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After years spent for knocking at the doors of publishers and literary agents, I have learned enough book publishing business. I offer my clients the experience I have receieved working with publishers.
I am thinking now of sending the MS off, just to see what happens...
No one is saying he is, but he doesn’t have any credentials that qualify him to hang his shingle out as a professional literary agent. If he does, he needs to place those credentials on his webpage.Maybe new agent isn't just a poser, or a shark, though they're out there.
That’s a big problem and all the good intentions in the world are not going to sell your manuscript. A person gets contacts by working in the business and before a person opens up shop they need to apply for a job with a legitimate agency to gain the knowledge, experience and contacts needed to be a good, professional literary agent.Maybe new agent has determination but few personal contacts with editors.
What makes you think he knows what a good query letter looks like? Or a saleable manuscript? When I read a sentence like this on a literary agent’s website it does not reassure me that he has the skills to recognize good writing.He/She can at least get a clean query letter in front of an editorial assistant who reads all of the first five sentences of Chapter One before passing judgement. A tiny crack in an otherwise sealed door.
That beauty is followed by this sentence.After years spent for knocking at the doors of publishers and literary agents, I have learned enough book publishing business.
Okay, so where is all this experience? This gentleman has one self-published book (if it isn’t, the publisher has gone into hiding since 2007) and I couldn’t find his second book online. The only other information I could find on him is that he lives in San Diego, CA and that he holds a patent for some type of fabrication for grouting tile. Apparently, he is quite proficient at laying tile but where is his experience with publishers? Where is his experience in the business of selling manuscripts?I offer my clients the experience I have received working with publishers.
There are far worse things than your manuscript sitting in your computer. An amateur literary agent is one of them.Computers can hold lots of forsaken manuscripts.
He/She can at least get a clean query letter in front of an editorial assistant who reads all of the first five sentences of Chapter One before passing judgement.
Computers can hold lots of forsaken manuscripts.
A new agent who sends editors inappropriate/unsaleable material (because of a lack of contacts) or poorly written cover letters is unlikely to get future manuscripts read. Editors know that there are a lot of people calling themselves literary agents without the qualifications to back it up.
You have absolutely nothing to gain from entrusting your manuscript to an unknown, unprofessional literary agent--and you potentially have a great deal to lose.
At best, your submission probably won't get serious consideration. At worst, you won't be able to submit to that publisher again with a better agent.
Understood ... but what to do when upwards of ninety-five percent of national publishers don't accept unagented submissions
As for independent houses, M'Lady Victoria ... my experience is while they do accept non-agented queries/subs, they are usually inundated.
Baen is not part of the mega-conglomerates, but as far as SF/fantasy goes, it is one of the big publishing houses. Although several of the big SF/fantasy publishers do accept unagented submissions, in my opinion they don't do authors any favors with this policy. They are beyond inundated, and most of their time and attention goes to agented submissions--the unagented work gets very, very low priority, and you can literally wait years to get a response. Every now and then they do snatch something out of the unagented pile, but most of what they publish comes through reputable agents.Anyway, after 12 months, I'm waiting for a reply from BAEN any day now on my slush submission, sans literary agent.
1. Isaac Newton
2. Pope Urban II
3. Prophet Mohammed
4. Jesus Christ
5. Richard Arkwright
6. Ardys
7. Christopher Columbus
8. Albert Einstein
9. Aryabhata I
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