Business Plan Part 6 - Who Do You Submit To?

Currently reading - My own novel before I submit it

Before you send out any submissions to agents or editors, did you do your homework?

By this, I mean (1) do you understand what genre your opus falls into (and for the record, I consider literary fiction a genre) and (2) do you know who's looking for the type of work you just created?

If you're reading my blog, then you've got no effing excuse for not entering search criteria in your internet search engine. For those of you who may not have done this yet, look at this as homework: go find sites that list agents and editors and start weeding through them. Yes, it takes work. But you want to send your precious babies to a good home, don't you?

I've got Excel spreadsheets for each manuscript with a list of my dream agents for the genre of that particular novel. Use whatever method works for you, but I've got a quick snapshot of who's repeatedly asking for partials and fulls with a short entry of what he/she liked about my writing. For me, this method narrows the focus on who would fit best with my style.

Your mileage may vary.