell beautifully.

But: you need to know what else is out there. What other books on similar topics look like; what readers will be expecting from a book like yours; whether anyone else has already covered your precise topic, or something extremely similar. Without those, your book will have a really hard time being a good book _for the current U.S. market_. You're not going to get all those things right by sheer good luck -- you're going to get them right by knowing those other books, and adjusting your own text and approach accordingly.

That's why Googling "non fiction psychological" is not enough on its own. I suggest you look for books on related topics to yours, _specifically_. Read some of them; read reviews of others; learn which are considered major works.

Gradually, you'll figure out which existing books yours is most _comparable_ to. And then you can check and see what agency they've gone through.

This might seem like a lot of work -- but it needs to be done, to place your book in a very big market. You'll find that even if right now somebody gave you the name of the most perfect agent ever, the first thing that perfect agent will want is a proposal -- detailing precisely which other existing books your work is comparable to, and how yours is different from what's already out there. So this isn't double work you're doing; it's some of the most important work in querying.

Best of luck!

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