Is it harder for people from another country to get an US agent?

EMaree

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This is interesting, I had never considered sending submissions to agents outside my country. I have a question, though. My novel is naturally written using British spelling and conventions. If I was to submit my work to an American agent, would it be advisable to change it to US spellings and formatting first?

In my experience, agents don't mind and it's not worth the time and effort to change. Switching from British to American English is something English speakers tend to *think* is incredibly easy, but in reality there's a lot of tiny subtleties and quirks that even the most attentive writer will miss. I think it's better to write in your own English rather than try to imitate American English and risk tripping up an agent with an obvious-to-them mistake.

The BrE/AmE change can be done later by professional copyeditors at a publishing house, who are skilled professionals at localisation. There's no need for a writer to take that extra burden upon themselves when AmE agents don't mind reading BrE, and vice versa.
 
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Adirahalcyon

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I'm worried for that because I'm writing everything in English. My thoughts, my prayers, my writings are all in English even though my native language is Greek. I'm thinking what problems I would come across if I ever wanted to publish. But it's a very interesting question which does make me wonder.
 

The JoJo

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In my experience, agents don't mind and it's not worth the time and effort to change. Switching from British to American English is something English speakers tend to *think* is incredibly easy, but in reality there's a lot of tiny subtleties and quirks that even the most attentive writer will miss. I think it's better to write in your own English rather than try to imitate American English and risk tripping up an agent with an obvious-to-them mistake.

The BrE/AmE change can be done later by professional copyeditors at a publishing house, who are skilled professionals at localisation. There's no need for a writer to take that extra burden upon themselves when AmE agents don't mind reading BrE, and vice versa.

Thank you, that helps a lot. Yeah, a friend of mine very kindly offered to go through my work as an editor, and managed to find a couple of 'Americanisms' I had unknowingly slipped in :-D
 

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This interests me as well. I'm a native English speaker, (Canadian) but I've grown up with both Brits and Americans, so my English is a mixture at the best of times, and spell-checkers don't catch all the subtle nuances.
 

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It's not impossible, but some agents aren't a fan. Trying to pay you when you don't have a bank account in America is a pain in their ass haha.
 
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It's not impossible, but some agents aren't a fan. Trying to pay you when you don't have a bank account in America is a pain in their ass haha.

Agents are used to dealing with money from all over the world. They get paid by publishers everywhere, they deal with sub agents in other countries, and with authors who move houses, countries and continents. They have finance departments full of staff who know what they're doing. It's no big deal.
 
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Madzianta

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No, it's not advisable - many agents mention that it doesn't make a difference. They will change spelling during the editing proces.
 

Madzianta

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This is interesting, I had never considered sending submissions to agents outside my country. I have a question, though. My novel is naturally written using British spelling and conventions. If I was to submit my work to an American agent, would it be advisable to change it to US spellings and formatting first?
No, it's not advisable - many agents mention that it doesn't make a difference. They will change spelling during the editing proces.
 
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SWoodham

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I'm Portuguese, writing in English. As I queried around for my YA speculative, one particular agent mentioned that he found it odd that I was from Portugal because my English was nearly flawless. I never told him that I was Portuguese, so he found that out himself. When I told him I got rejected often, he also found it weird, because, as he said, my writing was good and my main character was great. Same for the main concept.

My point is... do you think it's harder to land an agent outside of your country (in Portugal, there's no such thing as a literary agent)? Am I getting tons of rejections from US agents because I'm not from there? Is it a handicap to be from a small country where English is not the first language?

I'm not saying I got so many rejections because I'm Portuguese. Perhaps it's my novel that's not anyone's cup of tea, but I was wandering... Could my nationality be impacting the agents' opinions?

Have you tried London agents if you write in English? They might be used to the European markets more.
 

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It's so reassuring to hear most agents don't seem to mind! I've been torn between contacting more local agents versus those abroad; I grew up in the US and my writing is intrinsically influenced by my childhood there, but I've recently moved to Ireland. I wasn't sure if it was better to stay within my new home or reach out to agents in a country where I think my work would resonate more, but I feel much better about searching internationally now!
 

Mevrouw Bee

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It's so reassuring to hear most agents don't seem to mind! I've been torn between contacting more local agents versus those abroad; I grew up in the US and my writing is intrinsically influenced by my childhood there, but I've recently moved to Ireland. I wasn't sure if it was better to stay within my new home or reach out to agents in a country where I think my work would resonate more, but I feel much better about searching internationally now!
I'm Canadian by birth, Dutch by marriage. Thank glob I'm not limited to my own country as too many agencies are "a no from one is a no from all" which would limit me to querying less than ten Canadian agents!

And, although I've found a couple of Dutch agencies, the focus is obviously on Dutch-language literature, not English.

My permanent address is in Rotterdam, but I've been in Canada three years taking care of my ailing parents who have both since passed and I'm heading home next month. In the meantime, I've queried Canadian, American AND UK agents. I like the idea of having an agent a short train ride away rather than across the ocean (and at least 5 hours behind in time zones) but beggars can't be choosers, eh?

The only agents that tend to limit submissions by geography tend to be UK ones so I would double-check submission guidelines on their websites. Some agencies won't take queries from outside the UK...one said I had to have a good reason to query them if I wasn't living there--and good reasons didn't include a UK setting or UK citizenship. When I queried them I explained that I'm an English writer in a non-English country, but not sure that's good enough.

North American agencies don't tend to care about residency, just the query package.
 
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