[Gary Wassner]

Where are all the agents and editors of fantasy today finding new talent? Where are they looking for it? Are any of you watching the boards here and at deadcities and strange horizons? Or are you so buried under your slush piles that you don't even have the time?

[Rocket Sheep]

They're all looking in Australia at the moment, it seems. Fantasy and science fiction.

[Gary Wassner]

They are, aren't they? I hear so much great stuff is coming out of Australia now. How big is the market for sf/f these days there? Are the editors and publishers more creative, more prone to risk taking? I would love to find a good distributor for my series there, but I have no idea how to go about it.

This is what I need a good agent for. I have representation for my children's books but not for GemQuest.

[KatG]

Gary, I've explained -- agents and editors are not going to announce their presence in this forum if they do happen to troll it. They are more likely to troll the major magazines and the conventions, though. Only a handful of agents handle sf/f, and only a handful of major publishers publish it. It's a small market and they don't need to go looking for new people necessarily, though they may be keeping an eye out.

However, if you want an agent to sell your foreign territory rights, there are a number of literary agents who specialize in selling such rights and you can try to hook up with one without having a U.S. literary agent. The big question is, did you give Windstorm world rights or just U.S. and Canada rights? If you gave them the world rights, then they have to be the one who tries to get sales of the foreign rights. They can go to a foreign rights agent and that may actually be more appealing to such an agent than just your work alone. But if you retained the world rights and are looking for an agent by yourself, you may still be able to interest a foreign rights agent, especially as you have several titles as a package.

But, the British and Australia markets are often reluctant to reprint genre fiction unless the author is a very big name in the field. If you can talk to a foreign rights agent, they might be able to give you an idea of your odds.
When you go to Glasgow for the con, certainly, try and see if you can network with British publishers and interest them. Though the news from Britian has been bad lately. Britain often buys both British and Australian rights, though in the last decade, Australian publishers have managed to split off that market a bit more than in the past.

[Gary Wassner]

I was actually wondering why none of the editors or agents post here anonymously. Most of the people don't use their real names and their personal information is practically nil. I am surprised that they don't engage anyone in conversation and join any of the threads. You would think they might be interested in learning something about the public who ultimately and hopefully reads what they choose to publish.

I have to look at my contracts. I expect to find that Windstorm does in fact retain the foreign rights. But they are good people to work with, and before I go to Glasgow I will talk to them about making some contacts there.

Clear me up on this point though, KatG: Why can't you just sell to the other markets product that is printed here? Is it a cost issue? can't you just find a foreign distributor? Someone who your existing publisher can send books to and they can sell and ship?

[KatG]

You're assuming that editors and agents have lots of time to do that sort of thing. They don't. They work constantly. And agents who rep sf/f authors usually also rep other kinds of authors and can't just hit specialized sites. As for evaluating the public, they don't really need to. Trends in the public audience dissipate quickly and are of limited use to them, and they can hear about them from other sources. They get a lot more info from talking to knowledgable booksellers than readers.

What you are talking about on the foreign rights is called exporting. A publisher may export their edition rather than make a deal with a publisher in an English-language country to do their version. But the publisher has to be set up to do it, and I doubt Windstorm is. They might already be working with a small press distributor who is helping them get out copies in the U.S. and Canada, and that distributor might be able to do something, or not. And there can be complications, depending on the country being exported to, and such. It's usually easier for a small press like Windstorm to sell the rights to someone else.

[Gary Wassner]

Hey, they can't possibly have less time than I have! I have three computers on my desk (next to the three hats) and I flip from one to the next to handle the different functions daily. I also wear a headset so that I can talk on the phone while I am typing, which is what I am doing right Now incidentally. It's a matter of time management, not having time.

[Rocket Sheep]

The market here is tiny, Gary, just by population size - there are not enough people to sell to, altho a disproportionate number of them are fantasy fans.

Publishing opportunities are virtually non-existent for science fiction. Two of my wonderful and brilliant friends who write science fiction, got contacted by agents from the US tho, so that was lovely.

Harper Collins are the biggest publisher of new fantasy authors thru their Voyager list and they publish wonderful horror/supernatural writers like Kim Wilkins, thru their mainstream list. (I can't believe no one in the US knows Kim Wilkins. She's a great writer and one of the few that keeps refining and building on her knowledge.)

The problem with being published in Australia is that you have to keep your day job, if your books don't get wider distribution.

Now... your books may only need a distributor here, which your current agent may be able to set up. We tend to have specialist bookshops for the speculative fiction genre (generally one in each city... ie. six) and also a few online services that fans browse.

There is a list of agents HERE (http://www.asauthors.org/cgi-bin/asa/services.cgi/Resource?search=Literary%20Agent).

[Gary Wassner]

That was so kind of you. Thank you. So you know any of the people on that list? Would you recommend any one over another?

I will shoot them out some emails.

I would be flattered if my books sold nicely in Australia. I don't really care how large or small the market is, but judging by how many Australians participate in discussions here, the number of fantasy readers may very well be disproportionate to the population in general. And for some odd and unknown reason, they seem particularly adept at picking up on the best in Epic Fantasy. I have received many inquiries from readers from Australia regarding how they can buy my books at a reasonable price. Shipping from the States is a killer and there is no Amazon in Australia. It's something certainly worth pursuing.

[Rocket Sheep]

Sorry, I don't know any. An agent wouldn't want 10% of my earnings.

Garth Nix used to work for Curtis Brown and he's a pretty smart chappy. Ask Marianne. She has loads of contacts.