Let's Talk Literary Agents Some More

So, I've created a sort of assembly line system that is working better than anything else I've tried thus far. I'm going down my list and Googling every literary agency on it looking for a specific agent within the agency that would be the best fit for my murder mystery/thriller/Southern/women's novel. I'm gathering contact information and specific submission guidelines. Through this process, I have narrowed my list from 37 agencies to 28. My original 37 came from my Writer's Market Guide to Literary Agents

Reasons agencies got cut...horrible feedback from the online community, not accepting submissions at this time, don't represent murder msytery or thriller novels according to their website despite the fact that my Writer's Market Guide to Literary Agents said they did, their website says something like this, "As a rule, I no longer take mysteries, thrillers or historical novels because publishers won't buy them from unknown authors."

Let's all pause for a breath here because this statement stopped me dead in my tracks. Only for a second. But definitely stopped me. However, there are seemingly a million other agencies out there who do not agree with this statement, so the search for the perfect literary agent quickly resumed.

Next in the assembly line process, is to rough draft articulate on my Grand Master List why I've chosen to query each agent. This part of the process is partly done for almost all of the agencies on my list seeing as I've already chosen a particular agent for a particular reason and jotted that down.

Luckily, query letters are like cover letters for the most part, meaning their formulaic. I've written two query letters so far, and really the important part and the only part that really changes is the opening paragraph, which states: I chose you Mr./Mrs./Ms. agent because...

Thus, once I rough draft on my Grand Master List why I chose each agent, I can then go input it into my query letters I've already written and make them concise, intelligent, and VERY well-written.

I have a plan, and I'm moving forward faster now than I have for the entire month of March. My goal is to have all of my query letters written by the end of the week. I also have a novel synopsis that's pretty good but does need a little more work. So, that will go on the mental To Do List as I've abandoned the paper one. (It was stressing me out. So I said, "screw it!" And I'm moving faster without that pesky old official To Do List.)

There are still a million questions left, and I still don't feel like I really know what I'm doing. But the only way to learn, especially in this industry, is to do. So, I'm doing. I'm writing the perfect query letter for at least 28 different literary agents!

The Million Questions List:

1. Who do you trust? Writer's Guide? Agency website? The millions of websites online that critique agencies?
   
2. How do you know who you can trust and who you can't? Do you trust an agent just because their a member of the AAR (Association of Authors' Representatives)?
   
3. How do you define what type of book your novel is? As I've previously described it, mine fits into several categories: mystery, thriller, women's, Southern. But what happens if an agent accepts one genre but is not accepting another?
4. Was it a good idea to Facebook friend the agent I friended today? (I went to become a fan of his agency, but the only option was to friend him. His Wall looked like it had LOTS of useful information on it from him, the insider, so I friended him. So people, let's keep my Facebook page semi-clean and professional. :) )
   
5. Who do I know in the publishing industry? Who could I potentially know? Who do my friends know in the publishing industry? Yes, friends, if you know people, now's the time to share those contacts!!!
6. How many query letters can I make my editors read? After they've read my novel?

And the list goes on. Friends and loyal followers, please help keep me motivated. Your support is crucial to my success. Trying to achieve childhood dreams is a difficult thing to say the least, but I'm DETERMINED!!! And I've written the book. I do have more editing to do on the book that will get completed next week, seeing as I left the edited copy in Nashville. However, no query letters will be sent out until the novel is the best it can be! Keep your prayers coming and your fingers crossed, or as my Southern mother always says, "cross your fingers, hold your breath, and pray." I'll keep you posted on the querying and publishing status.