Sunday, February 25, 2007

the hunt is on!

The hunt for an agent has begun! I've spent a couple of hours on the internet tonight looking at the websites of Little Black Dress authors and a few other authors whose books I love reading looking for the names of their agents. Names found, I visited the agents websites and have been printing pages and taking notes. So far I have a list of seven agents, which is a good starting point.

But I have so many questions!

The first question...
Is it OK to submit to more than one agent at a time? Most of them seem to suggest that they won't read your query/proposal/first 10 pages if you've sent it to more than one agent at a time. Some say they'll get back to you in seven days/two weeks/eight weeks. If I was to send my query/proposal/first 10 pages to one agent at a time this could take a while!

The second question...
Do I mention this ms is with a publisher? I sent the first seven chapters into a publisher after a brief email conversation with an editor in September.

The third question...
Do I mention the ideas I have for other mss or that I have already completed a few other mss?

I'm sure I have other questions but that's enough for now!

5 comments:

Phillipa said...

Monica - I don't know what to advise on this for fairly obvious reasons but I would say that your book has to click with the agent and that's such a subjective thing. Multiple subs are meant to be a no-no but then again, we live in the real world. That's no help is it?

Sara Hantz said...

Are you searching for a UK or US agent because they do operate differently.

Monica said...

Pip - it "is" a help! I shall endeavour to remember your comment about subjectivity when I'm receiving rejection letters from agents (because, realistically, I'm not going to find one straight away) because I know I tend to take things personally and I know I shouldn't always.

Monica said...

Sara - I have six on my list at the moment and three are UK and three are US. I came up with the list based on authors that I like to read. Should I be looking at US or UK instead depending on where the publishers I'm aiming for are based?

Sara Hantz said...

Having a US agent doesn't prohibit you from selling in the UK - but they charge you 20% because it's sold as a foreign sale. The reason I ask, is becasue in the US it's expected that you query as many as you so wish at any one time. A lot of people do it in multiples of 10. When I've queried I've selected the ones on my list who accept emails first. with a view to sending snail queries, if necessary. Luckily it didn't come to that either time.