m/m romance agents: do they exist?

I can't help with the agent question, but I hope Siren is one of the e-publishers you've got in mind. They would definitely take a look at your book.

I also started in SF&F and ended up writing paranormal romance, both M/F and M/M. Siren has been very, very good to me.

You don't need an agent to submit to an e-pub. Don't be fooled into thinking that the e-pubs who do require agented submissions are any better than those who don't.

I agree with the others. I write m/m for Siren. You don't need an agent to make top dollar these days.

Good luck!

firedrake said:

You don't need an agent to submit to an e-pub. Don't be fooled into thinking that the e-pubs who do require agented submissions are any better than those who don't.

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And in fact some of them are actually worse because they're putting on a veneer of respectability. Why do they need that veneer? Because they're corrupt underneath.

It's all very well expounding about the benefits of having an agent even if you're an e-author (and I call shenanigans on every one of those so-called 'benefits') but epublishing is a small world. Contracts are fairly short. Negotiable by the author without need for an agent.

I can understand the need for an agent if you're taking your manuscript to HarperCollins in London, but erotic romance epublishing is a very small world with no need for epub agents of any description.

I know of at least one epublisher-owner who gives priority to non-agented submissions because she wants to know her authors have the nous to read contracts themselves. She wants them to get 100% involved in the editing process themselves. I agree with her, because I see the logic in that.

Using an agent for something you're going to epublish is a waste of the 15% you're pissing away on their 'services'.

I have yet to hear of any epub agent you could pay me to work with and I'll go on record as saying the most well-known is a scam from start to finish.

My personal feeling is that 15% of typical earnings from those presses is not going to buy a "real" agent unless you are writing scores of books a year. Also, there is no advantage to having an agent approach on your behalf as they are all open to author query. The numbers just don't add up.

There is mainstream M/M, some of it explicit, it just doesn't go by that name. I have a lot of standard paperback fantasy fiction and gay fiction that is M/M from the 60s to the current day and some of it is pretty hard core.

veinglory said:

There is mainstream M/M, some of it explicit, it just doesn't go by that name. A have a lot of standard paperback fantasy fiction and gay fiction that is M/M from the 60s to the current day and some of it is pretty hard core.

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This. It depends on how strong the romance element is as to where you'd attempt to query it; if this is two people getting together with a scifi backdrop, I'd look at epubs because you have straight (ahem ) romance. If you have a richly developed scifi world and a hot plot besides the relationship, I'd look at the agents who represent scifi romance in general (and perhaps UF, as there's a lot of crossover). Usually, if you write speculative fiction, you have a fair bit more wriggle room where erotic content is concerned (Game of Thrones/Gor, anyone? ).

That said...traditional publishing might not be the most profitable route for a romance these days. It very much depends on the deal you get, and your priorities.