Monday, October 11, 2010

The Hunt for a Salesman

During the editing process I've decided I should start the agent hunting process as well.  I didn't realize all that was involved in publishing a novel prior to getting started but it seems like everyone understands that getting published is no small feat.  Added to this mix is the new world of self publishing.  Aspiring writers can convert their documents to Kindle format and let Amazon pump it out electronically.  Authors can get up to 70% commission but if you get 70% commission off 10 purchases it probably isn't going to replace your day job.  I gave this an effort to see how difficult it was by publishing my short story Massacre in the Suburbs on Amazon for Kindle.  It was a breeze to get this far but I've found that advertising after publishing is futile at best. I've now come to appreciate what a publishing house does for an author. 



I'm not sure if I have copyright ability with this picture but Ari Gold is exactly what I need.  I need a salesman.  Someone who can take my work and track down the big publishing house and convince them that they'd be foolish not to back what is clearly going to be the next Liars Poker.  Arrogance aside, sometimes I say that in the mirror to make myself feel better about the long process, and I really wish I could find a talented dude or lady who could say it for me instead!

So today I started the Agent search.  I found a lot of great information on how to write a Query Letter which is a short, one page, document that describes who I am and what my book is about.  Then I found some online listings where I can go through and check out agents and see what they are good at selling to publishers.  I certainly don't want an agent who can't sell fiction but loves selling parenting how to novels.  Once I narrowed down the search, I still had a ton of agents to go through and each wants their query letter in a particular format, emailed usually, with certain words in the subject line and 10 pages of text from the novel.  The list goes on but today I've sent out my first 4 query letters.  I even got one rejection email back, but it was written so sweetly I couldn't care less. 




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