Anyone know a good literary agent?

[Strayvector]

A good friend of mine is has just finished the final revision to his novel based on events in his father's life and is looking to get his novel published. He has sent the manuscript out to a few publishing houses, but has yet to receive a response. I was hoping someone here might have experience in getting their work published and can provide some suggestions or provide a contact to an agent. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[AVB]

You can always do on-line publishing, I'm looking into that as a possibility for a Whisk(e)y book.

A good friend of mine is has just finished the final revision to his novel based on events in his father's life and is looking to get his novel published. He has sent the manuscript out to a few publishing houses, but has yet to receive a response. I was hoping someone here might have experience in getting their work published and can provide some suggestions or provide a contact to an agent. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Not A Nice Person]

Hugh Macleod (gapingvoid.com) recommends blogging one chapter at a time, building traffic, and letting publishers come to YOU.

He should know. His "How To Be Creative" blog entry, after a million or more hits, eventually became THIS: his first published book, and on his own terms, not some publishing house's "we know you want this so bad you'll let us screw you over" deal.

~Boar

 

[Strayvector]

Hugh Macleod (gapingvoid.com) recommends blogging one chapter at a time, building traffic, and letting publishers come to YOU.

He should know. His "How To Be Creative" blog entry, after a million or more hits, eventually became THIS: his first published book, and on his own terms, not some publishing house's "we know you want this so bad you'll let us screw you over" deal.

~Boar

Great suggestion. My friend's book has attracted quite a bit of interest from two movie production companies (one of his editors passed the manuscript to a script writer), but they are treating him with the attitude of exactly how you phrased it..."we know you want this so bad you'll let us screw you over" deal. He's retired, doesn't need the money but also doesn't want to get screwed. More importantly he doesn't want the story changed too much for Hollywood and wants to retain the rights to the story. They don't realize that the book was a labor of love and that he just wanted to tell his dad's story. So, now he's looking to first get the book published, then deal with those production companies.

 

[MoeCizlak]

My wife self-published two children's books, if he wants to go that route my wife said she would be happy to provide any info you need. Good luck to him, I think it's great when you care enough to share your father's story with the world. :thumbs:

 

[theroberthogan]

If he wants to retain the rights and just tell the story then he should follow Boar's advice of blogging the story. It's the only way an unknown writer can retain all the rights to his story and still find an audience. Now, if his motive is really to make money or become famous, then blogging the story for free probably won't fly with him. In which case, he could always self publish.

Today it is easy and relatively cheap for a writer to self publish, which allows them to keep all the rights to their story, yet still find an audience. The problem with self publishing is that you also have to do the marketing, PR, and selling of your book. Usually the publisher will pay for all of those things, which is why it is so difficult for an unknown writer to get published.

As for me, I spent eight years trying to make it as a screenwriter and got tired of directors/producers/actors/agents getting their paws all over my stories and destroying them. I'm working on writing a novel right now (and have ideas for a couple more), but I have also started writing short stories and posting them to my blog website. The idea is that once I finish a novel or two I would have already built up an audience for my writing through the stories I give away for free online, which makes me more appealing to publishing houses when I am ready to sell my novels.