For anyone trying for American agents

[RK Wallis]

 

[E G Logan]

Interesting.

I found their "Really there's nothing to it" attitude a bit hard to take. OK, they maybe see thousands of query letters in a year, but none of us do. It may have been intended to be comforting, but it irritated me.

 

[Steve C]

I thought US queries were structured differently to UK ones but from this they seem the same. Good news I can use the one I have for the Yanks when I run out of Brit agents

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've queried a dozen American agents in the last six years, always choosing those who already represented British crime authors to increase my chances. I didn't get anywhere, but they replied quickly and politely. I've kept an eye on these agents and they haven't taken on any new British authors, so perhaps the relationship was already established before they became clients.

 

[KateESal]

I've tried a few US agents, and like Paul, found the responses to be much faster than with UK agents and unfailingly polite. I must admit, I suspect the sheer Britishness of what I write would be enough to move my subs into the NO pile with American agents.

I suspect to get US interest for my fiction, I would need to first successfully publish a book in the UK before it was considered to be adapted/translated for the North American market.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It's surprising to unpublished authors, how difficult it can be for well-known writers with impressive sales to get an American deal. This has happened to one of my favourite crime novelists, James Oswald.

James Oswald

He can't get an American deal, so has self-published his books there. His newsletter is worth signing to, as it tells of what a writer's life is like from the business side, as well as how he's doing on his farm in the Scottish Highlands. He's a regular tweeter @SirBenfro