As I mentioned back in May, I was starting the query process. I’ve been trying to take it fairly slow, reaching out to a few agents at a time as I work my way down my list.

My query letter has been getting pretty good responses, but there is a part of me that still wonders if maybe I should hire a developmental editor at this stage in the game. An agent told me back in March not to do that, but I’m not entirely sure why. Is it because a literary agent will do that work as part of the contract? I need to do more research, but it’s something I’m considering.

I’m really happy with the list of agents I’ve come up with and have been reaching out to. I went through various websites to narrow down my list. I started with Query Tracker, found all the agents that said they accept fantasy, then went on their website to see what kind of fantasy. Some explicitly say they are not a good fit for YA nor epic fantasy, so those were then removed from the list. Even so, I still have a decent number of folks to reach out to which feels good.

Hope is something that I put into all of my writing, so it makes sense that it’s something I feel during this fairly demoralizing process. I know that I have an interesting and unique story, with vibrant and fun characters, so all I can do now is hope that agents can see that from the small sample they get from me. I’m confident that someone will see the beauty in the work.