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Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:24 pm
Tusker93 says...



Hey to everyone this'll be my first post :P

I've finished a novella which is a little over 22,000 words. I was unsure as to whether it was worth publishing and showed it to my english teacher for reassurance before I decided on my course
of action. She gave it a positive review and felt it was worth publishing. With the encouraging review I got I finally got round to looking for agents.

After searching the internet for god knows how long I find I have no idea which agent to send it to, which ones are credible etc. I'm not sure what genre exactly my book is although I suppose it's in the Horror/Thriller/Sci-fi/Fantasy, doesn't really give you a great idea but y'know :lol:.

Any chance someone who has previously published novels, knows any good agents I could contact?

Any help is welcome as anything can make a big difference for me right now, cheers :)
  





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Sun Aug 31, 2008 6:47 pm
Blink says...



Hey!

Sounds to me like you'll want to go for Sci-Fi or Fantasy, then an agent in your country. Try searching for specific UK agents. Some agents are genre specific, and I recommend them if you're going to target the market.

Make sure also that they accept novellas. I recommend going for medium-sized agents. Tiny agents will have little benefit in terms of marketing, whereas big time places will see it as a business (which it is) and be costly. Make sure that they pay you, you don't pay them (a percentage fee is normal, though).

Best of luck!
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Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:03 pm
Tusker93 says...



Thanks Blink - what's a percentage fee for reference btw ?
  





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Mon Sep 01, 2008 12:40 am
A Flawed Paradise says...



I'm assuming it's a percentage that you and the agent agree on, that goes to the Agent no matter what. Does that make sense? As in, if you make 100 dollars of overall profit on your novella (figuratively of course) and, beforehand you and your agent greed that you would give him 45% of it to him, then 45 dollars would go to him and 55 would go to you. So it's in your best interest to haggle down to a lower percent.

But I could be wrong >.>

In that case I didn't say anything!
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Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:55 am
Blink says...



Yep, that's about right.

Except, 45% is one hell of a lot. 15 - 25% I believe would be the standard.
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Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:39 pm
TheWordsmith says...



Oooh, my area of expertise. Forgive me if I rant.

Yes, actually finding an agent is important but even more so is the dreaded query letter. Yikes! is what I said. It's not enough that I write a novel, but I have to write query letter, too? So my suggestion would be to figure out how to write that thing that is going to determine if the agent is even going to look at your manuscript.

Also, you said that you did internet searches. I wouldn't know about the UK, but there are TONS of books about agents where I live. The library might have them.

Anyway, I stopped myself before I could rant. If you need anything else, feel free to PM me.
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