New Awesome Agent Alert: Michael Carr

I don’t usually provide agent updates on my blog–I usually post them on the AQC (Agent Query Connect) discussion board called Agent Updates where all my querying AQC friends can find them. Or in this case, I find out about an awesome new literary agent via someone else’s post. However, I thought I’d give ol’ Michael a shout out as he is rockin’ the socks off some of my writer friends. (They are loving you, Mr. Carr!)

Michael Carr has joined the Veritas Agency and his timeliness is what is dazzling my writerly buddies. Granted, Mr. Carr is new to the scene, so he may have a bit more time at the moment than an agent who’s been around the block a few times and has a stable of writers, but his response time has been phenomenal!! We’re talking less than 24 hours in terms of replying to a query (and asking for a partial), reading that requested material and getting back to the writer. Sweet! (You can read the whole thread here.)

Here’s more on Mr. Carr and his professional preferences:

• In terms of fiction, he’s always looking for lucid writing and good old fashioned storytelling.
• He will consider paranormal and urban fantasy
• He loves to see anything with an unusual locale or historical setting.
• In terms on nonfiction, he’d like to get a couple of non-fiction writers in his stable who are experts on a particular subject, but write for a lay audience. Something with an interesting historical or scientific angle, for example.
  –From AgentQuery.com. Read his full profile here.

“I represent most genres except picture books, romance, and erotica.”

And yes, he reps YA. And yes, he’s done some trolling around on websites to find good writers. He’s got the time at the moment to go looking–help him find you and your well-crafted book. Query him! And good luck!

P.S. Want a little more? Check out this Q & A on Absolute Write.

Later note: AQCrew over on AQC has posted a list of 20 new literary agents open to your queries. They’re hot, they’re new, and they want you!

Online Chat With Literary Agent Kevan Lyon Tonight!

That’s right, AgentQuery.com is holding another literary agent chat and it is tonight!

Our agent guest is Kevan Lyon of the West coast agency Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Kevan has twenty plus years in the publishing business, many of them in retail and distribution, making her a force to contend with when it comes to figuring out which books will sell and how to market them.

Curious about what Kevan is seeking in her submission pile?:

“Kevan Lyon works primarily with women’s fiction, with an emphasis on commercial women’s fiction and all genres of romantic fiction and young adult. Her particular interest is historical fiction of all types. She is also interested in non-fiction representing authors in the areas of memoir, pets, environment, parenting and current events.” As well, “Her authors in women’s fiction span a broad range of genres from more literary, commercial projects to all genres of romance including historical, contemporary, suspense and paranormal. With non-fiction projects she looks for topics that she is passionate about or that speak to issues of particular concern to women and families.” –From her AQ cafe chat area bio.

Join us tonight at 8PM Eastern! I will be serving as moderator so feel free to ask me chat related questions in the comment area. As well, there are more details posted in Kevan’s Chat thread on AQ Connect about the chat’s ins and outs as well as some handy timezone gadget links for those (like me) who find themselves in other timezones. The chat will be held in the AgentQuery Connect chat area and is free for all members. (Membership is free, but you do have to sign in to participate). The chat starts at 8PM Eastern and will last for one hour. If you have a question you’d like to ask Kevan, here’s your chance!

See you there.

“Write because you must, because it is your passion. Write for yourself, not to be published or for monetary gain.” Kevan Lyon.

Desperation, Finding a Literary Agent and Perfect Matches

The other day a bunch of us aspiring authors were yaking it up in an AgentQuery.com chat room. Litgal, the studious, brilliant type had us read a blog post about writer firsts (first time getting an agent, first time getting a publisher, etc). It wasn’t the ‘first’ aspect of the article that got us talking, but the aspiring author desperation that can make us act in  ways that may not lead us to attain our career goals. (Yes, we aspiring authors can truly be a desperate lot. Note: not an attractive quality in dating, and also not an attractive quality in aspiring writers.)

While we aspiring authors are not desperate all the time, we do have those panic attack moments. That alone, isn’t the reason for concern. (Like dating, it’s when we act on our desperation that things go down a path that leads to nobody’s best interests.) For writers, desperation can lead us to sign with an agent who might not be The One.

To be honest, the idea of The One or a ‘perfect’ agent stresses me out. Why? Well, first of all, how do you know who that agent truly is when you send them a query letter? Yes, I research agents before querying and target ones that seems as though they might have The One potential. Yes, your research may gather a general sense of who the agent is as a professional, but the reality is, you won’t know who they truly are until you have talked to them and possibly even worked with them. So, who do you query? How do you know? What if there isn’t a The One out there for you?

Freaking out yet? Don’t worry, I have a theory. (Purely untested, of course, but I’m working on that.)

The questions is: Are there several The Ones when it comes to matching up with a literary agent?

My hypothesis: Yes. I believe so. This is a numbers game. A business deal. There are a certain number of agents out there that can help you make the most of your business (writing). The more queries you put out there, the more likely you are to reach the right agent. Some folks hit the right partner within 20 queries. Some need to send 200. (And yes, some never do.)

Because this is business and not some life-partner quest, I don’t think it’s fair to aspiring authors to think of finding a literary agent to represent them as The One. When finding the perfect mate, I was willing to wait as long as I needed. Decades, even. With finding a business partner, I am not willing to waiting that long. I am certain that there are at least a handful of agents out there that could connect with me and my work and vice versa (no desperation required to fog my vision). There could be a handful of The One agents that could help me bring my work to the world and help me reach my career goals.

I also think that the odds are in my favour–more than they would be if I were to go about finding a new, perfect mate. With dating, approximately 50% of the population is eligible for match ups. (I know, I know, there are men in that population who aren’t interested in women, who have already attached themselves to someone else, and men who aren’t going to be ‘t suitable. But you what I’m saying.) Of that 50% there is, say, one man in two thousand that you could see yourself marrying–happily–and being partners forever more. Not exactly the greatest odds. (Sorry to any singletons out there who now feel depressed.) With literary agents (around a 1000 in the U.S.A.), approximately 50% of the agents rep women’s fiction or romance (approximate guess, my favourite searchable agent database is down at the moment). Of that 50% (500), there are maybe five agents who would make a very good fit as a business partner and you could see yourself working happily ever after. Look at my odds: 1 in 100. That’s downright inspiring.

Next time you hear someone making an aspiring author hyperventilate by tossing around words like The One in the same sentence as literary agents, do me a favour, smack that person upside the head for me. Thanks.

Submission Tip: Word 2007

If you are so lucky as to be asked to submit a partial to a literary agent and you use Word 2007, I’ve got a tip for you.

Awhile back, after receiving a request from a literary agent, I whipped up my partial in Word. I added a nice little title page/cover page using Word’s templates and saved it as a .doc (not .docx which is the 2007 default file format–unreadable in older versions of Word). I emailed it to the agent who wanted to read it that weekend. I was happy and optimistic as I didn’t hit ‘send’ and then realize I had forgotten to do something stupid like write ‘requested materials’ or include my contact information. I didn’t even cruise through my manuscript and see that I had used the wrong word somewhere.

The following Monday I got an email informing me there was some type of image in my document that made it impossible for her to upload the partial into her Kindle. Therefore, she was unable to read the sample. Please fix and resend. The best I could figure was that the Word title page template has some sort of embedded image (probably one of the nice text boxes or the vertical line that goes to the left of the title) that was messing things up. So, I whipped off the old title page, made a slap-dash, plain as punch title page (remembering to add in the word count) and resent the partial. Then I sat on my hands for about 3 weeks until she had time to read it. While I don’t think I would have been accepted as a client if I had managed to get her to read it right off the bat, I missed the benefit of ‘read it right now’ as well as riding that small wave of agent enthusiasm. I also made a busy agent’s life more difficult and caused her some frustration. You don’t want to do that.

Therefore, boys and girls of the aspiring writer world (or anyone within range of a Kindle), don’t use the Word 2007 title page templates if you think the document might come in contact with a Kindle (or possibly another electronic reader device such as the Sony Reader–it might have the same problems).

Lesson learned? Lesson learned.