There's few sacrifices i can make, with no available funds and the nearest relatives (for childcare) 200 miles away, Terry!

But i take your point.

Like i said, diversity is good as the publishing industry means there's not one route for all of us now. We can, to a degree, follow the road that best suits us, whether that's the traditional one or not.

I agree. One of the reasons I'm going into self-publishing is I because I find myself wondering, increasingly, why I would want to go the traditional route. There are an awful lot of safe, derivative, even badly-written novels being put out. And from the writers' perspective, increasing prices to pay for the privilege.

Good luck!

I guess my cover letter can point to previous published novels and current short story sales,

I think this makes an enormous difference. It might be similar for someone who had a background in journalism. Whereas if all you've got is your novel, and a list of publishers most of whom don't accept unsolicited submissions, you really are a bit stuck. Of course there are ways round... but as Petal says, they're expensive and very hit-and-miss.

Perhaps it also depends how many possible editors there are who might buy your book. A 1/3rd silence rate isn't brilliant if your detailed research has shown you that there are six editors who might like it... Whereas if it comes from an agent, it'll definitely get read by all six.

Fine, but how much does she know about contracts - which is the main function I'd want from an agent.

Editors know all about contracts because for every agent negotiating one side of a contract, there's an editor negotiating the other side: any agent who's made the move from editing has handled hundreds of contracts, and, presumably, regards learning more about how things are on other side of the relationship as an essential part of the move.

I'd also be wary of my agent editing my work ahead of a publisher's editor, i.e. I'm not sure it's naturally going to work to have two different editors go through a manuscript.

I do see it could be tricky if the two see the book very differently. And once you've got an editor, then clearly they have chief say, after the writer's own.

But as a means to getting that deal and that editor, it's a different story. And, again, if you're out of contract and don't have an editor involved in the WIP. I have friends who don't have much of an editorial relationship with their agent at all, whereas my agent's input is hugely important to me, and my work is a whole jump better for it - and sells better therefore.

Emma, I guess what I'm mostly doing is fighting my own passivity. I tell myself I'm not a business person; that I'm an artist or whatever, but I know deep down that this hides quite a bit of evasion. One of the reasons I attended the Oregon course was that I knew Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch would challenge that. And indeed, the first thing we saw on walking into their workshop was a big sign reading, "You are responsible for your own career".

I'm bit by bit pushing myself towards being more responsible. I think it's going to be essential with the way publishing is going anyway. I mentioned it in a previous post, but I was very struck by what a panel of editors were saying at EasterCon recently: that in effect, if you're a new writer, you would preferably have already written three books in a series; they'll publish the first, maybe the second but give you the third back if you don't sell; however, they won't promote you. They won't let you write in a different genre, and would prefer that you use the same characters in subsequent books, and so on. All of which must point to writers becoming more self-sufficient, or at least of finding ways around the conceived proper ways to do things. Or just doing it ourselves.

Terry