5 Writers Walk Into A Bar
Jan. 27th, 2009 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Keeping the stereotypes alive, when writers get together, it's often in a bar, and this weekend was no exception. As we talked about the state of the industry and our careers, some of those present lamented the difficulty in finding the right agent--someone who is not only a skilled negotiator, industry-savvy and enthusiastic about your work, but also someone whose personality and business style meshes with your own.
Being happily represented by superagent
arcaedia, I could not join in the laments but instead offered my beer-inspired realization that what the world really needs is a MATCH dot COM for writers and agents. It's so perfect, I can't believe no one has thought of this before.
Being happily represented by superagent
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 07:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-27 08:05 pm (UTC)So it's less about the query letter and sample writing pages, and more about "Is this client likely to become a super-stalker like my psycho ex?" or "When the agent says we'll live happily ever after, do they have the same vision of HEA as I do?"
Obviously if there'd been more beer, we would have elaborated on this idea.
Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-27 11:39 pm (UTC)Dave
PS I find that enough beer either solves the problem or make it go away!
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-28 04:15 am (UTC)One of the trickiest part of the author/agent relationship is the realization that simply because AgentX is a good agent for some authors does not mean that AgentX is the right fit for you. Which is where a dating service to iron out compatibility issues isn't quite as crazy as it seems.
Because in the end, the wrong agent can be worse than no agent at all.
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-29 06:01 am (UTC)Works like a charm.
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-29 01:41 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, it's been known to happen. And at least one romance editor reportedly received a manuscript shoved under the bathroom stall door at a conference. As she commented "I put the manuscript to the use it deserved."
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-30 12:04 am (UTC)Dave
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-29 11:53 pm (UTC)For the past three years I've attended the PNWA conference in Seattle, and at least once each year I've found myself walking back to the hotel area with the same agent. While this would seem the perfect opportunity to pitch my material, other than the fact that I write fiction and this particular agent only represents non-fiction.
Re: Agent Agent
Date: 2009-01-30 12:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 02:25 am (UTC)It's so frustrating...
The alternative, as I see it, is to take vespican's userpic and all be Pirate Writers, storming all those "agented MS only" houses and forcing them to read our great prose.
Pirate Writers
Date: 2009-01-29 11:59 pm (UTC)Dave
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 06:55 am (UTC)I suppose it's _possible_ to do, but i suspect it would work as well as mot of the dating sites.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 01:03 pm (UTC)I'm still for going pirate. I think storming the agents' offices en mass (say ten or twenty writers at a time) holding them down and saying, "Read these proposals and pick one of us!" would work better than a matching site....
(Wanders into the distance, humming "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man' Chest.")
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-29 06:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-29 01:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 12:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 01:16 pm (UTC)Alas, this was a pub-inspired daydream, but the hard kernel of truth is that the personality factor is a significant part of the author/agent relationship, and it's obviously the hardest thing to research ahead of time when you're looking for an agent (or for an agent to know about a potential client.)
To stretch the dating analogy further--I've known a number of authors who were initially thrilled when an agent agreed to represent them, but then as time passed the initial glow wore off and they realized that this wasn't the kind of relationship they wanted.
Keeping in mind, of course, that things that one author loves in her agent can be the exact same behaviors that causes another author to pull their hair out in frustration.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-29 06:03 am (UTC)Sally forth!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 02:22 pm (UTC)My sister has two novels and two non-fiction books for young people actually *on the market, right now* and has run into the same kind of issues I have. I've had three agents respond personally and address specific reasons they didn't want to represent my work, which is fine. That would be part of what a matching service would do. My sister actually had an agent insist on being sent a copy of one her her extant books, and then form-rejected her. If you go on Amazon, you'll find her. The YA Fiction is *not* with a small press.
So, if you want to get programming on your matching service, I'll be willing to supply fuel ;-). (Bonus; since I'm allergic to alcohol, I won't even try to eat your brain when you're refueling.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-28 05:03 pm (UTC)