Query letters are a waste of time

Alternatively, you could list your manuscript on e-Bay.

Let us know how it works out.

Oh my Zeus! Those are great! What have I been doing wasting my time these past weeks

*closes agentquery.com - goes to ebay*

I can not believe it! When I think of the countless rejections I could have avoided, I could just kick myself or worse.

Oh my.

*dusts off old manuscripts*

*runs over to eBay*

Who's Craig?

That ad is just all sorts of wrong.

I am a self-published author

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Why would an agent want such a book, unless it did really well?

seeking industry representation from a literary agent. I am looking for someone who has experience distributing/selling children's literary works.

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Distributing? And "children's literary works" makes me think of material written by children, instead of for children, though in this case I may not be wrong.

This offer is open to experience agents only.

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Nuff said.

Queen, you beat me to it in posting that "experience agents" line.

But hey, can you imagine the excitement of getting multiple responses from all those experience agents and being the one to be able to do the rejecting? 'Cause I'm sure they're going to come out of the woodwork to represent this person's work.

I'll bet PA trolls Craig's list looking for the potential greats...

Nah. I bet even those agents and publishers that are truly scams don't go looking for manuscripts. Why would they? That's an unnecessary expense of time and energy. Why expend the effort when more than enough uninformed individuals come on their own?

Before this thread devolves into poking too much fun at individuals who are uninformed about the industry, why don't we shift the discussion a bit and talk about WHY these methods are bad ideas. What other plans or methods of attracting agents and publishers have you heard about that you know won't work? Why won't they work? What's wrong with some of these innovative and unique plans?

Basically, I think anything that makes the agent come looking for you is a bad idea. They have writers beating down their doors trying to get in. They don't have to hunt for you. All those sites that let you post your ms, just aren't likely to get a response from legitimate agents.

The reason why putting your stuff out there and expecting an agent to snap it up, be it on Ebay, Craigslist, a content site, or whatever, is simple. Agents, like publishers, get too many enough submissions across the transom. They have no need to go looking, and really no time, because they've got an officefull already. They're even less likely to look at those sources because people who use them tend to be uninformed about the publishing business. If they don't educate themselves on that, what are the chances that they've educated themselves on the fundamentals of creating a truly marketable manuscipt?

Though I just read about someone who built up a following for his book by podcasting it, and then landed a publisher...I don't recall the details, but I'm sure someone here knows.

inkkognito said:

The reason why putting your stuff out there and expecting an agent to snap it up, be it on Ebay, Craigslist, a content site, or whatever, is simple. Agents, like publishers, get too many enough submissions across the transom. They have no need to go looking, and really no time, because they've got an officefull already. They're even less likely to look at those sources because people who use them tend to be uninformed about the publishing business. If they don't educate themselves on that, what are the chances that they've educated themselves on the fundamentals of creating a truly marketable manuscipt?

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I met an author recently who claimed to have been 'spotted' on some uploading site, somewhere you post excerpts for the professionals to go look at. It sounded a bit odd at the time for precisely those reasons - if I were an agent and had to wade through slush piles all day, last thing I'd do would be to go browsing those sites when I finish doing that. Far as I understood it, most agents spend most of their time dealing with their existing clients, right? So why go looking for more unless they were really stuck? In which case, you'd think those queries that had been sent with at least some consideration of the agency's guidelines or research as to the agency's preferences would be more likely. I don't know though, never tried anything beyond a query letter and sample myself...

I actually found it funny that with the e-bay one, you weren't bidding on the book, but only the first chapter of the book.

Uh yeah, okay. Buh-bye.

The eBay one kind of creeped me out... it sounded perilously close to some items in their "prohibited" section.

This particular eBay one is a bit creepier than most, because of the material. I almost didn't post the link to it. However, ever since I discovered that people do attempt to sell their manuscripts on eBay, I occasionally (we're talking once every three to six months) do go over there and search for "manuscripts" in their book section. While the majority of the listings are for rare manuscripts, invariably someone is attempting to auction off their completed manuscript to publishers, agents, and other writers. There's only been once or twice I've gone over there in a slow moment and not been able to find someone auctioning a manuscript by a wannabe writer. The stipulations they place on who may bid, the rights offered, and even the descriptions of the manuscript are very telling.

Too funny! There's one person who commented on Nathan Bransford's myspace, telling him she has her work on her myspace in hopes that an agent will "happen" upon it and offer representation.

And yeah, Birol, that ebay manuscript offering is absolutely bizarre. Who would buy a book chapter by chapter? And the subject matter... *shudder*

Keyan said:

Though I just read about someone who built up a following for his book by podcasting it, and then landed a publisher...I don't recall the details, but I'm sure someone here knows.

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Scott Sigler. He was interviewed on NPR and various other places.

Yep, it's an interesting story, and of the hundreds of people doing podcast books, he's the only one who's landed a deal so far. He's done a series of podcasts, marketed himself on sites like PodShow.com and on the horror boards, and put a lot of effort into the work. I applaud him and his initiative. The one podcast I listened to sounded pretty good in terms of the writing--Sigler's a good reader, too, which helped put the material across.

Meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands of other people have gotten book contracts by writing query letters and sending sample chapters to agents. Maybe I'm lazy, but I like that approach better

How about a combo deal: a computer for sale which happens to have an unpublished ms on it. That might sell.

What I want to know is this.

If I hire an experience agent, does that mean someone else gets to go through all the horrible crap I want to avoid?

Such as: Divorce, alimony, auditing, PA...

anis said:

How about a combo deal: a computer for sale which happens to have an unpublished ms on it. That might sell.

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As long as your friends and family members say the manuscript is OMG the best ever, then you've got yourself a sale!