Well, I have started the unbelievably time-consuming process of searching for an agent for the book. Confession. I’ve done this before with this book at conferences and on my own. I also did it before with two other books that may eventually find their way back on my desk for rewrite. But, for now, Necessary Evil and it’s world are my writing focus.

One of the greatest things to happen in the many years since I queried agents pre-2020 is the Manuscript Wish List (manuscriptwishlist.com). Two other great new items to replace those spreadsheets is the combo of Query Manager (querymanager.com) and Query Tracker (querytracker.net). MSWL let’s you know what agents are looking for right now, not just from the list of genres. Some of them are specific, like one agent specifically saying “No books with MAGA values.” I honestly don’t know what that means.

These sites do provide deep insight into what the agent wants to work with including example titles. Gotta say, it’s helped reduce my list, though you do need to get to know them. Query Manager allows you to submit queries with specific requirements in a form letter then tie that submission directly into Query Tracker.

The cons, of course, are you have hundreds of agents to sift through. You find the perfect one only to discover when you go to submit that they are no longer accepting queries until November. You also get the distinct feeling that some of the big name agents are just collecting queries to train junior agents. I highly doubt Donald Maass (love your books, if you happen to read this) is looking for new, unpublished talent. Sorry, there are only so many hours in the day.

I’ve also been reminded of the turn around time agents require. One pointer to some agents, hire someone to send a form rejection. If you honestly cannot find time to provide a professional form letter rejection, rethink your profession. I’ve been in the IT service industry for 30 years. There’s always room for common courtesy. Agents that say, “if you don’t hear from me in 6 months, consider it a pass,” are probably not very good at communication when I am become your client and you are my agent. Hard pass.

Now the fun stuff. I went back to the well with the great editor, Caylah Coffeen. My questions were simple enough, or so I thought. What genre does this book fall into and what similar titles come close? From her responses, here is the current info:

Necessary Evil
New Adult Space Opera
Pitch (draft) – An exiled young extra-terrestrial man uses telekinesis to stay alive against Humans, aliens, and his own sadistic trainer on antediluvian Earth.

I’ll keep you posted!