Stalking An Agent

While I've begun to incorporate Seraphim's critiques and suggestions and also the uncovered typos and grammar problems, I'm also scouting agencies that might be interested in giving an unknown a chance.

I hope my fellow Indie writers trying to find a publisher who can take over the marketing efforts, will find it useful to read my thinking as I plow through the scores on my list. I'll only cherry pick a few to highlight here, so hopefully committed indie writers will find it at least interesting.

First, I'll repost the story's blurb which with the addition of the book's metadata (thriller/suspense, 89k word count) and a brief introductory bio, will serve as the Query Letter. Explaining the protagonist's drama in last week's post became the best summary and simplest solution for completing it. I guess I had over thought the problem. I'm praying Eldon doesn't see this. He'll berate me for increasing it to four paragraphs. :-)


"No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yincandi is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.

"Seraphim, Mujahedeen madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. The continued slaughter of Middle East Christians has placed them on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican can only hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.

"Trajan's decision will not be an easy one. If he remains true to the non-violent traditions of the Buddhism he grew up with, innocents will be killed. If he embraces the Christianity of his parents, he will be the killer.

"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring
herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord."


As a general rule, when I'm studying an agency's agents, I ignore owners, President's, CEO's, etc, even if they have declared themselves open to submissions. Too often they're caught up in other matters, know their submissions are piling up, then bulldozer through them.

But exceptions prove the rule and since agent hunting is not a science, sometimes instincts and gut feelings, along with something concrete, play a larger role. Like number picking for a $300 million lottery.

My first agency spotlight falls on JABberwocky Literary Agency here in NYC. Its staff picture caught my eye as a fun-loving group who don't take themselves too seriously. Two characteristics, I've come to find, shared by people who take their work seriously.



Dubious as I am of biography claims, two items of the President's caused me to break my CEO rule, one of which I found persuasive. See if you can spot it in Joshua Bilmes' bio that I edited for space.

"After being closed to queries for a few years, I decided to reopen in early 2016, and I've kept on it since. It's always special finding something great through the query box. One of the first and most important things to do, however, is follow...
THE GUIDELINES:

1. If you don’t follow the guidelines, your query will be deleted, unread and without a response.

2. The query letter should be brief. If you were to print it on old-fashioned paper, it should fit onto a one page standard business letter.

3. And while brief, the query should have relevant information on both yourself and your manuscript. For a published writer, your credits are relevant. For other authors, it might be having a job or life experience of some sort that ties very directly to the book you have written. For authors without credits or credentials, it might be adding something that suggests your knowledge or familiarity with the genre or category you plan to write in. And when all else fails, tell us about where you grew up, where you went to school, but always something.

If you think it's silly to start telling me where you grew up, where you went to school -- well, I can understand why; it does seem silly. But it's a lot less silly than writing a query letter that suggests there isn't a single interesting thing about the author.

4. Relevant information about the manuscript: Avoid adjectives. You're not a third-party observer who's earned the right to say your manuscript is "romantic" or "thrilling" or "fast-paced" or any other adjective you might choose to apply to your own work.

5. Here’s what I want: I always like science fiction and fantasy, but there are also at least three other people at the agency who look at science fiction and fantasy. Will I look? Sure! But ask yourself if there’s some extra special reason that you want to direct the submission to me instead of Sam or Eddie, and Lisa is likely to reopen to submissions in the next few weeks. I tend to shy away from the more literary part of the sf/fantasy spectrum, but I’d rather make the call here. If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes, I may share with someone else in the office.

On the other hand, I also like good mysteries and thrillers, and there aren’t as many people here who share that interest. I’d love to see some great projects in these genres. The very first novel I ever sold was a mystery novel [so] I’m open to the full range of work in these categories."

This bio reads as both heartfelt and honest, not something prepared by an image consultant from a public relations firm. We have a lot of those here.

And honest because he let slip the bottom line reason why it's so hard for an unknown to come in from the cold: "If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes..." Ultimately, an agent will take on an unknown if they like the story. And, of course, reject a story because they don't like it. Meanwhile, because of a glossed over bio, I might have overlooked the agent sitting in the next cubicle who would have loved it.

But what sold me was his admonition against adjectives. I get that they're for description and not emphasis or hype. I have a few in my Blurb/Query but except for perhaps 'tiny', they are all for description, not the latter categories.

I just have to keep picking numbers. One of them is bound to hit. Maybe.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.