Archive for the 'Publishing' Category

What I’ve been up to…

I am still on my agent hunt. And as I go, when I promote my book, I seem to get more and more fans. They latch onto things like, “Giant God Squirrels” which makes me raise my hopes up that some agent will see the charm of this book.

I can hope to get an agent soon. In the meantime, I’ll work on my next book.

The type of Agent I want….

I read around and people said that one should know the type of agent you want before your agent hunt.

I think I want something like willing to edit if need be, but not telling me how to write a book from the ground up. Something like that. So not 100% a revising agent, but will get their hands dirty if the manuscript needs just a little more polish? I don’t need babysitting, I know the publishing industry fairly well. I can’t navigate all the nuances of a contract, but I know how checks are paid, royalties work, etc. I know how to write a book and I can get ideas on my own and I follow the market trends (incoming and outgoing). So I need an agent to be able to sell my book, but also if it comes down to it, help me to edit it to make the possibility that it will sell higher without compromising the original concept/feel? (i.e. try not to make it into something the book is not or fit a pre-existing mold… in which case, I think it would be better to find another author/book that suits that agent’s tastes better?)

No fear of smaller book publishers is a plus too, though I’m not against grand houses, like Harper, Double Day, etc picking the books I write up.

I hope that’s clear. I wonder if this will bite me later, but I don’t think this is an unreasonable request. Of course, I can dream about the agent that says it’s perfect as is (no revisions), and it sold for a grand amount of money, but that’s an unrealistic artists’ fantasy.