5 Writers Walk Into A Bar

[pbray]

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.

Comments

Agent Agent

[vespican.livejournal.com]

Interesting concept. As I continue my search for an agent, I've often thought that there should be a service a person could enlist to help find one. Whether it would be a dot COM or an actual person, I don't know, and I certainly haven't looked at all the details. For the most part it's a nebulos idea floating around in the vacuum between brain cells.
Dave
PS I find that enough beer either solves the problem or make it go away!

Re: Agent Agent

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Beer is always an answer to any writing dilemma. It may not be a good answer... :-)

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

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Stalk them at cons, follow them into bathrooms, even if they are the opposite gender, make sure you carry at _least_ ten copies of everything you've written and can rattle off rejection letters verbatim at the drop of a hat.

Works like a charm.

Re: Agent Agent

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hee!

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

[vespican.livejournal.com]

In the manuscript being used as it deserved, I hope it in itself did not cause any problems. I don't believe typical printer paper desolves as readily as that which is normally put to such use.

Dave

Re: Agent Agent

[vespican.livejournal.com]

Uh, thanks? Yes, I've heard that some writers actually do those sort of things. But I thought we wanted to attract agents, not send them running for the hills.
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

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

See that's the thing, you want to catch a _healthy_ agent. If you get one of the ones that considers sweating a fate worse than death, you'll probably have to find _another one_ in three to five years.