Advice for Indi Authors wanting to find an agent/publisher?

[Jan]

Hi - I self-published nine books during the past decade. The last three were my spy novel series, "The Secret Lives of Jessie Monroe." They have really gotten great feedback/excitement amongst my smallish group of friends, authors, family. They tell me the series is good enough for greater things.

I've just completed a 4th, "Juno's Revenge" in the series. I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm trying to go the Agent/Publisher route with it (sending query letters, etc.) to really get it "out there."

Any suggestions on how to increase the odds? Is hiring an editor that has ties to agents/publishers a good idea? Do you have any to recommend?

Is there any way to pitch the whole series - like they publish the 4th and get revenue rights for the first 3 as well? Or should I just continue to pitch the 4th on its own merits?

Would anyone like to give feedback on the pitch or synopsis?

[Mellie]

Jan wrote: "I've just completed a 4th, "Juno's Revenge" in the series. I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm trying to go the Agent/Publisher route..."

Your odds of getting an agent for book 4 in a self published series are pretty close to 0% unless the whole series has a significant level of sales such that a publisher would be enticed to take on the entire series.

You would have a much better chance of finding an agent with a new, unpublished manuscript. Since you have been self publishing, agents will want to know your sales numbers as they use that to judge how likely a book/series will continue to sell and what profit margin is in it for a publisher.

You don't hire an editor when you intent to query. But the MS does need to be as polished as possible and ideally been through several critique partners. For a great resource on finding agents and preparing your query package, check out www.querytracker.net

[Jan]

Thanks Mellie - I have heard that before (about starting self-publishing). It is a Catch-22, isn't it. Most self-published books don't get many sales, so the fact that they can read them and see if they like your work is a negative instead of a plus. Thanks for the query tracker link!

[J.]

I have to agree with Mellie, as far as your self-published books go. A publisher would have no reason to re-issue a self-published book unless it is the sort of unanticipated success of something like the 50 Shades books, or The Martian, both which began as self published material on the author's sites. Otherwise it would be assumed that your book had already brought in most of its revenue and the publisher couldn't expect to profit.
If you are pitching unpublished material to an agent, you may check out Agent Query which helps match material to the agent - not all agents represent all material. Same with publishers - there are many small presses, or imprints of larger presses, that specialize in the type of material they represent and publish. I know for mystery, the Mystery Writers of America publishes a list of approved (not vanity) publishers, and I imagine other specialty categories (romance, science fiction, etc) do something similar,