Querying

Reading for pleasure: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Reading for school: Just finished some Freud
Writing/editing work: WIP novel, rolling other ideas around

Now that I have started the edit on my novel, I start looking into agents that I can query. I did not know a lot about agents until I read about them in Writer's Market a few years back. It's where I start now as soon as I am in the last legs of editing. Yes, it is multi-tasking, but I find it easier to keep my mind on the project at hand. If there is one thing I've learnt in university, it's that you multitask or lose your ability to keep up.

I started my search in Writer's Market, but the books go out of date quite quickly, so I've adapted and now first go to Agent Query: http://www.agentquery.com/. Within the 45 minutes that I was there today, I found over twenty agents that would be suitable to query; there were 39 listed, but I am quite picky about who I choose. This saves me and them time, because I will not send out useless queries. One of my criteria is that they accept e-mail queries; they are cheaper and more efficient in both sending out my query and receiving answers (no postage costs!). On this site, I also pick and choose depending on how much information is actually on the site; if they have publishing credits there, they have to have a title there as well for me to trust them.

I read some agent blogs so that I can become familiar with their likes and dislikes and to expand my knowledge of the industry in general. I need to get to some conferences, but being a student means that I have no money for conferences. They are too expensive to attend. I know that it would be a good investment, but when faced with the choice of affording tuition/residence and going to a writer's conference, staying fed throughout the school year wins out every time.

When I have completed those steps, I write the query letter. With my book fresh in my mind I try to catch its essence so that I can catch the attention of the agent. I find this more difficult than writing the whole novel, or even the editing, because now I am trying to make someone else fall in love with my work. I'll write and edit this letter more times than the novel itself.

The first round of queries goes out once I have looked over my list of agents again and finished the edit on the my novel. I'll see where I have to go from there!

Until later,

ManiacScribbler =^..^=