I'm cleaning up another query letter to go out tomorrow and three or four more will go out in the mail the next day. I did another scan of Editors and Predators this evening and discovered two of the agents I'd found on Writer.net were listed as "not recommended" for various reasons. I'm really grateful for resources like this. This is hard enough without dealing with the scam artists as well.
My one gripe with this process? The fact that I need to rewrite the letter for every agent. But I think I'm getting closer to having enough copies that I'll be able to suit every style. I just wish they'd all agree on one format. It would make it much easier to spam them. :)
The only snag is that every agent wants to know why I'm querying them. There are a few who keep blogs that I read regularly, but many simply turned up in a search engine on a site like Writer.net. It doesn't help your case to say, "Ummm . . . because you're an agent who works with sci-fi and I . . . uhh . . . want to be published so I thought that would be enough by itself." So I have to do extensive research on each one. That's a lot of research.
I subbed "Nothin's Broke" day before yesterday and I'm starting the next one tomorrow. The working title of this one is, "Tales from the toolbox" (It's atrocious, but it will do for now).
Week after next, I start writing "Willow's Blood".
2 comments:
Don't feel bad about querying agents that seem combatible. If you can list a personal reason why you've chosen them, then that is a bonus, if not, simply omit that information.
You should still be fine. I've had manuscript requests from plenty of what you would call 'impersonal' queries.
Ultimately your story idea and publishing credits will be much more compelling then the reason you chose them for query.
Thank you for your support Ray. I really appreciate it.
I took your advice this morning when I subbed to an agent from a large agency simply because I liked their client list and this guy represents sci-fi.
I have one more agent on my current list and I'm waffling as to whether or not to even bother. There's something about this one that has me bugged. Describes himself as a "high school graduate" (Good lord, I hope so!) and I can't find any specific stats on him. I've been able to track everyone else's reputations through other blogs, P&E, and AW.
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