In that past I have not been very good about keeping up (or responding) when people have contacted me through my blog. I didn’t mean to ignore any of those messages, I just wasn’t paying attention like I should have. I received an interesting message today that I thought I would share here and see if my followers have any good advice for this writer.
Here’s the message I received:
Hi Kelly
I have completed my first novel about my Grandfather working for Al Capone in Chicago in the 1920’s. The book is a work of historical fiction and some family facts. The Book is titled Capone’s Wolff, Grandfather Wolff Schneider…
I have had over 60 contacts (read family and business associates) pay to read the new book and overwhelming response is very positive.
Whew!
Now I need to learn how to engage a larger audience I would be interested in how I connect to an agent who has a love to market historical fictions?
Any thoughts?
Keith
Here is my response to Keith. If you have anything to add, please do so in the comments below.
Keith,
I will say that I work in the self-publishing industry, so my experience is not in traditional publishing (which sounds like the route you want to take). I have posted your question here to see if any followers can chime in with some guidance for you. I also recommend you join the #WritePubChat community on Slack where you can connect with other writers and ask questions like this at any time.
Best of luck to you in your publishing project! Please come back and share with us about your journey.
Sincerely,
Kelly Schuknecht
Hi Keith
Sounds like to me that you have a fascinating topic. I would imagine that there would be numerous agents that would capitalize on this topic and reach out to you. Also, you may want to route your book to publishers and if possible to producers. A lot of this depends on what your grandfather did while working for Capone. The reason why your topic is appealing is because only a limited number of people worked for Capone which makes your story even more unique and intriguing.
I can’t imagune a literary agent based in Chicago would not be interested in this book since Capone was headquartered in Chicago. Any agent who is interested in history from a decade that featured well known criminals should reach out to you. And since Capone’s reach extended to other main cities such as New York and LA I would also imagine they would also contact you.
There are several major publishers that I would bet would contact you such as Random House. I have a link to a list of agents that I will send you once I find it. There is a successful author who is the contact person who governs and maintains this list.
I would pursue reaching out to publishers, agents, producers relentlessly knowing that your topic will garner the attention that will accomplish your objective.
Send the link of agents once I find it.
Jim
Hon Keith
The link to Mark’s website who may be able to help you with your objective. His name is Mark who is a successful author and now strives to help other authors with necessary contacts such as agents that would help you fund an agent, publisher and maybe a producer.
https://markmalatesta.com
Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions and if this helped you
Jim