Chasing the elusive agent

There are many books, web sites, workshops, and magazines designed to provide fiction and nonfiction writers with advice and assistance in getting published. I was lucky in that a publisher contacted me to write a book, hence the creation and publication of A Cultural History of the United States through the Decades: The 1920s (Lucent Books, 1998, http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-History-United-Through-Decades/dp/1560065524/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213720675&sr=1-1 )

Now, with my novel ready and another history book percolating, I realize just how easy getting that first book in print was. Because Lucent publishes series books for middle and high school children, they will not be interested in my other books. So . . . I’m pounding the keyboard sending agent queries.

In general, for fiction, you will need to have your novel finished. Agents are rarely interested in seeing bits and pieces of an untried (i.e. unpublished) novelist’s book. Don’t query until your novel is done—nothing would be worse than querying an agent who asks to see your book and having to reply, “um. . . I haven’t finished it yet.”

For nonfiction, you can query agents or directly contact editors at publishing or book preparation firms. For these, you will need a book proposal, which presents your justification for why the world needs your book as well as a detailed outline and several finished chapters.

I’ll provide some details for both fiction and nonfiction queries in upcoming posts. I will be focusing on traditional print publishing in these posts. Self-publishing and print-on-demand have different benefits, limitations, and rules. I’ll cover them separately.