The Agent search, part 1: Getting names

Now that I've finished writing and editing VALDEN'S HEIR, and since I've sent it to a few people I know to read, the search now begins for an agent. I expect this entire process to take around a month (finding names, doing research, writing and editing queries, etc.), which is why I've started already even though I just sent out my book for others to read. I told them to try and finish the book within a month, and if at least a couple of them do I'll have their comments about the same time that I'll be ready to fire off query letters.

Anyway, I just finished the first step in the process. Getting names. The first thing I did in this process was go to the blogs of agents I am already familiar with (will provide links to these one day). I found which ones represent epic fantasy (since VALDEN'S HEIR is just that), and put them at the top of the list. Then I went to Agentquery.com, and searched for agents who represent fantasy. 134 names came up. I wrote down 56.

The most common reason I didn't write down a name was because the agent didn't accept e-mail queries. I prefer to e-mail for free before I have to pay the now more expensive postage to mail anything. Second, I didn't write down names of agents who don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. There were some other reasons beyond that, but those were the two main reasons I didn't write down a name.

The next step in the process is researching the names I have. I need to find out who works at the same agency (it's a rule to only query one agent in an agency at a time), who is an AAR member, who's actually a real agent, if the agent is actually enthusiastic about representing fantasy, and a number of other things. I'll go in depth about this stuff in a future post, but right now I just have names. I'll post again when I've done some research.

Taylor