Anyone heard of this website? It's a query service where you pay them a fee and they send out your query to many different agents/companies (they also have one for books called bookblaster). They also offer query editing services for you as well. I was just wondering if anyone has used this in the past and whether it might be worth my time looking into it.

I only ask because I used something similar to this a long time ago--but it wasn't that good and the only response I got was from subsidy or vanity press publishers. Also, their testimonials were false as well. So I just wondered if anyone has used this website--or at least heard of it--and if this might be worth looking into when I'm submitting to agents/publishers. Thanks.

What is the point of that? Even if they offer the service with good motivations, it sounds like a tax on the faint of heart and poor in motivation.

Think about it, if you had the choice of a slush-pile four foot thick sent out by an agency whose only criterion is that somebody pays them some cash (many of whose customers find the prospect of writing a simple letter too terrifying to take on themselves) or a slush-pile one foot thick sent to you specifically by people who had worked really hard on something and thought you were the best person to send it to; which pile would you start with?

Enthusiasm sells. Anonymous form-based spam doesn't. Heck, if you can't build up the enthusiasm to sell your own product better than an anonymous drone who has never even met you, then perhaps you need to rethink some things! If it were me, I would simply not read anything sent by one of those agencies unless I was contractually obliged to... whereas, I frequently read some of the stuff on WW simply out of interest.

Just buy a copy of Writers and Artists Yearbook and some stamps. That is better (and cheaper) on so many levels than delegating the job to somebody who doesn't know your work, doesn't give a damn and who is paid based on numbers sent out rather than actual success in getting published.

And as for the editing, there are some really good freelancers out there... better to spend the money you save on the query service on getting some really good feedback focussed on you specifically and the specific things you want to achieve with your writing.

G

Agents know what letters from these services look like, because they're always very generalised and will bin it immediately. The general advice seems to be don't waste your money.

It's also only set up for the US market, where query-first is (unfortunately) the usual practice.

Emma

I actually did find a pretty good website that does have a list of agents--and you can filter it by things they specialise in. But what's REALLY good is that they have a profile section where you can see what kind of stories they like and see if your book fits in with them. It's really useful, so might just use that instead.

Sounds good, what's the link?

http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx

I think it's mainly for American agents, but there are a few british ones in there somewhere. What's also quite good is that you can narrow it down to agents who are looking for new clients or who aren't looking for new clients, at least that way you know which ones a dead end or not. It's been helpful so far, so if you plan to look overseas, it may be quite good.