Because I’m comfortable with how things are progressing on new projects, I thought I could take some time and go the traditional route with some other works. With my YA mystery Red Is For Ick and my SF novel, Beowulf: In Harm’s Way, I decided to take up the slow, laborious, and often fruitless process of searching for a literary agent.
The good news is that most agents are okay with an author submitting to more than one of them at a time, which speeds up the process. (But only a little, because I take the time to research agents in my search for the right match.) The bad news is that at any one time, there are about two billion agentless authors for every agent who’s looking for a new client. Maybe three billion.
Anyway, once I exhaust all the agents who might make for a good partnership, I planned to go direct to those traditional publishers that accept unagented submissions. Then I would consider independent publishing. Thinking that far ahead shows that my confidence in the traditional publishing process has eroded over the years.
The steps of publishing are measured in weeks—best case scenario. More likely months. Once an author sells a completed manuscript, it’s still often years before it comes out in print. So earlier this week I sent out some queries, along with outlines and sample pages, then moved on to other writing work. No sense waiting by the virtual mailbox.
Within less than 24 hours I got a request for a full manuscript.
I told you that whole story just to show how rare this is. It’s also by no means a guarantee of representation. I’ve received requests for fulls before: Only once did it lead to me getting an agent, years ago, and that didn’t work out. Statistically speaking, I might be no more likely to sign with this agent than the Cubs are to get into the World Series.
But stranger things have happened.
Well that's good!
ReplyDeleteIt's a step!
DeleteWeeks? Months? Try years! I got my agent within a month--but that was back in 1984. These days, I know authors who have waited a year for a response of any kind.
ReplyDeleteYep, I'm all too aware of the years thing--I just wasn't sure the non-author could handle the concept. That's why I was so surprised to hear back so quickly--I've waited years myself, and the agents these days are just saying straight up that they're not going to contact you at all unless they're interested.
DeleteGood luck with all this, Mark. I hope you find an agent.
ReplyDeleteNot this time, sadly. The agent liked my story and took it to the full board at their agency, but they rejected it because it's too upbeat! Conventional wisdom has it that YA is heading sharply in the direction of dark, dense, depressing ... not exactly the terms they used, but close. So, they're afraid they can't sell it, and decided not to try.
Delete