Two weeks ago I decided to send out about 100 email queries to literary agents. I started by googling "literary agents, New York", followed by literary agents for Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and London. Most agencies prefer email queries. I found it important to read the particulars of each agency to see how and what they wanted to recieve. Most simply want a proposal. Some are interested in sample chapters. Almost all of them won't open attachments, so everything needs to be cut and pasted into the body of the email.
I recieved about 40 replies within the first two weeks. The majority of them were very short form-letter type responses. Of the 40 or so that emailed back there were 6 that enthusiastically offered representation. My co-author Don DeNevi and I have elected to go with Katie Boyle of The Veritas Literary Agency in San Francisco. Katie has placed books on both the New York Times and Times of London best-seller lists. As you can imagine I'm very excited.
On another note: I've been credentialed as a war correspondent by the Leatherneck magazine. Yesterday I recieved word from the media folks at the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan that I'm cleared to come over and embed with the Marines in Helmand Province. I plan on heading over as soon as I get my Afghan visa and the book deal is locked on. My plan is to use this trip as the basis for a final chapter and for the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Hartford I'll be starting this summer.
7 comments:
I'm cleared to come over and embed with the Marines in Helmand Province.
Some people actually .. ya know .. retire when they retire.
Have you read Imperial Grunts by Robert Kaplan? As the book closes Kaplan is departing an embed with 1/5 in the spring of 2004.
An unnamed Marine general tells Kaplan "Go home an rest a few weeks in the world of porcelain shitters. Then come back for more."
Wow, Mike!
Looking forward to your new book!
Um...Is the future Mrs.Fay on board with the idea of your future embed?
Whew! I'm glad to see you back. It's been a long time since Jan. 20! But you sure have been busy!
I found your blog sometime shortly before Christmas and have been dedicated to checking in every few days since then.
Well, you're going to be back in the thick of things trudging around Helmand Province now. The action is heading to Kandahar. I hope you'll be able to update your blog every-once-in-a-while.
Semper Fi Marine!
For literary agents, you might want to find the agents for recent Marine memoirists (is that a word?). The one that comes to mind is Nathaniel Fick's One Bullet Away.
Whomever his agent is should be familiar with the proverbial territory.
Hope this helps,
-DM
I am an alumni of the Hartford MFA program and just wanted to say welcome! I am stunned by your work and words, your vision and motivation to share your experiences with all of us. I envy your classmates and program mates in having you in the program to dimensionalize the thinking and work of the group. If there is anything I can do to answer questions etc. etc. please feel free to drop me a line (or we can talk) about the program, workload etc. Best, Q. Cassetti (www.qcassetti.com, http://qcassetti.squarespace.com)
Could you post your e-mail? I don't see it in your profile. I was there on the date you wrote (very well) about.
Mike: I live in Simsbury, very close to UHart. Let us hook up when you get to CT. Your stuff is easy to read and brutal to comprehend. Let me know what I can do to help you up here in Connecticut.
Peter Van Loon
Captain, USNR
Afghanistan 2006-07
Africa 2009-10
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