Would an agent care about works I don't mention on a query?

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HPhatecraft

HPhatecraft

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I've had some short fiction published, and one even paid me $10 (which I used to buy the best tasting latte I ever had, because it was purchased with my writing money) It was all fantasy or mainstream horror.

Thing is...I also have some more extreme horror shorts that I've published in indie presses and I've got a self-published series of novellas that I want to get out this year which are also indie horror. Basically, they are in the same vein as some books in the "basement of Amazon," as I call it.

I also have an urban fantasy novel which is mainstream, and I'm working on a literary fiction novel about a teenager learning to stop enabling his drunken (but loving) man-child of a single father, which I'm surprised to see everyone I've showed it to likes as I'm usually a "genre-only" fellow.

Anyway, I would like to submit either my urban fantasy or the literary fiction novel to agents at some point. I'm just afraid that they might google my name and find the "basement of Amazon" stuff and say "ahh, thanks but no thanks" before they call the FBI to see if I have a crawlspace under my house that needs to be examined.

Would it pay to use a penname for this purpose, or is it okay as long as I don't mention some of the more extreme stuff in the query?

I'm just so afraid I'm going to be pigeonholed as an "indie horror writer" only and never get any traction with anything else...kinda how Wes Craven never got to do nearly as many romances as he wanted to because he was known as a "horror guy."
 
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Aggy B.

Aggy B.

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Pen names are a good way to distinguish between very different genres. And, while most agents are probably not going to care too much about the *content* of the other stuff you write, they might be concerned about the fact that it could turn off readers if the different genres aren't kept separate. The other concern might be if those things have very small sales numbers, an agent might wonder if you just aren't going to be saleable.

You don't need to mention anything in the query except the manuscript you are querying and whatever writing credits you think will support that work. (I.E. a fiction work needs fiction sales, preferably in a similar genre to really be worth mentioning.) The rest you can bring up when you get to talk to an agent and discuss how they would want to handle the diversity of content you have written.

(If you want to query under a pen name it's usually recommended to sign the query as "<Real Name> Writing As Bob Schenectady" because an agent will need to know your real name at some point, and not sharing it at first can lead some folks to dig deeper thinking you are hiding something important that could possibly make them not want to rep you. Honesty is best because this is a business relationship.)

Best of luck. :)
 
Treehouseman

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I know a few self-pubbed writers in the same conundrum. The author name is also a "BRAND" just as much as the cover or genre.

Agents won't care about weirdo stuff - it just means you can write in a broad range. But Readers Who Google are the issue here.

If your readers are going to overlap, no problem. (ie: horror vs dark contemporary). But if you are serious about building the DJhatecraft brand as a literary writer, you might have consider a pen-name, even if it is an open secret. (ie: if one gets a book by "Nora Roberts" you are looking for a certain kind of romance, and a book by "JD Robb" is crime, even though it's known that both are the same person. )
 
Sheryl Nantus

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Agents WILL Google your name.

Upfront honesty is the best way to go. Because they WILL find out everything about you and then it'll be rather awkward, to say the least.

Think of it this way - this is a relationship you're getting into with an agent. They're going to naturally want to know everything about you, what you write and what you've previously done. They're investing their time and work into making you successful. Why wouldn't they seek out everything about you?

And yes, that includes Twitter posts, blog rants and FB entries. They're going to research and learn everything you've said and done online, so put your best foot forward and get there first.
 
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