Overseas clients and sequel potential

Questions for the resident (former) agent
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samantha.miccee
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Joined: July 21st, 2012, 9:38 pm
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Overseas clients and sequel potential

Post by samantha.miccee » July 21st, 2012, 10:15 pm

Hi Nathan

I actually have two (hopefully quick) questions.

First - do literary agents in America represent overseas clients? For the next six months, i'm living in the USA however usually I live in New Zealand where we don't have very many literary agents/agents/publishing companies/readers... So would a literary agent accept a client from overseas or would there be problems with that?

Secondly, I've read all your posts in your 'Writing Advice Database', which was beyond helpful, but one that I stumbled over was the one about sequels. I'm the type of writer that needs a solid overview before I start writing. I don't need to know the very end of the story but I do need to know most of it. The story I want to tell I believe is a trilogy.

I've noticed a lot of the first books of series do end with a solid conclusion; they're very much able to be stand-alone books. It's not until the second book that they start ending on cliff hangers. In my very detailed plan I have my first book ending on a cliff hanger with the second book picking up right where book left off and exploring deeper into this world, into the conflict and almost seeing another perspective to the situation presented in book one. I've got a reasonable plan until half way through book two - then it gets pretty vague.

Now, since I'm completely 100% unknown, have never had a book published before and don't have an agent is this a bad direction to be heading? Would a first book written by an unknown author, that ends on a cliff hanger, be tossed out by literary agents and publishing companies, even if it’s accompanied by a painfully detailed plan for further books? Should I totally change the direction of the book to make sure book one can end semi-resolved with potential for sequels?

I apologize for such a lengthy question; I’m just trying to get my head around all the bits and pieces involved ‘behind the scenes’.

Thanks so much - and thanks for having such a rad blog! Such valuable advice!

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Nathan Bransford
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Joined: December 4th, 2009, 11:17 pm
Location: Pasadena, CA
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Re: Overseas clients and sequel potential

Post by Nathan Bransford » July 22nd, 2012, 1:42 pm

samantha.miccee wrote:Hi Nathan

I actually have two (hopefully quick) questions.

First - do literary agents in America represent overseas clients? For the next six months, i'm living in the USA however usually I live in New Zealand where we don't have very many literary agents/agents/publishing companies/readers... So would a literary agent accept a client from overseas or would there be problems with that?

Secondly, I've read all your posts in your 'Writing Advice Database', which was beyond helpful, but one that I stumbled over was the one about sequels. I'm the type of writer that needs a solid overview before I start writing. I don't need to know the very end of the story but I do need to know most of it. The story I want to tell I believe is a trilogy.

I've noticed a lot of the first books of series do end with a solid conclusion; they're very much able to be stand-alone books. It's not until the second book that they start ending on cliff hangers. In my very detailed plan I have my first book ending on a cliff hanger with the second book picking up right where book left off and exploring deeper into this world, into the conflict and almost seeing another perspective to the situation presented in book one. I've got a reasonable plan until half way through book two - then it gets pretty vague.

Now, since I'm completely 100% unknown, have never had a book published before and don't have an agent is this a bad direction to be heading? Would a first book written by an unknown author, that ends on a cliff hanger, be tossed out by literary agents and publishing companies, even if it’s accompanied by a painfully detailed plan for further books? Should I totally change the direction of the book to make sure book one can end semi-resolved with potential for sequels?

I apologize for such a lengthy question; I’m just trying to get my head around all the bits and pieces involved ‘behind the scenes’.

Thanks so much - and thanks for having such a rad blog! Such valuable advice!
Here's a post that answers your first question. It's old, but still applies: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/12 ... rseas.html

And here's a post that answers #2: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/07 ... query.html

Hope those help!

samantha.miccee
Posts: 2
Joined: July 21st, 2012, 9:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Overseas clients and sequel potential

Post by samantha.miccee » July 22nd, 2012, 4:36 pm

Thank you! I tried looking through all your posts to find these answers but there are so many posts!
Thanks so much for your help :D

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