A Californian in Scotland: US or UK agent?

lauralam

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Hello all,

I'm in the process of preparing to query my first novel. I grew up in California and moved to Scotland in 2009. My novel has been passed to the editors at Angry Robot and I'm waiting to hear back. So I currently live in the UK and the publisher I'm hoping to land with is British, though they publish in the US as well.

I plan to be in the UK for at least the next 5 years, but at some point I am considering moving back to California (especially considering this July I've been wearing my winter coat far more than is seemly).

So, my question: does it matter if I query UK or US-based agents? During my searches, I seem to have found better matches with US agents. I'm not sure how foreign rights would work and frankly, I'm confused.

Any advise is appreciated and thank you in advance.
 

Parametric

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Query both, is my advice. If a US agent sells to the US market, it's a home sale; if they sell your work outside their home market, it's a foreign sale. Where you live doesn't figure into that.
 

Becca_H

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I would say query the agents in the same country as your novel's nationality. A book set in the US and/or most appeals to a US audience would probably be better suited to a US agent.

There are also far more agents in the US compared to the UK, and a much bigger market as well.
 

lauralam

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My novel's sci fi, so it's in a made up psuedo-Victorian setting. I've no idea if it'd appeal more to a US or UK market.

Does anyone have any links for UK agents? I've found oodles for US-based ones on sites like query tracker, but I'm having a harder time finding good matches for UK ones. Some agents seem to have really good authors but don't have a website, which I find a bit bizarre.