Agents

[Brandy Chase]

I would appreciate any ideas you might have on obtaining a decent agent for erotic stories. It seems to be a catch 22. You can not get published without an agent and you can not get an agent until you've been published. Go figure.

 

[Spinaroonie]

The trick is to make a first post and let everybody know it's there!

PS many will consider Lit a publishing place

 

[Route66Girl]

Brandy,

I've never sought an agent, and have no idea where you might find one. However, when it comes to building up your work enough to attract an agent, Lit is a good start.

Here, you can work on and hone your erotic storytelling craft with the help and guidance of those who participate on these boards. Also, your stories get ratings and votes. If you build up enough stories with high readership and good scores, that could be a real boost. It tells an agent that your work has the potential to be saleable.

There are other sites for erotic stories, but I'm not sure there are any besides Lit that have free access, a voting system and such numerous submissions. However, the more sites, the better. If you really want to break into erotic writing, spread it around as much as possible.

Most of all, keep plugging away. If having an agent is absolutely necessary, just keep going 'til you get one. Everyone starts somewhere

Of course, take my advice with a grain of salt. This is all guesswork on my part since I've never sought an agent.

 

[Guest]

I don't think an agent is necessary or desirable for short stories. The rates that a given publication pays are usually set and set pretty low. Why pay a percentage of a pittance to someone who didn't do much for you?

Just do a lot of research about where to send your stories, and hope they like it.

If you are hoping to publish a novel, have a bunch of published short stories that you can show to a publishing house, then send off your novel. Again, it is unlikely that you will get paid much for a first novel, but I suppose if you have a lot of published work, it might be easier to attract an agent.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Agents don't trade in short stories, it's not worth their time. 15% of 200 bucks works out to be like a nickel an hour. Agents will trade in novel length material. Carrol Graf is one of the better erotica publishers and they only accept agented submissions. If you do find an agent that will trade in short stories, then watch him or her carefully because something isn't necessarily right in their world. Agents love what they do--usually--but they have to pay rent, too.

There are three kinds of agents, essentially, WGA, AAR, and non-affiliated. WGA is Writers Guild of America. Sounds good, but it's mostly for script writers. AAR, gawd, I can't remember, is the association book agents work with. Usually you're okay with an AAR agent. Unaffiliated ones doesn't necessarily mean a bad agent. Like a non-Union carpenter isn't necessarily a bad carpenter. They may have some reason for not associating themselves.

Go to www.writersmarket.com or buy a writer's market book. They have a book specifically for agents. There's one specifically for short stories and novels as well.

If you're looking to sell short sex stories online, I can't help at all. I've never had any interest in doing that so I've never looked into it. It's possible, it happens all the time. If you're interested in selling short sex stories into print, that's a whole other kettle of fish. Places like Penthouse Forum pay money for their "letters."

If you can take one of your stories and turn it into something over 50,000 words, find an agent. If not, it's highly unlikely that you'll get a reputable agent to sell short stories for you.