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Hi, Jim! I'm glad to see you're keeping up the Uncle Jim thread.
I have a question, and forgive me if this is inappropriate:
I'm near to finishing my first novel. It's a science-fiction novel (is there some other kind?). Pretty soon it'll be ready for the first readers to look over, and a few months after that, it'll be ready to submit to publishers.
Now what?
I've seen so much bad advice online on how to get published that I don't know what to do next.
Do I need an agent? If so, how do I find a good one?
Thanks!
Mitch, I'm not Uncle Jim, but I just did this (omg) two years ago. Here's what I did:
First, start working on a query letter now. Write and revise it, then put it away for 2-3 weeks, then revise it again. Get some friends to look it over. I revised maybe six times.
Then, go to agentquery.com and make a preliminary list of agents who handle work like yours and are open to new writers. Double check the guidelines listed there with the agents' own websites--obviously, the agent's sites should be the final authority. Then go to Google and enter "[agent's name]" Interview. Review their personal preferences; if the agent hates cannibalism or cat-girls or Randian MilSF and that's what you've written, scratch them off your list.
You'll also need to create a synopsis. They ask for different ones, but I only did a two-pager, and it didn't seem to hurt me.
Yeah, this takes a long time, but you want to query widely and carefully, and your efforts will be rewarded (provided you've written a book they want).
Good luck, man.