Finding an agent

Sooooo, now that I had finished my first draft and then edited it to the point that I felt comfortable sending it out, I started down the path of finding a Lit agent.

Now, something you should know about me is that things have always gone relatively smooth as far as my career goes. I had published dozens of games from the Apple II and Commodore 64 to SNES to DVD to massively multiplayer PC games. I figured with this would be no different. Why should it be? I had a cool book and a cool background.

Sheesh.

I had heard all the horror stories about finding an agent and for me (for the most part) that was true. You see, the market was in major shift when I started looking. Borders closed down. Big deals for books went by the dodo. Men are disappearing from the book landscape and vampire romance is in full swing. Finding someone to represent (let alone publish) an urban fantasy with a WWII twist was a tough sell. And it was. I sent out dozens and dozens of queries (all very professional), created a killer website, illustrations and book trailer. I did get some folks interested in reading partial manuscripts and fulls but that ultimately didn't work out.

Friends were gracious reminding me how JK Rowling was snubbed as well and I understand all that. Still it was tough as I felt (and do feel ever more) that the novel can stand on it's own against any other urban fantasy.

On the other side of the coin, I found a wonderful LA agent (Judy Coppage) who liked the novel and has been great in helping me get it ready to be pitched in Tinsel Town. I met Judy through a friend and she has been very supportive. So, we will see where that goes.

More later :)