Would you query an agent who sounds like a good fit for your current book, but ... read on please

Mmm, probably not. Especially if you plan to write more than one high fantasy. There are plenty of other agents out there--good luck!

goddessofgliese said:

Would you query an agent who may be a good fit for your current book, but not for your future projects? She stated no high fantasy, but the next series I plan to work on is high fantasy.

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That's probably not where I'd start, no.

So I'm in a similar position in that I write both MG and YA. Some agents do both and some do only one of the two. My first strategy is to query the ones who do both. If I sign with an MG-only agent, I'll have to either get an additional agent for YA works or leave my first agent and sign with another who does YA. I'd like to try to stay with one agent for as much of my career as possible, provided we get along. If I can't manage that, I would likely next target agents who do what I'm currently trying to peddle but work in an agency with good agents who do the thing I'm eventually going to want to do. I've seen authors move from one agent to another within the agency when the first agent didn't have experience with the current project's market. That seems less traumatic to me. Last option, I guess, would be to just query the book with whomever seems like a good fit, and then when we have "the talk" let them know about future projects with the understanding that this representation would be for this book only and I'd query the YA elsewhere if they didn't feel like they could rep it or want to refer me in house. Although, I have seen agents rep things they wouldn't normally rep for their already successful, long-term clients. *shrugs*

Yes, I would.

When I had 'the call' with my agents, we talked about future projects. They were very clear that if I wrote a book they didn't think they could sell, they would encourage me to find another agent for it and it wouldn't damage my relationship with them. Plenty of authors have multiple agents for different genres; it's not unusual.

The worst that could happen is the agent doesn't offer you rep because she wants authors she can work on multiple books with. But that leaves you in the same position as you are now, not a worse position. And the more likely scenario is that, if she loves the book enough to offer rep, this won't put her off.

Yes, I would. I may not put them at the top of my list for querying, but I wouldn't discount them. Things could change. Right now, you plan to work on X, but what if you don't? What if you end up writing another book in the same genre you're pitching now?

I wouldn't let my future maybes affect my current reality. What's the worst that would happen? If the agent decides to rep this book, but not your next, you'll have to start agent shopping again.

Nope.

A former agent asked if I had any other projects apart form the contemporary I was working on.

"I have a heap of fantasy/science fiction."

Needless to say, she wasn't interested. Make sure your first book is in a genre you like, because its unlikely you'll be able to pitch another genre for a while. Most publishing contracts are for 2 books, and if they're successful, they'll want more like them!

Yes, I would, but if she does offer, ask her how she handles clients who write subsequent books in genres she doesn't rep. Some agents will be happy to recommend you to their colleagues or to agents they know, so I don't see a problem here...unless being repped by multiple agents sounds like a nightmare to you. I would be okay with it, but it's subjective.

goddessofgliese said:

Would you query an agent who may be a good fit for your current book, but not for your future projects? She stated no high fantasy, but the next series I plan to work on is high fantasy.

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I would query, but it might be a relevant question to bring up in the event of discussion of rep. As others have mentioned, it's possible to have more than one agent.

(IOW, what the Hippo said.)

Authors often time have different agents for different genre's they write because of what you stated. Not all agents represent all genre's. I would also question what the agents version of high fantasy is vs. your version of high fantasy. No all high fantasy is high fantasy....

goddessofgliese said:

Would you query an agent who may be a good fit for your current book, but not for your future projects? She stated no high fantasy, but the next series I plan to work on is high fantasy.

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Nope. It's one thing if an agent has favorite genres and you think you might sometime write something other than one of those favorites, and a different thing if they don't rep something you want to write.

FREX: My agent doesn't rep much horror because his contacts in that genre are not as strong as the other genres he reps. When I wrote a trilogy of Southern Gothic/Horror novellas he offered to help however I needed, but encouraged me to take the lead (also because novellas are a different thing than novels) because, after talking he felt like I had a better idea of where to send the query on the project.

But if an agent says "I don't want X" they will not be a good fit for you. It could be it's not a genre they read or like. It could be a genre they have no contacts for. But if they are explicitly saying "Don't send this" it's unlikely they would change their mind later just because they had repped something else for you.

Some agents will refer clients with material they don't represent to another agent at the same agency. Sometimes you can get a second agent at a different agency for a different genre, but that's tricky, especially if they are at all related. (Urban Fantasy and High Fantasy, for instance, where there might be some overlap between editors/publishers being queried.) And it can potentially require a lot of work on the part of the author to make certain that both agents are co-ordinated enough when it comes to publishing different books within the same time frame. (Doesn't mean it can't be done, because folks do it. Just that it's not what I would consider ideal.)

Good advice on all points. For me, I'd avoid querying an agent if the agent had hard limits on some of the genres/themes I'm planning to write. Especially if I plan on writing a higher percentage of those things. Such as certain types of erotic romance (maybe they don't rep LGBTQ stuff) or fantasy (they only want contemporary urban fantasy, not high fantasy secondary world). If it's not their cuppa, they won't be the most effective representative for it.