Querying About a Self-Published Book
The most recent issue of Writer’s Digest is all about finding an agent, and I was lucky enough to contribute three articles. One article in the issue is all about…
The most recent issue of Writer's Digest is all about finding an agent, and I was lucky enough to contribute three articles.
One article in the issue is all about life after self-publishing. See the whole thing online here. It's written for those who have self-published a book and want an agent to get it a traditional publishing deal. The article also speaks to those who have self-published pretty much everything to this point and need to know how to address those previous books when querying an agent for a new project.
Here are some snippets from the article:
- Many agents will indeed consider representing self-published books, but they are only looking for the best of the best.
- Agents want to know sales numbers of your book, and they're looking for impressive figures.
- Fiction is tougher to sell than nonfiction, so smaller sales numbers for the former will be considered, just as larger sales numbers for the latter will be expected.
- Just as it's important that your book is selling and has a distinct market(s), selling too many books is a bad thing as well, as you may have maxed out your sales. There would be no reason to give it a second life via traditional publishing.
There is plenty more to read, and lots of agents chimed in with good advice, so see it all here online at WritersDigest.com!
Also, check out agreat example of a sample query letter when contacting an agent about a self-published book.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
