An interesting post from The Passive Voice titled You Must Have an Agent…Or Not appeared
in the blogosphere.
Actually it is only another in a long line of musings about
this industry.
I spoke with one famous fantasy author who believes agents
are not the influence they once were in this business. Note yesterday’s post
about Fifty Shades and the agents who
moan how their philosophy was shot to hell by just one book.
But it isn’t just one book. There is Amanda Hocking who
self-published herself into fame. Or John Locke, the first to sell one million
Ebooks on Amazon.
Indie Publishing.
For another eye-opener, go to Jeff Bennington’s blog The Writing Bomb. Essentially, he is a writer who chose not to wait
on an agent but made his own way into self-pub. His blog is chock-full of info.
“But you must have an agent,” the ‘experts’ cry to us
unwashed masses. “Write a good book and we’ll accept you as our client,” agents
say.
Um, no. They won’t. Because:
The project you describe does not suit our list at this time.
This project doesn't seem quite right for us.
This project doesn’t sound right for me.
I am not the right agent for this work.
My fave is the ‘no response means no’ response and leaving the writer with hours
of wasted research into an agent who blows them off without acknowledgment.
So you’ve polished your manuscript to a shiny new penny,
educated yourself about adverbs and dangling participles, read every word
regarding queries. Now what? Are the agents ignoring your baby? Does the
prospect of self-publishing leave you cold?
Pick the in-between route, the publisher.
Apply directly to small pubs like WiDo Publishing, Curiosity Quills, MusaPress, MuseItUp Publishing, Sapphire Star, and Baen Books. Or publishers that tower over the industry, Del Rey, DAW, and Tor/Forge.
