Rhush said:
My friend, who is a published author, told me that I might consider sending my work out to publishers rather than agents. I write in the fantasy genre. I'm not certain if that makes any differance, but I've heard that sometimes it's not too important for first time fantasy writers to have an agent.
I've heard this said too, and I disagree, at least if you want to approach any of the major SF/fantasy imprints such as Tor, Aspect, or Del Rey. At least some of these imprints specifically exclude unagented submissions, and those that accept them often take an incredibly long time to respond. I've heard from people who've been waiting a year, two years, or even more to hear back from Tor or Baen.
Bear in mind also that even imprints that accept unagented mss. put them at the bottom of the priority list (in other words, an author with a good agent, even if he's a new author, is always going to be ahead of you), and the person who eventually takes a look at your submission is more likely to be an intern or an assistant than an actual editor.
Manuscripts do get plucked from the slush pile--editors love to tell stories about this, to show that the odds can be defied. But if you ask them about the last time they bought an unagented ms., they may not be able to remember. The majority of new authors who find publication these days do so through agents. (Good agents, that is. There are plenty of bad ones. One of those is worse than no agent at all.)
I've also heard that you have to be careful if you submit to publishers because if you do, later on... if you ever do get an agent, then your rejections before representation can hurt your chances.
It's not rejection per se that's an issue (EVERYONE gets rejected; even well-published authors get rejection slips), but the fact that a publisher that has rejected a manuscript isn't eager to see that particular ms. again. So if you're looking for an agent for your fantasy novel but it has already been turned down by Tor, Baen, and Roc, you've just closed off nearly half the available market, which makes you much less desirable to an agent.
You can sometimes get round this by retitling a manuscript--if you submitted on your own the submission probably got minimal attention anyway. And of course if you're trying with a new work, you're starting from scratch and don't have to worry about previous rejections.
- Victoria