I’ve spent some time today going through the 2007 Guide to Literary Agents and compiling a list of agents that accept Sci-Fi novels. I sent out about four queries through email, the rest will have to go out by snail mail. For that I will have to get some envelopes for the SASE. This in preparation for my novel Starstrikers.
I sent out queries to about four agents via email, and received one nearly instant response that was a polite rejection. I feel honored that he even read my query. He said my project sounded interesting, but was not what he was looking for at this time. I’m on the road to getting an agent. I will have to buy some envelopes and stamps to finish sending out the rest of the queries. My list of potential agents is quite small. I may have to expand it out to less likely prospects just to even the odds a bit. This is the worst part about writing. The odds are always astronomically high against you ever finding someone interested enough to even read your novel. I think that’s the biggest reason I have not pursued publishing anything in the last 20 years of my writing life.
The only reason I am bothering to do it now, is because I have to know that what I’ve written is good enough to be published. The only way you can know for sure is to try to get it represented. I write my stories because they are in my head and I must get them out and onto paper. I can’t always deny myself the creative urge to write. When my father died at age 69, it became clear to me that I should not wait until I retire and have the time to write. By then it could be too late. So I continue to find the time to write in my busy life and I send out messages in bottles, hoping to find someone who will answer me.