Eating the elephant

After almost two weeks of work, my list of (potential) agents is complete. I found another source and, after raiding it, ended up with 136 candidates on my green list. This may be a bit obsessive, but the scoring system I came up with is quite complex, involving marks for location, genre, positive comments on writers' forums like Absolute Write, recent sales, and website.

Website?

Yes, I was amazed to find that many prestigious agencies don't have a website. Or it's a single page with no useful information. Many of those who have no site at all are clearly, even now, not very Internet savvy. They use email addresses at aol.com, or btinternet.com or somesuch generic bollocks. What impression do these people think they are giving? They bang on about writers taking a professional approach to writing, and then don't have a modern professional approach to their own online presence. Don't they know they're listed at various info sites?

I expect much of the answer lies in how busy they all are. Agents have to filter an awful lot of dross to find the few specks of gold in the bottom of the pan. The figure "98% failure rate" for submissions is quoted in too many places for it to be anything other than an accurate assessment. But whatever the answer, I've made a decision to deal online if at all possible, so those who haven't really thought about tinterpipes have fallen down the ranking. To be honest, if I get much below halfway through that list of 136 I'll probably rethink my approach. I mean, why would I settle for a relatively small agent just because they will deal electronically when there are bigger fish who only deal with paper? It's a dilemma to be sure, but one that, at the very least, can wait for another day. I live in naive hope that I won't get down as far as the middle of the list before my genius is recognised (*vbg*).

So the agents' list is ranked and ready, but is the manuscript? My very good friend CP warned me that the work would call to me, insisting on being rewritten one more time. And it has been calling. For days. So this long weekend will largely be devoted to "one more" go-through of the whole text, and then another go with particular emphasis on the first three chapters. Since many submission guidelines want to see one or all of chapters 1-3, they have to totally rock. Best get to it...