Finding an Agent in a Haystack

I've finished a novel that I'm very proud of, titled "Beyond the Veil". I remember the night I put the finishing touches on it and closed the word document down for the last time (to write anyway). I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. I'm fairly certain my wife was excited too, but for a different reason. I'd spent so much time writing the book that she was feeling more than a little neglected. The next step should be easy, right?



Everyone knows that getting a novel published is no easy task. If it were easy, everyone would quit their job and stay home to write the next Great American Novel. Still, as an author new to novel length works, I had the illusion that I could just type "literary agents" into any old search engine and send my manuscript off to a dozen or so of the agents that would pop up. From there, I could just sit back and wait for a handful of rejections to get to the one that would take on my work and represent me to the publishing world. Attempting to do just that, I found the truth about getting published. Climbing every floor of the Empire State Building would be much easier and less time consuming!



The first thing you find out (if you do just a tidbit of research), is that there are quite a few sharks waiting for you out there. They look for aspiring authors, fresh to the waters of publishing, so they can snatch you up with promises of aggressive representation. That is, if it's professionally polished. That will require editing...which costs money. Even then, they might not take your work. Worse, they DO take your work, getting your hopes up that you're finally on the road to publication, only to never hear from them again. Of course, there are the ones that claim not to charge a reading fee, but hide that by charging other fees. Okay, so I found I had to do a little more leg work than I originally thought. I can still handle it. My work is worth it.



The next thing that jumps out at you is that many of the agents you first find may not represent work in your particular genre. That may not be such a big deal for someone writing a non-fiction story or a more mainstream fiction novel like a crime story. When your book deals with mysticism or fantasy, however, the list of prospective agents get's narrowed considerably. What's more, there are a million agents out there that deal only with romance novels. I'm a guy. Romance really isn't my thing. Now there's a little more leg work. My work's still worth it.



Then there is the time factor. Agents and publishers get inundated every day with people, like me, who believe their story really deserves to be read by the public. The more popular ones will receive thousands of queries each year. It takes time to get through all of those querries, and many will consult with fellow agents before requesting your entire manuscript. Good ones will also take the time to guage the market before making a decision on your work. The turnaround time on a simple query can be anywhere from a few weeks up to a year. I had anticipated that it might take a few months to get my book to publish, but I had no idea it would take that long just for an agent to get around to requesting my material!



The last great obstacle (that I know of so far), is writing the actual query letter. It seems that nearly every agent and/or publisher is looking for something different. One may want a letter only, while the next wants a letter plus the first chapter. Still another wants a cover letter, synopsis (separate from the letter) plus three chapters. What on earth is supposed to go in the letter? That's different too. One wants a tag line and synopsis with word count. Another wants all of that plus a bio of the author and still another wants the synopsis left out entirely, focusing solely on the tag line and bio. This is all well and good, but it does prevent me from writing and perfecting one great query letter and zipping it off to every agent I contact. Still more time must be spent on this project.



Once an agent takes on my work, then the fun really begins. My work will be shopped around yet again, to a whole new group of eyes. The agent will have to search for a reputable publishing company that will go the distance to market the material and pay fairly. They'll have to weed through the ones that don't want to deal with the fantasy genre and bypass the romance publishers. Who knows how long that can take? Is it really worth it?



Yes, it's worth it. In the end, I'm glad it takes this much work to get my novel out there. When it finally makes it into print, I'll know just how much a labor of love it was. As the old saying goes, "nothing worth having comes easy". I'll know that it was a cut above the rest. I'll know I've earned whatever I get, the good and the bad. In the end, I'll have learned some very valuable lessons about the novel writing business, and that's pricelss.

Here's to hoping that I find my agent in the haystack!

P.S. If you're an agent and happen to see this, my email address is......
Also, folks, take a look at the excerpt from my book on a previous post. Hope you enjoy it!