I sent out follow ups today to my queries I sent to agents three months ago. Most of them said 6-8 weeks are an appropriate double-check time, a few said up to 12 weeks (today) and others even said up to six months, but I’m not waiting six months before I start moving on this project.
Part of this process is difficult for me because I don’t hold details like all these agents individual specs for how to send them queries and follow-ups. Granted, I worked hard during the initial query process to ensure I met their requirements, but even in that I sent a follow-up to an agent who, in an auto-reply, specified not to want follow-ups.
Great.
But hey, I’m prepared to self publish with or without an agent. I can always come back to agents later, if needed, and say: “Hey, I just sold 5,000+ units this month. Would you like to reconsider?”
Whether that happens or not, only time will tell. If I do well on my own, I might just hire a publicist to do all the things an agent would do and skip the typical publishing process entirely, but that’s all yet to be determined.
Right now, I’m going for gold to find an agent, but I’m not going to hunt down every last possible potential fantasy agent on the hopes some junior agent might pick me up as his first test case.
I’ve self published 30+ books (only four of which did I write, myself), but I understand the process and mechanics well enough to drive on without an agent, for now.
As my faith is central to me, I’m praying and setting faith in God to set my steps, and ultimately surrender the outcome of my efforts to His plans over my own.
In any event, I’ll wait three weeks to see if any get back with me, and then I’m pressing.
At this point, I think I’ll hire a professional editor to help me finish polishing it up with a final grammatical check and plothole once-over and then I’m pulling the trigger.
I can’t wait for you guys to see it all come out!
