The Word Cloud

Evening all - I am almost done with my first novel. It is about a young gay Muslim man who struggles with his identity. It contains various sub plots involving seduction by an elder lady, break up with a girlfriend he never wanted and love confession to another man. Is it saleable, marketable, and would anyone be interested in that sort of stuff? If so, what sort of literary agents should I be approaching with my manuscript? Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

It doesn't come down to what the book is about - it has more to do with how well written it is. You can write about the history of sawdust and it will sell if it's an amazing read. What sort of feedback have you have? Who have you asked to read some for you?

You'll get great help and input here, so it might be worth loading some up for feedback.

Hi Barb

Good advice, there, from Barb. When it comes to deciding which agents to approach you will need to research each of them in the Writers' and Authors' Yearbook or on-line to see which is likely to be interested in your subject matter.

There's some good advice here, from the Cloud's own parent, about the whole business of agents:

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/agents-advice.html

On the whole though, apart from certain niches (crime, sf/f, perhaps women's fiction) that some agents inhabit, it's very hard to be definitive about which agents will like what - on the whole, they're generalists, and whether a book floats their particular boat or not is something that's hard to guess. So I'd always suggest that you resign yourself to submitting quite widely, in batches, and seeing what happens.

To narrow the field a bit you could think about authors you admire who write the kind of book that would appeal to readers who would also like your novel, and then trying to find out who those authors' agent is. "name of author" +agent on google will often turn it up, and many authors give their agent's name on their website - and/or thank the agent in an acknowledgment. Similarly, try browsing a library or big bookshop for books which are aimed at the same market as yours.

Best of luck!

Many thanks for the suggestions - googling a particular author + agent sounds very helpful. I shall also upload some of my work here and see where that goes. Submitting widely is most certainly on my agenda - all sounds very daunting and nerve-wracking but here goes!

Paradoxically, I think submitting widely can really help with the nerves - if anything can.

There is nothing as hideous as knowing that all your eggs are in a single agent's basket (ask any author who has an agent what it's like waiting to hear what they think of the WIP). Whereas if you do it in batches of ten, say, by the time the last one comes back you're well into the next novel/batch of submissions/alternative career plan...

Alternative career plan is certainly springing to my mind more and more often, even though i've only just started....fingers crossed.

You're welcome! Mind you, none of us have career plans - there's no such thing for a writer, not really. Just prayers that we'll sell the next book, a day job, and a back-up plan for when we finally have to acknowledge we can't make even part of a living this way. Either that or a rich spouse/partner/parent...

You might find Harry Bingham's book The WAAYB Guide to Getting Published useful. (Full disclosure: Harry owns Writers Workshop and so the Word Cloud. And I'm quoted in the book).

thanks for recommending Bingham's book - i'll most certainly check it out and hope it helps