So after submitting my book to Aethon and reading more emails from WD, I started thinking about Agents.
Do I need one?
To answer that, I needed to evaluate myself. What are my goals? - To allow my friends and family to enjoy the world within the pages of my manuscript. A small publisher would accomplish that. Heck, even self-publishing would do that. But I haven't self published yet because though that is my primary goal, the final goal, is even higher. I want to be formally published. Which is why I submitted to Baen. But what if they say no? And what if Aethon says no? Do I go ahead and publish via Amazon?
No. My desire to be published doesn't allow me to quit after a few tries. Especially when I know there is a whole other realm I hadn't even touched yet that could help me get published. And that's Agents.
So, I did some research. What makes a good agent? From what I could find, thanks to SFWA, there were several key points that a good literary agency has.
- Excellent sales track record - Do they have any NY Bestsellers?
- Members of AAR - Association of Authors Representative
- No fees - They will take a commission after the book is published
- Interests match - Do they represent books in the same genre as yours?
With this knowledge in mind, I started digging and found AgentQuery and began my search. Taking notes, writing names, analyzing their reputation, tracking them on QueryTracking, etc, I have made my list of the potential agents I want to pursue. Most agents will get back to the author within a few weeks, if they liked the manuscript, so I've sent off two query letters for now and started another waiting game. *fingers crossed!*
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