I now officially have an agent!

Just had to share.

First off, I finished the book, and made sure it was the best possible example of my work. This wasn’t easy. I had to swallow ideas that I had about my writing and writing in general. Basically, I had to hate the work enough to be willing to see its flaws. A good crit group helped as well.

I started out with buying a copy of The Guide to Literary Agents. It's by Writers Digest Books. I also subscribed to their web site so I was aware of changes and new openings. I used Google search for literary agents, and I paid for a subscription to a couple of different publishing industry news letters and web sites.

I crafted a careful query. I followed industry guidelines and then refined by looking at agent web sites and writing for guidelines before I subbed. Some say they are open to new authors.

In truth, it’s hit and miss. I sent out 67 queries on this novel. About 40 were straight up rejections---some form letters and a lot of personal comments, both good and bad. The other 27 were requests for further material. At first I sent the partials and synops-----

Sadly, I learned quickly that even reputable publishers like WD have agents listed that are scam artists. We loved your book but it could be better if you paid us to edit it for you----blah blah. We charge a reading fee of------ Due to the number of submissions we receive we need xxx to hire a new agent to read subs----- ON and on they went.

Pretty soon I figured out that I needed to research each agent that asked for a partial. I used Google and put in each agents names. I was surprised at the number of complaints I found. I ended up turning down some base don what I found out.

Then I humbled and did the research before I sent anything. I looked over client lists. If they were not willing to share a client list—I ran the other way. I contacted a client or two and asked what the agency was like.

The agent I now have I found in Publishers Market Place. They rep some big name authors, Leonard Nimoy and John DeLanci are two of them. I found an author among them who writes in a similar genre that I do and I looked over their query page carefully and made my letter as close to possible to their guidelines.

Ask questions, do you get a report regularly? Are they a member of the AAR? And check them out. I did contact a client and we e-mailed a few times.

Above all be professional and persistent. It took 12 rewrites, and 67 queries to find this one.

There are some basic things not to do in a query and some to do’s. The agent book I mentioned can help you with those.

Good luck with your search.