An Agent's POV
I recently attended the Ozark Creative Writers Conference, which I highly recommend. It is an event that I have come to look forward to, much like one looks forward to a vacation each year. For me, it is a time to recharge.
This year's first speaker was Cherry Weiner, an agent. She had the following tidbits for us:
* no multiple submissions
* as far as writing credits go, fiction and non-fiction are like apples and oranges. If all your credits are in non-fiction, she won't use that to sell you fiction piece. Short story credits can be considered for selling fiction, but consider the market.
* 80K - 100K is the target for all markets (and I wondered about this. That's a big book. I think I've only read one book of that length in the past year. I'm busy - I like something that I can actually get through in those rare little pieces of day that I can read without spending a month on that book. Am I the only one that doesn't want to read something that long??)
* Publicity is of the utmost priority. There are several things you can do to promote your book: (1) Set up book signings as soon as you have the cover of your book, (2) forget about bookmarks, send postcards - again, as soon as you have your cover, (3) get a copy of your manuscript to reviewers as soon as possible so that your reviews can come out when the book comes out.
* Urban fantasy is a hot genre. She referred to MIB as an urban fantasy, but I was thinking that perhaps the Dresden Files books would more accurately fit that genre.
For those of you interested in Cherry, she is a stand-alone agent and isn't with a literary agency. She doesn't generally accept queries unless you are invited to query her after meeting her at a conference. She represents such notable writers as Dusty Richards and Lou Turner.
This year's first speaker was Cherry Weiner, an agent. She had the following tidbits for us:
* no multiple submissions
* as far as writing credits go, fiction and non-fiction are like apples and oranges. If all your credits are in non-fiction, she won't use that to sell you fiction piece. Short story credits can be considered for selling fiction, but consider the market.
* 80K - 100K is the target for all markets (and I wondered about this. That's a big book. I think I've only read one book of that length in the past year. I'm busy - I like something that I can actually get through in those rare little pieces of day that I can read without spending a month on that book. Am I the only one that doesn't want to read something that long??)
* Publicity is of the utmost priority. There are several things you can do to promote your book: (1) Set up book signings as soon as you have the cover of your book, (2) forget about bookmarks, send postcards - again, as soon as you have your cover, (3) get a copy of your manuscript to reviewers as soon as possible so that your reviews can come out when the book comes out.
* Urban fantasy is a hot genre. She referred to MIB as an urban fantasy, but I was thinking that perhaps the Dresden Files books would more accurately fit that genre.
For those of you interested in Cherry, she is a stand-alone agent and isn't with a literary agency. She doesn't generally accept queries unless you are invited to query her after meeting her at a conference. She represents such notable writers as Dusty Richards and Lou Turner.
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