rosearche

I am sure this has been asked many times before - although I haven't immediately found any threads; agent or publisher? Forgive me if this is old hat but I am new here.

I believe I have a cracking story, written and revised and would also make an excellent film. Teenager genre, adventure set in London. Confidence is high.

I have scoured the various books for writers and can see arguements for both, going directly to a publisher and to using an agent. How does one decide?

I noted that it is acceptable to send your MS to several publishers at the same time. Is it acceptable to send it to a publisher and an agent?

Appreciate any views on this, thanks.

Davedurdans

I often send out my writing to at least 10 publishers at once. The majority of them will reject it without taking the paperclip out. If you send them one by one you may wait years to get a good response.

mwd

I'd go for agents first. Why? Because there are plenty of good YA agents, and if you manage to get one they'll be able to get you a better offer than you'd get by subbing directly to publishers. Of course, do your research and only query good agents.

It's perfectly acceptable to query multiple agents at once. They expect this.

As for sending out actual manuscripts to multiple places, it depends on their guidelines. If an agent requests a manuscript, they'll let you know if they want an exclusive or not. A publisher, similarly, should have listed in their guidelines whether or not they accept simultaneous submissions. A lot of them don't (yet another reason why going for agents is a good choice... it'll probably be faster, since you can send out batches of queries).

SeattleCPA

I would think you try everything...all at once... as many times as you can...

__________________
Steve Nelson, CPA, Dummies author
Downloadable Do-it-yourself Kits
limited liability corporation, forming an s corp and incorporating a business