Changing agents, I have discovered, is a difficult thing to do. Not long ago, I parted company with the agent who has represented me for four years and six books. We split by mutual agreement, and I have nothing but complimentary things to say about my previous agent, if you're interested. But that would be a private conversation, not one I'm having with myself here today.
Finding a new agent--and you have to break ties formally before a new agent will discuss your situation--is tricky. Granted, I know a number of you DEAD GUY fans are still trying to latch on with your first agent, and that is admittedly more difficult a task. Once you're published, you have a track record, experience and published books you can mention, all good selling points for prospective representation.
That doesn't mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that even a published author who parts with an agent and has no immediate prospect of another doesn't wake up at three in the morning wondering what the hell he might have just done. Trust me.
But the Agent Hunt is something universal to all writers. It helps when you start with a track record and some friends you've met along the way. People who know your work are especially valuable, because they might know agents who respond to that sort of thing. And authors who write in your sub-genre might also be helpful (there are many generous and giving people in this business). But that does NOT mean I'm saying you should get in touch with Stephen King because you wrote a horror novel or Donna Andrews if you write humorous cozies--contacting people you don't know, who don't know you, isn't going to get you an agent. It'll get you, at best, an email from an author you don't know. At worst, if you don't quit, it can get you a restraining order.
Online lists can be helpful. Predators and Editors is a decent place to look for lists of names, and Publishers Lunch, with a list of recent deals and the principals involved, can help. Compile a REALISTIC list of those you'd like to contact.
Write a killer cover letter, but don't lie. Don't say you're published if you haven't been. Don't say your novel, MURDER CAN BE MURDER, is the logical successor to Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie and Charlaine Harris all rolled up into one, because let's face it, it's not. DON'T send the 700-page manuscript to every agent on a list. In fact, don't send it to ANY agent until they ask for it.
If you get a response, be polite, quick, and accurate. Send what the agent asks for, not what you think they should have. If the agent says, "send the first three chapters," and you know something GREAT happens in Chapter Four, send the first three chapters. Of course, there's nothing I can see wrong with deleting the breaks between chapters three and four and THEN sending the first three chapters. If your mind-blowing plot twist comes in Chapter Thirty-Eight, however, this ploy is, at the very best, ill advised.
Be patient. Sending an email every day after you submit your material--even if you don't directly ask why you haven't heard back yet--doesn't make you an aggressive marketer; it makes you a pest. Don't be a pest.
In my case, a chance encounter between two people--an author who's a friend and an agent who happens to live in the same building--led to a flurry of emails, a submission, and what do you know, a change in representation. So now I have to come up with something else to wake me at three in the morning.
Don't worry--I have a stockpile of such things.
LP-to-Digital Conversion Project Update: It's the end of the line, children. I got through the (considerably fewer than expected) singles in just a couple of days. And I'll publish the list thereof next week, promise. Suffice it to say some were classics, some
were obscure, and some were just plain embarrassing. But they are now all preserved for posterity until the next technological breakthrough hits and I have to turn them into corn chips, or something. Next week: I'll sum up the project.
P.S.: If, by any chance, you are associated with, or know of, a company in the film/TV/post production business which might be interested in extremely low-cost help (in other words, work for college credit or minimum wage) for six months, please don't hesitate to get in touch (see here for email directions). My son,the film major at Drexel University, is scheduled to begin his co-op--a major part of the program there, getting the student actual workplace experience--in September. He's still looking, with special interests in (but not limited to) editing and writing, and is open to suggestion. Suggest.
