Islam means submission to God's will... and there's something about the Islamic prostration about sending one's hard written, hard edited, hard considered work into agents. There is a format, a right way to do it, and I am finding it harder and harder to follow the code and send a "sensible" letter in. How can I say an agent represents the kind of writers I admire when I haven't even heard of half of them? If I wanted to choose an agent by those criteria I would try Cardoc King or someone so superstunningly successful that they do not accept submissions...
Today has been dispiriting - I looked through my long list of agents, to try and find ones to whom I could submit electronically. I discovered that my list (taken from the current W&A yearbook and which has already sifted out people who don't deal with my sort of work) is still full of drongos who don;t apparently even have a website. Is this the sensible way to go about things? Should I just write to them? Or not bother because they are "too small" - then there are other agencies who say they are interested in literary fiction but apparently only tend writers who are writing MOR fiction - or thrillers. Ultimately, when you take out those who are too grand, those who are too pathetic, and those who clearly wouldn't want to market your work, the number of UK agents I have not yet contacted is looking alarming - yes, there are still dozens, but I am feeling rather nervous. Will I run out of agents? And then just start again with Vol 1 of Conscience? Oh well, perhaps that's what will happen. Meanwhile I am preparing to have multi copies of the first 50pp printed and hope for the best. Of course, someone could ask tomorrow for a full read - which would save me some money!
Today has been dispiriting - I looked through my long list of agents, to try and find ones to whom I could submit electronically. I discovered that my list (taken from the current W&A yearbook and which has already sifted out people who don't deal with my sort of work) is still full of drongos who don;t apparently even have a website. Is this the sensible way to go about things? Should I just write to them? Or not bother because they are "too small" - then there are other agencies who say they are interested in literary fiction but apparently only tend writers who are writing MOR fiction - or thrillers. Ultimately, when you take out those who are too grand, those who are too pathetic, and those who clearly wouldn't want to market your work, the number of UK agents I have not yet contacted is looking alarming - yes, there are still dozens, but I am feeling rather nervous. Will I run out of agents? And then just start again with Vol 1 of Conscience? Oh well, perhaps that's what will happen. Meanwhile I am preparing to have multi copies of the first 50pp printed and hope for the best. Of course, someone could ask tomorrow for a full read - which would save me some money!
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