Planning to break the rules

RemusShepherd · Nov 28, 2012

I am beginning to realize that I will never become traditionally published by following the traditional rules: Research agents to find one that suits you, query them and get accepted, then let them find you a publisher.

I have a spreadsheet of 99 literary agents who accept science fiction from new authors. I have performed diligent research on about 20 of them, the top in their field, the ones who represent authors that I admire. They've all rejected at least one of my finished novels. Of course they would; they're the top in their field. Landing any of those agents would be rarer than winning the lottery.

Therefore I should be sending out to my second-choice list of agents. But how?

I cannot do diligent research on all these agents. It took me a year to get 20 done -- to compile a list of their clients and their sales records, to vet them on P&E and AbWrite, and to send queries to them. I don't think research would be helpful anyhow, as the second-choice agents represent authors that are unknown to me. No matter what I do I'm going to have to send queries to agents about which I know nothing, which breaks one of the traditional rules.

If I'm going to break the rules, might as well break them big. If I'm going to send out blind queries to some agents...perhaps I ought to just hit them all.

Alternate routes to traditional publishing include getting a friend to refer me to their agent (I wouldn't ask for this, and some of the authors I know have agents that I don't want), getting a publishing contract first (even harder than landing an agent), or schmoozing agents at a convention (this is possible, although I'm not good at schmoozing nor do I normally attend the right kind of conventions).

So I think I'm about to send out 79 carbon-copy queries.

Anyone want to talk me down from this course of action?

waylander · Nov 28, 2012

I'm not going to talk you out of it, I think it is the correct thing to do. One of these agents may be right for you.

neilfriske · Nov 28, 2012

it took you a year to research 20 agents?

shadowwalker · Nov 28, 2012

neilfriske said:
it took you a year to research 20 agents?

That was my first thought.

Either you're going into way too much detail in your research or you've been researching, querying, getting rejected, then researching the next one. At any rate, I'd say your research method is what needs looking at before going any further - including what constitutes your hierarchy of choice.

Terie · Nov 28, 2012

neilfriske said:
it took you a year to research 20 agents?

QFT. It took me about three or four hours to compile my top 35 list.

Also? Very few (if any) authors represented by top agents have won the lottery. It's the quality of your work, not the luck of the draw, that gets you an agent.

wampuscat · Nov 28, 2012

My biggest issue with 79 carbon-copy queries is whether you have that much confidence in your query letter. Sending in smaller batches allows for improvement if the letter is not doing well. But I'm a newbie at querying and paranoid.

I also questioned why it took a so long to research 20 agents. Have you tried QueryTracker or AgentQuery? Perhaps there's a middle ground between heavily researched and blind? Just a thought. Good luck!

gell214 · Nov 28, 2012

Self publishing? Have you given it a thought? Or is it not your thing?

colealpaugh · Nov 28, 2012

neilfriske said:
it took you a year to research 20 agents?

And maybe five - or maybe even all 20 - happened to be too busy or have a full list and R'd with four seconds of effort.

To the OP, due diligence is one thing, but that seems to be exposing yourself to a tremendous amount of wasted time. For me, agent Christopher Schelling spoke the most compelling words ever: "Once I realized that being a bossy, opinionated talkaholic with a desire to protect creative types was a profession, I was set." That's my sole criteria for a great agent to query.

Good luck!

Polenth · Nov 28, 2012

You're making a binary out of something that isn't. You don't have to spend a year researching each one or nothing. Most people do something between those extremes. A basic read of their thread on AW and their sales on PW doesn't take long. Nor does sending the emails individually, so that their name in in the 'Dear X' part.

JSSchley · Nov 28, 2012

Agreed, the problem is the due dilligence process here. Agents can be something you're researching all the time. If I'm on twitter and see a cool contest on a blog, and then I click through to the hosting agent's website and like what I see, I add him/her to my spreadsheet with a note reminding myself where I came across the info and what my initial impressions were, e.g. "Agent X judged contest on Y blog, is interested in YA with boy protags."

It takes 2 minutes to do that, and I was already browsing the web...

Mr Flibble · Nov 28, 2012

Polenth said:
A basic read of their thread on AW and their sales on PW doesn't take long.

What I was going to suggest, along with P&E and perhaps a quick perusal of any blogs/interviews to see if they are particularly after or against certain things being subbed (ie if they hate vamps, no point sending them a vamp story. Or if they LOVE vamps, and you have a vamp story....).

Also note not all agents report to PW or are on agent query/query tracker (mine isn't, though he does have a thread here so I could check him out - also he reps a fellow AWer, who I PM'd).

mayqueen · Nov 28, 2012

I'm also curious about your research process. I use P&E and BR&BCs, and then I look at query tracker type websites, the agent's website, blog, or twitter, and a client list. I think it's important to know that the agent is legitimate and basically what they represent. But you don't need to, for example, read every author on their list.

Cyia · Nov 28, 2012

I think you're over-thinking the idea of "research."

Plug your genre into the search engine at Query Tracker, save the list it generates and choose 20 names. If they're not on the P&E not recommended list and have sales to their name, query away. If you have specific agents on your "dream" list, then start with those.

Research done.

RemusShepherd · Nov 28, 2012

shadowwalker said:
That was my first thought.

Either you're going into way too much detail in your research or you've been researching, querying, getting rejected, then researching the next one.

Something like this. Research 20, send them out in batches of 4 (or one at a time if the agent says they want exclusives), then waiting for the batch to come back rejected (or not come back at all). By the time I went through the list of agents for one book, the list was obsolete and I had to do it again for the next book.

At any rate, I'd say your research method is what needs looking at before going any further - including what constitutes your hierarchy of choice.

It's not that detailed. I look for their clients, proof that they have sold to one of the top six publishers, check that they aren't on any scam lists, etc. It's sending them in small batches, then waiting after each batch, that takes the longest time.

RemusShepherd · Nov 28, 2012

gell214 said:
Self publishing? Have you given it a thought? Or is it not your thing?

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not my thing. I could give you reasons if you want to hear them, but at this moment in time it's just not an option.

RemusShepherd · Nov 28, 2012

mayqueen said:
I'm also curious about your research process.

I got my big list of 99 agents from QueryTracker. That's every agent that accepts unsolicited subs from new authors and who represents science fiction.

I then check AbWrite and P&E to make sure they're not listed as scam agents.

I then do some googling to see who their clients are. If I haven't heard of the clients then I google what kinds of books they're writing, so I can tell if my stuff is a good fit.

I then dig into back issues of Locus -- a magazine that reports deals in sci fi and fantasy -- and see if the agent has verified sales to one of the big six publishers.

If the agent has passed all those tests then I put them on my priority list, and I have to check their websites to make sure the information on QueryTracker was correct (it often isn't) and to get their submission guidelines.

I've been submitting two novels in earnest for the last four years, and in that time I've sent out 20 queries to agents. (Another 6 or 8 to publishers, if I recall.)

That's too slow, and I'm looking to speed up my submission process. In order to do that I have to break the rules; either less research, bigger batches, and/or skip any agent who wants exclusives.

Little Ming · Nov 28, 2012

RemusShepherd said:
That's too slow, and I'm looking to speed up my submission process. In order to do that I have to break the rules; either less research, bigger batches, and/or skip any agent who wants exclusives.

I don't think that's breaking any "rules," just changing your submission process. And as you can tell from this thread and others, everyone has a different process.

But I want to ask, are you running into a lot of agents who want exclusives on queries?

blueobsidian · Nov 28, 2012

RemusShepherd said:
Something like this. Research 20, send them out in batches of 4 (or one at a time if the agent says they want exclusives), then waiting for the batch to come back rejected (or not come back at all). By the time I went through the list of agents for one book, the list was obsolete and I had to do it again for the next book.

How long are you waiting for them to come back before sending the next batch? Why not just continue researching (with reasonable time limits) but send a batch of four every week or two?

Captcha · Nov 28, 2012

I vote for streamlining your research, but also for clarifying what the agents mean by exclusives. Often they expect exclusives if they've requested the entire novel to review, but I don't know of many (any?) who ask for it at the initial query stage.

It's been a while since I looked at agents so maybe that's changed, but it's something to look into.

mayqueen · Nov 28, 2012

RemusShepherd said:
Something like this. Research 20, send them out in batches of 4 (or one at a time if the agent says they want exclusives), then waiting for the batch to come back rejected (or not come back at all). By the time I went through the list of agents for one book, the list was obsolete and I had to do it again for the next book.

Ah okay. I think maybe don't wait for them to come back so long. I'd recommend sending out a batch every week or other week or so. But it's not a rule, really. It's just a suggestion for spending up your querying.

victoriastrauss · Nov 28, 2012

RemusShepherd said:
I got my big list of 99 agents from QueryTracker. That's every agent that accepts unsolicited subs from new authors and who represents science fiction.

That's every agent on QueryTracker, which may not be every agent. It's always a good idea to use more than one source for agent-hunting, since not all sources are going to include all agents.

It's good you're looking at Locus. There's a lot of information there on who's selling what to whom in the SF/fantasy field. There's also these handy spreadsheets of Locus-reported sales. Info only goes up to 2010, but most of the agents are likely still in business.

When researching client lists (which should be readily available on an agent's website) don't look for authors you recognize. Look for publishers you'd like to be published by.

I wouldn't send out 79 queries at once, but I would send out more than 4 at a time, and I wouldn't wait for one batch to all come back before sending out the next. Do waves of 8-10 submissions at 2-3 week intervals.

Agents will often waive exclusives if you ask.

- Victoria

ARoyce · Nov 28, 2012

I agree about shortening your wait for responses.

When I queried, I did so in batches of five--but I sent out a batch a week, regardless of responses. Some agents responded within hours, others within a month, some longer, and some were no response=no. But I didn't wait for all responses from a batch.

I started with research, but even then, I basically made sure the agents represented my genre and had clients who were published and continuing to sell. And I personalized every query...if only with couple of sentences.

While some of this may depend on how much time you have in your day to devote to the process, I would say my process of querying approx. 40 agents took me 3-5 months, including research of agents. So it sounds like you could tighten your process without " breaking rules."

quicklime · Nov 28, 2012

remus, refresh my memory; has the query gone through QLH?

Your experience/thoughts? Rationale for these and changes you did or did not make?

How many partials did you get?

Snowstorm · Nov 28, 2012

Quicklime beat me to it: have you had your query eviscerated in Query Letter Hell? If you haven't, I'd strongly recommend you do that.

Plus, I'll join the others in that you can review their information on the agent's Web site, review them in AW (as you're doing) and a couple other sites recommended by others. Best of luck.

RemusShepherd · Nov 28, 2012

Little Ming said:
But I want to ask, are you running into a lot of agents who want exclusives on queries?

Of the 20 first-choice agents, four of them said they want exclusives in their submission guidelines. But they're the top of the field, hopefully exclusives are rarer in my second-choice list.

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