Fishing a Fishy Agent

OK. Darn I am a day late for this post because I have been far too busy with my other blog which I order you to follow if you don't already. :) If agents weren't already fishy enough we would have so much more choices to send to. Just like the title of our subject today I think that sometimes its hard to tell whether an agent is really good. Ok, don't get confused I am not talking about fraudulent agents, like the ones that you have to pay to read your work, or the ones that don't have any contacts or the ones that are jumping out at you when you search them on writers BEWARE. I am talking about agents that simply aren't suitable for your subject.


For example there is an agent I queried that accepts EVERYTHING. They are supposed to be very open to new ideas and new projects. Yet when I look at their client list I see no Fantasy or Science Fiction. Why oh Why? Most likely this agent even if they say that they accept everything only take on specific genres and preferences. They just want to have more choice just in case and I really emphasize that just in case. Maybe they don't have the greatest contacts in your genre and know that they won't be able to rep you. Its important to tell whether you hit a fishy agent or whether your query is fishy. So by all means continiue to query and don't be discouraged, because these facts will blow your head off. (They did mine!) All this coming from Collen Lindsay's (The Swivet) twitter so I suspect its unfortunately and sadly true...


-High fantasy/epic fantasy - VERY hard to sell. I almost never even request them for that reason
Thank god my fantasy isn't high at all nor is it epic. I feel for you if it is though!


- Not true. I worked in SF/F PR for years. But there is no changing the fact that there are only a handful of SF/F editors now.


-There are now really only a handful of publishers that will buy any adult SF/F so it has to be spectacular


- There are only about 8 good places to sell UF, too. But not the SAME 8 places


- The queries I see for fantasy are better than the ones I see for SF. You have to consider that there are only about 8 places to sell F/SF


So for now tootles, but keep in mind to keep on trying no matter the odds!