Agents vs. Direct Submission to Publishers?

[Amanda]

Hello all!

I'm new here - I am finishing up my first novel and am torn between trying to find an agent or just going for it and submitting directly to publishers.

What have your experiences - good and bad - been? I'd love to hear from people who have been in the trenches and survived!

[Evie Alexis]

It's hard. I've heard the pros and cons to both. I have recently been picked up by an agent who will take my novel shopping, so to speak, and my other publication experience is through an ebook publisher, and it's been great. But I hear that dealing with publishing companies can be scary, especially when you venture on your own. However, I type hearsay, and as far as Judge Judy's concerned that type of evidence doesn't count for beans.

I look forward to hearing of people's experiences and opinions as well.

[Theresa Stillwagon]

I've always submitted directly to the publisher. Right now I have a contemporary romance at The Wild Rose Press. For some companies, though, you do need to have an agent.
Theresa

[Zaynah - Aasiyah Qamar/Nolwynn Ardennes]

Amanda,

Depends on where you're targetting. The epubs don't requie an agent, but most big houses and print houses require agented material before they'll even consider you. It's true then that for bigger print/NY pubs, an agent acts as a good point on your side as the agent can get you through the door.

Epubs usually deal directly with the author, so having an agent is rather a waste of time for you then.

I've been directly to epubs, and the print pub I dealt with didn't require an agent, otehrwise I'd have gotten one to go print.

Hope that helps.

Z(Aasiyah/Nolwynn)

[Hywela Lyn]

I think all the above are good points. As a UK author, I have to say getting an agent is as hard as getting a publisher. I submitted to several agents without any luck. Then I submitted directly to The Wild Rose Press and am so glad I did. It would be great to be published by a mainstream publisher, but the time taken to get an agent could be spent writing the next novel! It really depends, I suppose on how badly you want to be published and what your aspirations are. Not all print publishers require an agent but you need to do a bit of research to find which ones you can reallistically expect to consider an unagented writer.


Good luck and I hope you succeed in getting published whichever route you take.

[Lainey Bancroft]

Wow. Huge question, Amanda. Having debated and researched this a good bit lately, I could...write a book.

For my shorter works, I submitted and sold directly to The Wild Rose and Amira Press. As I plan to do with any other things I target to e-publishing. I submitted two category length mss to Harlequin/Silhouette, one was rejected with plenty of helpful feedback (I revised and fattened it up, its now available at Wild Rose "Settling Back") The other ms was redirected within the company three times and ultimately not accepted.

Although I can think of a few publishers still accepting unsolicited/unagented mss, statistically har/sil is the only one I know of who has actually acquired mss this way, and even those are few and far between. Conventional wisdom (along with author/editor/agent blogs) claims unsolicited/unagented mss will perpetually cling to the bottom of the slush pile--meaning anything an agent submits will be viewed first. I've also heard if you strike out at a publisher, an agent will want the submission history of your ms and will be less eager to take it on if you've already been rejected by dozens of publishers.

In short, if you're targeting e-publishing or category romance, I'd say go for it and skip the agent. If however, you hope to swim with 'bigger fishies' IMHO, you'd benefit from having an agent test the water for you first.

FWIW.

(I really have agonized over this a lot lately having just finished a women's fiction I'd like to have agented, so feel free to ask me follow up questions if you'd like.)

Best of luck!

[Amanda]

Thank you so much for all the valuable insight - this is awesome! I feel so much better knowing that there are published authors out there to ask questions to and bounce things off of.

Furthering the discussion, I'm part of RWA, and I saw that they had a list of agents on their website. There are so many though! How would I have any idea who to solicit? Just start somewhere on the list and work my way down? How many can I solicit at once? Do I have to wait to hear back from one before I apply to another?

[Zaynah - Aasiyah Qamar/Nolwynn Ardennes]

Hey Amanda

Chiming in again! For choosing an agent, never done it, but here's what I've gathered.

Usually check the agent's webpage, they often list who they represent. Check out the authors now - is there someone who writes the same kind of stuff as you? This is a good start, though if your work is too similar, the agent may decline representing you. You'll also this way get a good idea of what sort of work this agent represents. For example, if most of her work is through sc-fi and fantasy, and you write romance, you'd have a hard time getting through.

Agents also say what they like to work with - check those to narrow down your search.

For reliability, authors usually, in the acknowledgement page of their books, thank their agent. Get the names there, and do a search and see if you can target them. An author who praises his/her agent is bound to enjoy working with that person.

Hope that helps!

Hugs!!

Z(Aasiyah/Nolwynn)

[Mary J. Dressel]

Hi, Amanda,

I've been through submitting to agents and publishers. Whatever you do, don't just send in your manuscript to either. Write a query asking if they will have a look. They'll usually say send 10 pages or 3 chapters, or very rarely the whole ms. I've found this to be true with both agents and publishers. But most importantly, make sure your story fits what they are looking for. Otherwise, you'll get a brief note, with the words scribbled across it-- Sorry. Also, make sure you follow their guidelines. Some publishers only want you to send the ms to them alone. I must warn you, this can take up some time. Once, a publisher had my ms for 2 years. I had forgotten all about it until I looked in my submission log, and contacted them. Would you believe they still had it, and sent it back, looking like it had never been read!? If they say simultanous submissions, which means you can send to more than one at a time, let them know if you are sending to other publishers. I've found that getting an agent is as difficult as getting a publisher, but now days, I don't even think a publisher will look without an agent. Just look around, eventually you'll find the right place for your ms. Don't give up, because it can turn into a full time job! Like one of your other comments says, with the small POD's or epubs, you usually don't need an agent. Best of luck.

Mary

[Evie Alexis]

Well, the agent didn't work out as expected, but we'll leave it at that as the individual has been classy and gracious. So I now look to direct submission to publishers. I'll let you know how that works out. :)

[Elaine Cantrell]

Hi, Amanda,

I think it's harder to get an agent than a publisher, but if you want to be published by the big houses you'll need an agent. Smaller publishers and epublishers don't usually ask for an agent.

Elaine Cantrell
www.elainecantrell.com