Well, so much for my last year's resolution to do better. I'm going to try that again.

I've gone through a lot of changes since that last blog post. My agent tried and failed to sell a couple of novels. I wrote one and a half novels. My co-authored novel, Talon of the Raptor Clan, made it to the finals for an Epic Award.

Now I'm unagented again and have decided to try "indie publishing" along with C. R. Daems with our novel, Wings of Evil. It is a young adult fantasy, and I must admit, I think it turned out well. As of today, it's available in Kindle format from Amazon. I will be posting about how the indie author thing comes along.

Publishing has a new face now and I'm anxious to find out what kind of face that is. I'll share my experience with you.

It's nice to be back in the blogosphere.

I apologize for a lengthy absence. I've been very concerned with getting "settled in" with a new agent and finishing up a new manuscript for him to "shop".

I'll try to do better in the future.

In the meantime, please watch something that in my opinion says everything that there is to be said about the state of the world today:

We Will Hold You to Account

Finding a Literary Agent

Ugh! I'm very behind on my blogging. Put it down to writing a new novel, having the flu and being lazy.

There has been a lot of talk among the writers I hang out with on the subject of finding an agent, so I want to talk about that some. It has probably always been difficult but with a tight publishing market and everyone wanting to be a writer it's gotten about ten steps beyond difficult.

And it is darn near essential for those of us who are novelists. (Did I mention my novel Warrior's Duty and my co-authored novel Talon of the Raptor Clan both being on Amazon *grin*)

But back on topic, how do you find an agent?

First, finish your novel. Seriously. Don't even think about it until the novel is complete and edited.

Then research agents and research writing queries.

Some good sources for learning about queries:

Guide to Literary Agents

Pub Rants, Agent Kristin Nelson's Blog

Agent Nathan Bransford's Blog

How to Write a Great Query Letter by agent Noah Lukeman

I strongly recommend all four of those. If you read and apply them and spend time polishing that query, you'll have a query that has a good chance of at least garnering some looks at your work and that's a start.

Now to researching agents. I don't think that you need to know where agents went to high school or every single book they ever sold, but you do need to know that they're legitimate, that they're accepting queries and that they're interested in the genre of novel you've written. I'll point you in the direction for the best starting point for that information in my very strong opinion and it has links to every important source. It is great for making a list of possible agents and puts links for further research at your fingertips:

Query Tracker

I realize I mentioned this recently, but I can't recommend it highly enough, and, no, they don't pay me.

More on a literary agent search next time, but I hope this helps.

Paperback winners

This will be a short one tonight.

I wanted to announce that I have two winners for the copies of Warrior's Duty.

They will go to John and Victoria and I'll email them both tomorrow to get their physical addresses. Thanks so much to everyone who took part!

I've talked to a number of people recently who are looking for agents and I want to mention what I consider the best source for help and information for an agent search. I highly recommend QueryTracker.net.

It has the most complete database of American Agents that I've seen, and I've looked at a most of them. Pat who runs it is meticulous about removing questionable agents. Each agent page also has links to sources where you can check further, such as the agent's webpage, Publisher's Marketplace, AgentQuery and Predators & Editors. You can also use it to track your queries and query results and look at accumulated stats on queries and submissions from other authors.

Nope, they don't pay me. I just think it's a great resource. So if you're looking for an agent I suggest you head over to http://www.querytracker.net .

I'll have more thoughts on the writing life soon so keep writing.

Jeanne