Most approaches were made by letter via publishers, but figured a few e-contacts wouldn't hurt.

I now have that info and can leave.

I've hung around a little and replied to some threads, met some interesting people, and felt a certain nice spirit in this place. It's nice, I like it - but my time is short. Got lots of important submissions to make, new novel in the making, short stories to work on, and a website to maintain. Oh, yes - and my young family.

So I may not be able to remain much longer.

As a potentially parting gesture, I'm cross posting a new resource from my own Forum here - some good links about agents, publishers, and the submissions process.

All I can say now is that it was nice to have met you all.

Do have fun - seriously.

Brian Turner

Here are some links that aspiring authors may find especially useful when soliciting for an agent/ publisher -



PREEDITORS AND EDITORS -

A large and good reference point. Especially useful for researching potential agents to see whether they have been blacklisted or not. However, the list appears not to be updated, and is not exhaustive:

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/



ADVICE FROM PUBLISHED AUTHORS -

Mostly short excerpts, but some good comments in there. Especially check out comments from Anita Shreve and Jeffry Deaver:

http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/0101advice/0101advice.asp



ARTICLES AND AGENT/ EDITOR INTERVIEWS -

Informative set of articles from Fiction Factor, with agents especially having their brains picked. Highly recommend you visit here if you're looking to publish.

http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles.html



THE AGENT SITUATION -

Probably the best article I've found on the web regarding submitting to agents:

http://www.sandiego-online.com/entertainment/sdwm/sept99/nonfiction.stm



US AGENTS - RESOURCE

This has to be one of the best goldmine's I've found online for soliciting to US agents. The above link was from here, but there are a number of others worth checking out.

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~tjp4773/litagent.html



PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Latest news from the publishing world - often recommended, though I've not found myself able to subscribe. Maybe something to visit regurlarly, especially while soliciting:

http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?publication=publishers weekly

We're all in the same boat together. The only person I'm in competition with is myself.

-----

Here's the best link I've found so far for tracking down agencies dealing with sci-fi and fantasy:

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/browse.html

Click on the agency names in the list to check for genre specialiaties.

DO CHECK to see if any of the agencies you consider approaching have been blacklisted, though - such as through Preditors and Editors [link at top of first post].

[sorry - discovered after that you must click on the left hand link for agents]

One of the best sources that there is for sheer numbers of agents is WritersMarket.com. Always do a check though of any agency listed anywhere----there are just too many out there that want to feed off of you.

Shawn