Ezekiel Strong

I am currently looking for a literary agent to handle my latest book Ezekiel Strong. This has to be the hardest part of writing... getting published. I published my first book, ArchAngelxx, as an e-book. That was so much simpler. The problem there is promotion. It doesn't do any good to be published if no one knows you are there. So while i am trying to get the word out on my first book i am trying to get an agent to handle the second.

There is just something about being published in paper. It was easy to publish the e-book but in a way it is not the same somehow as a bound paper book you can hold in your hand. I have been posting articles, stories, etc. online for years and posting the e-book was not all that different. To have a hard back, or even paperback, in my hands is just so much more real.

I started to look for a publisher but that was a monster task. I decided to get an agent but i am finding that to be an equally epic quest. You basically go through the same process as with a publisher: submit queries, hope they respond, submit content, hope they like it... I thought it would be like hiring a lawyer or finding a broker but it is not. You don't hire an agent, you petition them and hope they will allow you to be their client.

Now that i have the book written i am finding out it could take years before it actually gets published, if at all. That is real encouraging. Most of the agents i am looking at take weeks just to respond to the initial query, then they want a sample, then weeks to look thatover, then maybe the full text, more wait time, then they might want revisions and another look. All that before they even agree to take me on as a client...

If i ever do get an agent there is no telling how long getting a publisher will take. I may be old and grey before i get to hold that hard bound copy of Ezekiel Strong. I could go the e-publish route again but i really want to have that book in my hand... so i query and wait. If publishing is going to take that long i will have several books in the process before the first hits the market. It seems i may be able to write them faster than i can get them published.

Maybe i am spoiled by the instant publishing of the internet. I know i am starting to see the reason e-publishing is catching on so fast. I am seriously considering a publish on demand service and marketing it myself. We shall see how it goes.