Sushi,

I believe there are a lot of good and honest agents out there. Your book will find a home and so will mine!

Good luck :-) Sigrid

Again, I say perseverance is key. Believe in your book topic and relay that in writing in your query. Help the agents/publishers feel your passion. Be sure you have others read your query before sending it. We must write query letters that will knock someone's sock off. Best wishes to all of us.

I agree with Dotsie and Sigrid... I'm sure there are lots of good agents and you WILL find one. Don't overlook one great resource though. Your public library. Its free, there are tons of resource books there too. Not only ones on agents, but ones on how to write a killer query letter, which CAN open the door to finding your agent.

Good luck! and keep us posted.

JJ

Thanks for the tips about the query letter. Never thought about running it past someone else before I sent it.

I appreciate everyone's encouragement. Right back at ya!

Sigrid

I have gone the route of self publishing and so far I am happy with it. The only problem is if it doesn't have a built in target audience it is very hard to promote the book. My book Into the Mist is for Alzheimer's care givers and professionals. I have a novel that I want to get published and this time I am going to try to find an agent. I won't have a foot in the door to get my novel to the right publishers. If anyone has an agent who is looking for someone to represent let me know. I spent a full year (six months each) with two of the top literary agents as they considered Into the Mist. They both loved it but after six months each they passed. I was tired of waiting so long so I self published. Did that make any sense? I think I am rambling.

Deb,

You're not rambling. I can identify completely. My first book is all about how to recover from a total hip replacement. Like your Alzheimer's book, it has a very specific target audience, so I did not have difficulty marketing it.

My second book is a novel and I just can't get it off the ground. That's why I want to send it to agents but I fear that I will run into the same roadblocks that you have encountered. Such a dilemma :-(

Did you publish your novel with Xlibris as well?

Best, Sigrid

If anyone needs their book typed, edited and prepared for submission, please contact me at secbydesign@bellsouth.net. I'll be glad to help!

Hello, I have also received a letter from Author's Marketing Services Ltd., In toronto and they are interested in my first novel. However they are asking for a reading fee to be sent "at some point" after I send the book electronically. The fee is $395.00 Canadian. I have done a bunch of reseach on them and have found that they are legitamate and have about 20 clients with all the major publishing houses. But... I am warry of the reading fee, even though more than half of the agents in Canada charge them espite all the advise not to.

I was never been my intention to submit the full book to an agency that charged fees as everyone is clear that this is unethical. When I sent the query letter to them, it was not stated in their package that they charge fees. Hense my surprise.

Larry Hoffman, the president of the agency has some really good references and some good clients as well, but I am extremely conflicted. I have talked with past clients and they say he is good but they all seem to have left once they got their first book published.

There seem to be only about 14 agents in Canada that don't charge fees while there are around double that who do.

I certainly do not want to throw any money at an editor or book doctor as it has already been through that process and has garnered rave reviews from several non-biased readers.

Unfortunately, despite the books topical, Canadian and marketable nature, I have receive very positive rejection letters from five agents, nothing from eight and one from Author's Marketing Services who liked the premise, the method.

I have been deliberating over this for almost a week now and still cannot make up my mind despite the massive amount of advise: "don't pay fees!"

I don't want to be an idiot, for certain, and I am not going to go with POD as that is an even less finantially viable and marketable approach, but there just seems to be so few options in Canada.

don't do it. hoffman told me and another person that he like our book ideas. i'd like to hear from someone he turned down! maybe after the $395. he may be perfectly good but preditors and editors gave him a poor review. don't take the gamble. i just tried bukowski in toronto. no fees. good luck!

ps. pod is not that bad. if u use lulu, u can publish for almost no cost - a few hundred dollars at best. the marketing is up to u at the end anyway. think about it. or u can publish pod now and keep applying to agents. that's what i'm doing.