Finding An Agent: Part 2

One of the things I love about science fiction and fantasy readers is their drive to also write.
I am hoping, by my own efforts, that I am peeling back the layers of mystery for them about the process once a book is finished. I have written several articles about it and putting one’s work out there into the universe. Last week I wrote an article about my first rejection for The Dark Thorn.
After that article, I was informed by one of my agent friends that I had more than likely unintentionally made it sound like I could only submit my work to one agent at a time. In the article, I wrote I had only queried Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maass Literary Agency and, when rejecting the book three weeks later, that I was moving on to the next agent.
To be honest, I had crossed two of my cerebral wires. Querying one agent at a time was exactly what I was doing.
It is not necessary.
For some reason I can’t fully explain—because I do know this business a little bit—I made a mistake in how I was approaching the submission process. There is etiquette when it comes to sending one’s work to an agent or editor, for sure, but I was being nicer than I should be. Simultaneous submissions—sending queries at the same time to different agents—are allowed. Where I made my mistake was this:
An agency does not like writers querying multiple agents in said agency.
Wires crossed. Wires crossed.
Last night, I took my friend’s advice and queried a group of other agents who accept online submissions. They include:

• Matt Bialer – represents Tad Williams, Patrick Rothfuss, Diana Rowland
• Ginger Clark – represents T.A. Pratt, Patricia Wrede
• Ethan Ellenberg – represents John Scalzi, Sharon Shinn
• Kate McKean – her interests lie in paranormal romance and urban fantasy
• Russell Galen – represents Kate Elliott, John Birmingham, David Farland
• Adriann Ranta – her interests lie in dark tales with conflicts in the real world
• Jessica Faust – represents Kate Douglas, Elizabeth Amber
• Lucienne Driver – represents Carol Berg, Lois Bujold, Lynn Flewelling
• Miriam Kriss – represents Lilith Saintcrow, Vicki Pettersson, Keri Arthur
• Caitlin Blasdell – represents Greg Van Eekhout, Charles Stross, John Brown
• Diana Fox – represents Seanan McGuire, Katharine Beutner

How did I figure out who I wanted to query? How should you go about doing this?
Here’s how I did it.

The agents that I listed are all great. I would be lucky to have any of them represent The Dark Thorn. They are all professional based on their numerous clients, those clients are solid writers, and they have the trust of the editors at all publishing houses. It turns out all of the agents listed accept online query submission—therefore I went with them first.
Interestingly enough, just three years ago when I submitted Song of the Fell Hammer, only two of the agents I queried accepted online submissions.
Kind of cool how the business is changing and moving away from the additional costs associated with querying real paper through stamped mail envelopes.
To do this, I went to agentquery.com and querytracker.net, both great resources for new writers. Here is what I did to find the agents I queried:

1. Selected FANTASY and searched both databases
2. Clicked on agent names and read their information
3. Googled each agent name and also visited their website
4. Learned who they represent and whose work matched my own
5. Read any blogs or Twitter accounts they used to get a “feel” for them
6. Queried the agent exactly as their submission guidelines dictate

Simple, right?
I did this for about 30 agents. It took me a long day of reading and researching. I only selected those agents above out of those 30. They represent clients who have written urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and/or contemporary fantasy set in our own world. In other words, they might like what I’ve written.
It is important to note that each agent has their own submission guidelines. Some only ask for a query letter. Others ask for a query letter and synopsis detailing every plot point in the book. Others ask for query letter, synopsis, and the first five pages or ten pages or three chapters or five chapters. It all depends on the agent.
For each of them, the writer must adhere to those submission rules.
Otherwise they are jeopardizing representation.
It turns out many of the agents who accept online submissions also have fairly good turn around responses—some within days if querytracker.net is to be believed. I hope to hear from some of the agents this week. Some have pages from The Dark Thorn but most, if I’ve intrigued them with my query, will have to ask for partial or full manuscripts to read what I’ve written.
Then the patient waiting starts all over again.
When/if that happens, I’ll post about the partial/full manuscript requests and how best to put together a manuscript for reading.
Until then…