Agents, Editors, Queries, SASE, Summary, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

it must have been about a week and a half now that I dropped the letter into the mailbox and the waiting game began. Up until that point I had been filling nealry every spare moment I had with reading and research, learning what Literary Agents like, how to get their attention, how not to piss them off, etc. etc. And then the wonderful game of pouring over hundres upon hundres of listings for Agencies and trying to find the ONE that I thought was most likely to represent me and whom I wanted most to represent me. Long lists became shorter lists and finally I settles on the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency (www.jdlit.com). From then on it was a matter of drafting the perfect query letter. I must have spent fifteen hours on the stupid thing, writing, revising, and most importantly - chopping. In one page say who you are, what your credentials are (easy, I have none), what you book is about, and why it will sell. it sounds easy enough but by the time you throw in headers and footers you ahve room for three short paragraphs and there is alot that needs to besaid and alot more begging to be said that should not be.

In case you haven't spent the hours researching literary agents like I have, they are basically the lawyers of the publishing world. Once they've decided to represent author/book for the low price of 10 to 20 percent, it's their job to sell the book to the publisher and negotiate mutually beneficial agreements. The percent part means that the more the author gets paid the more they get paid so really everyone wins. The agents know the publishing industry like nobody else and they know how to sell books which is something that I not only know nothing about but care nothing for. So really the trick, I have discovered is NOT to get a book published, but to get it represented. That is why I have queried an Agent.

Of course, having poured my sweat and bood into the letter chances are very high that I will wait three to six monnths to receive a standard rejection letter. All that really means is that I have to draft and sent another one until I find the right Agent. I guess all I'm really trying to say is that Garawain is in the early stages of being REALLY published by an actual publisher and while i've had a few published copies of a book, I hope that in the near future Hiram Webb/ AAK Bresh will be an actual real life honest to God published author. I now await the Canadian/United States Postal service to do their swift duty.