Anyone know where I can find a good literary agent?

[Barnabas]

Can't you send it to some Literary Concourse?

[Sir Og]

Why don't you just publish it yourself in e-book format? (I have no idea how difficult it is. I am just curious if you have considered that.)

How difficult is it to start selling an e-book on amazon for example.
I know it costs virtually nothing to set up site where people can download your book for money or for free. This is probably not ideal though because you need to get some publicity which you can't get from a lone site on the Internet.
Amazon can give you that publicity but you probably won't have a lot of freedom with pricing for example.

[Lorizael]

I have no desire to self-publish. I want to go to a bookstore and see my novel in the new arrivals section. Obviously the odds of me succeeding are very slim, but it's the dream I'm pursuing for now. Someday that may change and I may consider other options.

[Lorizael]

Can't you send it to some Literary Concourse?

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

[MikeH]

I have no desire to self-publish. I want to go to a bookstore and see my novel in the new arrivals section. Obviously the odds of me succeeding are very slim, but it's the dream I'm pursuing for now. Someday that may change and I may consider other options.

And if not this novel, maybe the next one.

[Lorizael]

Damn straight.

[Sir Og]

I have no desire to self-publish. I want to go to a bookstore and see my novel in the new arrivals section. Obviously the odds of me succeeding are very slim, but it's the dream I'm pursuing for now. Someday that may change and I may consider other options.

Fair enough.
Keep chasing the dream

[Guynemer]

I have no desire to self-publish. I want to go to a bookstore and see my novel in the new arrivals section. Obviously the odds of me succeeding are very slim, but it's the dream I'm pursuing for now. Someday that may change and I may consider other options.

When Galnemer saw her book on the shelves, well, "giddy" isn't even close, and she isn't the sort of woman who goes down the "giddy" road too often.

[Guynemer]

More advice from my beautiful bride:

A good question to ask a prospective agent is about his/her track record in selling in your genre. I remember talking to folks who said that they were interested in representing fantasy, for instance, but when pressed, actually hadn't sold any. The key is getting in with someone who has sold to publishers (and thus has established relationships) with those you want to work with. It doesn't do a SFF author much good to have an agent who only does romance and literary fiction, for example.


Other questions that are good to ask about: How does the agency handle foreign rights? What about television/movie rights? This stuff seemed pretty remote to me at the outset, but it's important that they are able to handle these things in-house or have agreements in place with those who can handle them. With foreign rights, particularly, you want an agent who will retain your rights and be able to sell them separately. More money to the author without additional work. ;-)


And you want to have someone who groks your work. Nerdiness, at least for me, is important stuff. The person has to love your genre and understand it in order to sell it.


Good places to hook up with agents are at writer's conferences. Many have opportunities to pitch to agents and editors face-to-face, which helps one get a leg up on the slush pile.


If your friend is interested in submitting directly without an agent, I saw that Pyr does take unagented subs: http://www.pyrsf.com/contactus.html

[Japher]

Because I just finished a novel.

I've been a writer my whole life, and I've left a lot of abandoned works in progress along the way, but this is the first time I've ever completed a novel. 132,100 words, which is probably slightly too long. I've posted enough about it here that anyone who cared enough to be clever could probably figure out the plot... but I'm not particularly concerned by that possibility. Yep. I think that's pretty much all I've got to say. I think I ran out of words. Monkeys!

(I don't actually need an agent yet, because now comes the dreaded editing process.)

Monkey!!!


Sorry.. I have nothing to add.

[Barnabas]

Perhaps what I wrote before is a bad translation of Spanish into English.

I mean something like a literary competition. You send your novel there, and if you win you get cash, + your novel published for free. Obviously, you would have to win in order to achieve anything. But you could always try.

[snoopy369]

Unfortunately, many (I'd say most, but I haven't done a thorough count) of those competitions are effectively scams - they don't compensate you significantly for your work, and don't pay you royalties (or, don't pay you significant royalties). If your novel is actually good enough to sell, you need to sell it properly; most publishers won't be nearly as happy to take a work that's already sold, and odds are the competition wouldn't allow it anyway.

Lori, in terms of short stories, you might try selling some of the better one(s) anyway - even a short 1000 or less word story has some chance at selling to a small zine (usually online nowadays, but what can you do). Once you've sold a few, you qualify for SFWA membership (1 for associate, 3 for full) and that gives you much easier access to agents/publishers/etc. (and is really good to get on your cover letter, from what I have read).

[Hauldren Collider]

Good luck Lorizael!

[snoopy369]

Guynemer - forgot to ask, is Galnemer's book available for purchase in reputable retailers (e-book or otherwise)?

[Asher]

Guynemer - forgot to ask, is Galnemer's book available for purchase in reputable retailers (e-book or otherwise)?

Yes. My mom's actually a big fan. She's seen them on retail store shelves, and she buys them from the Kindle Store as well.

She has more than one book. I think she's up to 4 now...