I mailed another query today, going for broke and contacting one of the "big" agencies. The agent I'm specifically interested in represents an author I really like. As writers we're advised to do this, but this is the first time I've decided to follow the suggestion.
I want you to know, finding this agent took some sleuthing (lots of blog-hopping, googling, pouring over webpages). I almost considered contacting the writer himself and asking, but that just didn't seem nice. Writers are also advised to network, to seek out more successful writers with agents, befriend them, and then ask for them to put in a good word for us. But I suck at networking with an ulterior motive, which is probably why I didn't make much money selling Tupperware. So all I've got at this point is the faint hope that that my synopsis will fall out of someone's slush pile and onto the right desk or the even fainter hope that an agent will read his/her own mail, read my letter, and get really excited about the story. But a girl can dream, right?
Anyway, this particular agent doesn't give much away so this query is all about what I hope I already know about agents in general.
Three letters out and waiting . . .
6 comments:
Best of luck, Mary, I have my fingers and toes crossed...
Thanks Scotty.
Hope they don't get sore! :)
“Writers are also advised to network, to seek out more successful writers with agents, befriend them, and then ask for them to put in a good word for us.”
I wonder just how worthwhile such advice is. I tend to think that if one has to ASK a more successful writer to put in a good word with his/her agent, then the msw’s answer is going to be no, probably polite and, perhaps sugar-coated, but a ‘no’ nevertheless.
Good luck.
DavidM
G'luck there, Mary!!!
I've got to be somewhere in the 300's for rejection letters, but the only time it really gets to me is when it comes from an agent that I thought would be a perfect match (or when requested material gets rejected).
Good luck, by all means, but at the same time, keep your skin thick and your eggs in multiple baskets.
David, that advice actually came from an agent who stated that agents actually get very little work from their slush pile and much of it from referals. Scary huh?
Thanks Mike.
Hi Ray. Fortunately I've come into this part of the proces with a fair amount of experience with rejection. Though subbing short stories is a slightly different process, the rejection letters look a lot the same and I've already gotten two rejections on this thing. The last short story I sold was rejected five or six times (I've got a total of probably fifty or so rejections on file and more I've deleted). Since the market for novels is even more competitive, I'm braced for the idea that it may not sell at all, but I had to start this proces sometime. That's why we write the next novel while we're subbing, right?
Best of luck with your own work!
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