Agent search

[SeverinR]

I am on AgentQuery.com
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher

I have a long list of Agents of the Fantasy genre, over ten pages of listings.

I look into the persons bio, not just for them accepting Fantasy, but that they --"like" Fantasy.

Two of my books have strong lead characters that are female, so I look for an agent that-- "likes" womens literature.

I then look at where on the list of Genres Fantasy is, towards the first or towards the bottom, looking for a top cat. Fantasy person.

I did go into one agents bio, to notice her last books published that were listed weren't fantasy. Moved her to the bottom of my list. She might just be in a dry spell for good fantasy, but she might also be burned out on it right now.

I will probably look at publishing companies in a similar way, when making that list.

I was concidering sending one book to an agent and another to a publisher direct. Try both ways with dfferent books. I am leaning towards agent since vast majority of books are published with an agent.

What do you think? Any other suggestions to maximize my queries?

Did a full search and got the pages down to three, much easier to work with.
Now on to look at publishers.

[The Din]

You can send to both, but be careful to only query one publisher at a time, bastards are picky that way. I'd recommend trying the agents of your favorite authors, specifically those in the same genre.

I'm at the same stage, minus most of the research. I had a look around and found the one agent I most want to represent me. Sent a query the other day.

On a whole, I dislike that there is a need for agents, especially when most don't seem to do much for their money. A small sacrifice though if it gets you a good publisher.

Good luck

[Twilight Flyer]

Simultaneous submissions are tricky and you do have to be careful. But a lot of agents and publishers are OK with it. I always used the Writer's Market. Just about every entry listed whether the agent or publisher accepted simultaneous submissions. A lot do. But even then, it's always a good idea to note on your query letter that you are submitting your work to more than one publisher.

Of course, if they don't accept them, then note that as well and make sure you've got all your replies back before you embark on that single submissions.

[Rikilamaro]

So I was looking at AQ also, and wondered if you knew what their definition of "Commercial Fiction" was?