I used to have two New York agents peddling my novels. They couldn’t sell them in the nineties. They told me my work did not fit a common genre, that the publishers did not know where my books would “fit on the shelf.” When print-on-demand became an option, I rewrote three novels attempting to make them more shelf friendly, and self-published them.
The first one I published through Airleaf. I don’t remember why. The second
I published through Barnes and Noble’s editing wing, IUniverse. Their editing impressed me. I revised accordingly and scored high on their “shelf-placing” score. Innocently, and to save the extra expense, I did the line-editing myself and missed too many typos to get placed on their shelves.
Third, GAMBLING FOR GOOD MAIL, was published first by Airleaf. It got
excellent reviews and orders on Amazon.com that Airleaf could not supply. That’s when I found out that Airleaf was bankrupt. I had to re-publish through Booksurge.
I just finished polishing THE UNDERBELLY. This time I’m searching for an agent before going back to POD. If you are on the same search, I found some
helpful links to investigate. I have yet to do all the research needed to find at least fifty agents that may fit my submission, but I now know where to start, Here they are:
www.publisherslunch.com Offers free e-newsletter covering book deals
www.publishersweekly.com site has a search box for agents and agencies to get specific website info
Use GoogleBlog search for literary agents
Search Twitter for agents http://twitter.com/agentquery
www.books.google.com Put name of agent in quotes and “acknowledgments” in quotes to find out which books have acknowledged the agent you’re researching.
www.writersdigest.com/101bestsites and www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog
www.Agentquery.com offers searchable database of agencies and agents
http://www.Absolutewrite.com Offers good links and resources
Amazon.com and BN.com allow you to browse your genre and look for acknowledgments of top sellers.
Fee based: www.publishersmarketplace.com $20 a month, five invaluable resources
HAPPY HUNTING
Evy Cole
Tags: agent, agents, literary agents
January 11, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Sorry to hear about the problems you’ve had.
I’m just starting out.
Tell me, if you have time, why didn’t you ePublish through Kindle
or iPhone?
I would be interested to know as I am working towards doing just that.
I’ve just started a diary of how this enterprise goes. You can find it
on Google at Old Fart Wannabe Blog.
Best of Luck for the future
OFW
January 12, 2010 at 9:11 am
Hi OFW, Kindle and iphne weren’t around then. I’ll be interested in your use of them. I have one novel on Kindler now, but Booksurge published it. Evy