Agent Kristin from Pubrants had a link to this Galley Cat video about finding, and stalking agents. Hilarious!
The basics:
- find 10 books that are similar to what you have written and polished but aren't the same
- find the agents that repped the books
- stalk the agents... "find out everything you can about those agents without getting arrested" is the direct quote
It's not bad advice, although I probably will do my stalking from the safety and comfort of my study. I really don't need to know what the agent I'm querying had for lunch. I just need to know what they like, what their sense of humor is like, what editors they sell to regularly (gee.... which publishing house do their authors wind up with the most often?), and what they're looking for. That isn't hard to find if you Google the agent's name and do some digging.
I'll even go so far as to check the blogs or websites of the authors and see if any mention how bad their agent is (word to the wise- big NoNo - don't publicly bash anyone, it burns bridges) or if the authors say how fabulously attentive their agent is.
But I won't stop at a list of 10 agents. Batches of 10, maybe. But I'll query every agent I think might like my book. And I'll keep writing even if I get rejections. Writing isn't easy. Publishing isn't easier than writing. This isn't a game for the faint of heart. But it's fun :o)
Sounds like you're taking the advice in the spirit in which it was meant. I think research first and thoughtful targeting is always important, but I also know that some people can get a little crazy with it.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how slow this industry is, it's important to not let agent research chew up all the business management time, either. Do some careful hunting, then get the queries out.
I'm almost there too!
ReplyDeleteI actually have a list of agents I want to query, and DoJ is close to being a line-edit only draft.
I'm excited :o) I think I'll actually have it ready by January. And then... we'll see. Out of all the books I have DoJ is the one with the most connections and the most ambitious. Which means it may not be the best novel to debut with.