The Waters Deepen

So, what did we learn today, kiddos? That tracking down a literary agent is a hell of a daunting task.  We begin with a basic Google search.  The top websites are AgentQuery and Writers.net.  When we open up their homepages, the screen is so swamped with ads, that it's hard to navigate.  There are so many links to click that's it hard to decipher what is text and what is a link to another page.  It's beyond frustrating and many pop-up windows are involved.

When I finally figure out which links are friends and which are money-sucking foes, I browse through some results.  Writer's.net doesn't have an option to search by area.  Does it even matter if your agent is close to you? How often will you actually even speak to these people? Who knows?  I opted to search for those that are within a reasonable driving distance from where I live.  This opened up the greater DC Metro area.  I was repeatedly met with 'only established authors' and 'closed to new submissions'.  Those that were accepting new queries paid much less in royalties than the self-publishing route.  Many offered 10-15% of the royalties.  There is a huge difference between 10% and the 40-85% offered by Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Smashwords.  On top of that, some agents charge reading fees.  That's right, folks.  These agents can charge me money to send me a letter of rejection.  Fabulous.

So, this leads me to believe self-publishing may be the best option.  Sure, I will have to promote the book myself.  It won't sell nearly as many copies as it would if I could get an agent to sell it to a major publishing house, but the process will be much quicker and I might still be able to turn a small profit.  To be honest, I'm not really in it for the money anyway.  There's something exciting about seeing your own book in print.  Although, I can't pretend I wouldn't be outrageously overjoyed if my book was an indie sensation. Let's make it happen, folks, let's make it happen.