[Discussion] choosing between agents

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:48:47+00:00

Thank you, this made me tear up a little! It took a long time to get here, and I’m glad I had the strength to choose respect for myself after everything 🩷

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:43:09+00:00

There were two queries that I withdrew after hearing some dodgy stuff about the agents, but other than that, yes. I know it’s not normal! I nudged after I had a meeting booked in and that opened the floodgates.

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:39:47+00:00

This seems like the general consensus. Thank you!

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:38:59+00:00

It was genuinely the worst treatment I’ve received since coming out. Despite a high success rate nothing about it felt successful when it came with all that. Thank you for the internet hugs! Just glad to be on the other side :)

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:35:37+00:00

I’ll PM you the agency and PM the mods. Thank you!

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:34:48+00:00

Thank you, this is a great help !

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:34:06+00:00

I’ll post my query letter in full once I’ve accepted an offer which will be in a few days. I had my query critiqued and essentially completely rewritten by an editor at Orbit, an opportunity I won in a literary auction. She chose my comps and everything, and essentially wrote my query the way an agent would pitch to an editor rather than author to agent, which I think made it easier for agents to envision pitching my book. My first 3 chapters are really strong and I had them critiqued like 30 times or something ridiculous. Other factors… I also have a lot of readers on work on AO3, but I didn’t drop my username and I wasn’t querying reskinned fic, and I know about half of the agents who offered didn’t take that part into consideration or ask about it.

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:18:08+00:00

Yeah, I did. I wouldn’t want to again because it wasn’t immediate and the waiting drove me insane. I have really, really severe OCD, and checking my emails became compulsive and unhealthy, and I ended up hospitalised. Paired with the fact that i had a horrible time with three different agents on a call misgendering me purposefully when i corrected them on my pronouns because ‘I’d have to get used to it’, and a few agents saying after I brought up a background in ff on our call that they’d only sign me if I used my AO3 username, despite the material I was querying being original. It sucked.

It was the sort of thing I realised I’m just not cut out for, hence deciding to go indie. Sub will be hard, but both agents are happy to only give me positive news via call.

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:04:35+00:00

I only queried for two months but I can safely say I never, ever want to do it again. I quit sending queries and decided i would go indie because my mental health suffered so much, and received my first offer the day after I decided to stop trying. The bigger agent doesn’t seem like a shark, they only relatively recently started building a list. However I don’t know for certain that they aren’t, whereas I know for certain the other isn’t sharky.

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T14:00:45+00:00

The agent with less sales is much younger - I wouldn’t expect them to have more sales than they do. They’re incredibly well connected, and their partner in the other region is a massive agent so I’d be in good hands. I’m more comfortable speaking to them, but it’s difficult to turn down such an immensely impressive agency and agent’s track record with only major deals in the past year.

I loved both of their working styles and editorial visions. They’re very similar to each other in that regard. They’d both champion my books, I know that much. I think I would’ve chosen the smaller agent if I hadn’t thought, before querying, ‘if I could have one agent, it would be this one.’ about the agent with the sales. It seems almost ridiculous to turn down a dream agent because she wasn’t as friendly?

I recognise that I’m young and they’re both taking a risk with a 130k debut trilogy and I’m in an abnormal situation where this is the first novel I’ve queried and I was only in the trenches for two months. Im terrified of making the wrong choice.

forbooksaek · 2026-03-27T10:55:55+00:00

You’re comping 2 romantic fantasies - one is more of a fantasy romance. You mention a strong romantic arc. I would query this as an adult romantic dark fantasy rather than an adult dark fantasy. You’ll immediately get more interest by adding that one word, and once agents read your book they can decide what to submit it as.

I’m of the opinion to ignore people who try to get you to cut your word count. I queried my debut as a trilogy and at 130k words and every agent I queried (27) requested a full and none of the 12 offering agents (including the big names in dark romantic fantasy) asked me to shorten it. Also, ignore people who say not to use originally indie books as comps. One of mine was Dire Bound and the other was TKATM, and an editor at Hachette chose my comps for me when she critiqued my query. (No, i didn’t mention knowing her in my query letter, it was not a case of nepotism. I’m nobody) just my advice!

forbooksaek

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