Hello all, I have a friend who lives in Romania who has written an English language novel. He really, really wants it to be published in America (not self-published; he wants to be published "traditionally"), and he's asking me a bunch of questions about it, many of which I don't know how to answer. Perhaps some of you can be of help? First, can a person from Romania have an American agent, or would agents in America be loathe to take a client from so far away? Second, he is asking me to list myself as a coauthor and query for both of us. I'm an American, so he believes this would help his chances of getting published. Would it really? I have mixed feelings about the idea. I want the book to be published if at all possible, but I don't consider myself a coauthor and I'm not sure I want the responsibility. I've never met this person from Romania; we've only been communicating online, by email. I think he's trustworthy and everything, and it's really him who's trusting me with his work and not the other way around. Nonetheless, in the event we ever did wind up being accepted by an agent, I don't know how the process would work. So basically, does it sound like a good or bad idea? That's about all, I guess. The book is young adult fantasy, if that helps at all. In my opinion, it still has a little while to go before publishing, but I guess the author is planning ahead. I know the basic process of publishing, but I've never been through it before and I really don't want to steer this person wrong. Thanks in advance for any help
yes, writers in any part of the world can have an american agent... agents will take on any book they think they can sell, no matter where the author lives... no, it won't help at all, unless you're a known author whose books have sold well... very bad idea!... it could actually be committing fraud for you to claim co-authorship if you haven't written any of the material, or contributed to the work in any significant way... my best advice is for you to politely decline to help this person... in re that 'novel' advice above, it should be ignored... a fiction ms of novel length IS a 'novel' and the argument being made there is nonsensical to the max...
Thanks a lot, mammamaia. That's just what I needed to know. I just want to tell you that we weren't fixing to commit fraud. I've helped this guy with some pretty extensive editing and I've helped him rewrite fairly big portions. He considers that coauthoring. I don't, and I don't think most people do. I do intend to politely decline, especially now that I know doing so won't really hurt his chances of the book being published. Thanks for some first rate advice.
