Who is worth talking too for Fantasy books?

[Sonshu]

Thanks for the tip that is the sort of thing I was after.

Also best of luck searching for that break.

[SJAB]

Agentquery is good, but it can be out of date. Agents don't always update their profile. I would always double-check the agent's details and requirements for submission with the agent's agency website, preditors and editors, and in the "bewares" section of absolute write.

I have found agents have changed agencies, or shut to submissons, yet agent query is saying otherwise.

Often if two agents at an agency rep fantasy they might want you to query only one, (as they pass things over to their fellow agent, or they want you to query one at a time.)

Also US agents mainly require you query first. i.e. send a query letter with a short one or two paragraph pitch of your novel's story. Genre, word count, publishing credits and a short bio. These are nomally email, but some still like the postal type.

Query letters are an art form all of their own. You live or die on one paragraph. UK agents still seem to like the synopsis, three chapter by snail mail, which I find better, as at least you are showing them your writing.

Quite often at Cons like Eastercon, or Fantasycon (UK events) they do "agent pitches" by arrangement, where you have a slot to pitch and read a sample of your novel to agents. Events like these are ideal for finding out about the workings of the industry.

Take out a subscription to Writers' news (which is packed with industry info) and Writing magazine, again packed with info and articles on writing.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Sonshu

Theresa - I only posted that information to indicate what I mentioned earlier and that I am not a recruiter of chicken packers etc. I am sure your only trying to give me your thoughts but you do sound incredibly negative on the whole industry ...

I am not at all negative on the industry, but in order to navigate it successfully you need to understand it. I have seen too many new writers burn out prematurely because they think they know what it is about, approach everything the wrong way, fail, and then decide that the whole process is so incomprehensible there is no use going on. It doesn't have to happen that way.

At this point, it looks like you would be better off if you had been recruiting chicken packers, because then you would be going in with a blank slate rather than one already filled with vague misconceptions. (I assume that if you had been recruiting plumbers you wouldn't therefore feel qualified to repair you own pipes.)

However, this does not answer your original question, or tell you what you want to know, so I'll leave off trying to tell you what I think you need to know first, and leave others to answer the question you've actually asked.

[Tirellan]

Originally Posted by SJAB

Agentquery is good, but it can be out of date. Agents don't always update their profile. I would always double-check the agent's details and requirements for submission with the agent's agency website, preditors and editors, and in the "bewares" section of absolute write.

I have found agents have changed agencies, or shut to submissons, yet agent query is saying otherwise.

This is somewhat true. Some agents update AQ when their circumstances change, others don't and AQ are reliant on their writing community spotting those changes and telling them. However, some agencies are slow to update their website (if they have one) and AQ is at least more up to date than the 'Guide to Literary Agents'.
The message here is to cross-check wherever possible.

[Stephen Aryan]

Thank you Teresa for all of your comments. As someone who is a published author and can speak from experience of the business, and the process of getting published, it is all valuable insight for aspiring writers.

[misscousins]

I think perhaps I need to work on how long my stories are too then, because I seem to write a whole story between 70 and 95,000 thinking that 100,000 was the aimed word count.

Could what I write be seen as a novella and not a novel?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Anything over 40,000 words is technically a novel. Whether publishers who are looking for novels would buy anything at that length is another matter. If the book is written for young children they would, but it would be fantastically difficult to sell something that length to anyone but a children's publisher.

Novellas, by the way, are hard to sell to anyone.

[misscousins]

Thanks xxx

[Tirellan]

Originally Posted by misscousins

I think perhaps I need to work on how long my stories are too then, because I seem to write a whole story between 70 and 95,000 thinking that 100,000 was the aimed word count.

Could what I write be seen as a novella and not a novel?

That's a good wordcount for the US market