Literary agent Wendy Lawton wrote an interesting blog post a few days ago, giving statistical analysis of how writers find agents. 42% of her clients she met at a writers conference. What about the good ol' query?
8%
WHAT?!?
Yes, my friends, 8% of her clients she found through querying. That statistic hit me hard, and I am thankful for Wendy to have posted it. Keep in mind, this is just her statistics, as she pointed out to me in her reply to my comment. Other agents may have higher stastistics on the query, although as I scan my brain to recall how many of the authors I've either met or listen to or read have landed an agent, the vast majority say they met them at a conference.
Last week, I said that I was giving myself 90 days (or at least until June 1st) to find an agent or else I'm going to self-publish. With this analysis, I've made a decision: I will query the ones I have listed as potential agents, and if those don't pan out I will self-publish Beholder's Eye. Which means, it may be far less than the 90 days.
I'm making slow progress on my alternative military history novel, mainly due to other projects getting in the way that I need to complete: a short story that I am tweaking before submitting it to the Writers Of The Future contest, compiling the final list of agents, brainstorming my next moves, and even adding more to my "Through The Outhouse Window Video Blog." I also had a brief medical episode very early Thursday morning which wiped me out for the entire day (I'm feeling better, but as of Friday morning now I'm still a bit light-headed).
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