Perks of having an agent that I didn't know about
Okay, so I was out of my mind with excitement when Michelle Andelman of Andrea Brown signed me almost two months ago. And while I knew that having an agent would be great for getting into closed houses (even though we haven't started submitting yet), there are a few more perks I didn't know about:
1. The stress of trying to figure out editor's specific tastes diminishes. Although I get Publisher's Marketplace every day to get the Daily Deals, I'm not stressing over them like I used to (even though I'm still drooling over the opportunity to get my own name listed on there one day).
2. Revising an entire manuscript is still a long rough road, but I'm now in cahoots with someone who has a vested interest in my book's outcome. And that's a cool thing.
3. I can skip all the "response times for agents" on Verla Kay's blueboards.
4. There's someone who wants to talk about my books as much as I do! (Or at least she's good at pretending she likes talking about them...)
5. On the days when you're feeling like getting a book published will never happen (and it may still may not, I know having an agent is no guarantee), a teensy part of your brain tells you, "Chin up. Someone else is counting on you." So you open the laptop and get the creative juices flowing, because my agent is at home, counting on me to do my best because her ability to pay her bills depends on me creating a saleable manuscript. And that's the best part of having an agent--knowing that someone in the publishing world thinks what you write is good.
6. It's cool to drop the words, "My agent said..." into a conversation, the same way I felt when I first got engaged and got to say, "This is my fiance," or after marriage, "my husband and I..."
For those of you who don't have an agent yet, hang in there. (I know...pretty cheesy advice coming from someone who has had an agent for all of two months.) But it truly was a matter of having the right person at the right time see my manuscript, and I still feel so thankful and pretty damn lucky that Michelle signed me. That said, I'm working my butt off to make sure she doesn't regret that decision.
And for those of you who have been agented for a lot longer time than I have, I'm sure I'm missing some other perks, so what are your favorite things about having an agent? KYM
1. The stress of trying to figure out editor's specific tastes diminishes. Although I get Publisher's Marketplace every day to get the Daily Deals, I'm not stressing over them like I used to (even though I'm still drooling over the opportunity to get my own name listed on there one day).
2. Revising an entire manuscript is still a long rough road, but I'm now in cahoots with someone who has a vested interest in my book's outcome. And that's a cool thing.
3. I can skip all the "response times for agents" on Verla Kay's blueboards.
4. There's someone who wants to talk about my books as much as I do! (Or at least she's good at pretending she likes talking about them...)
5. On the days when you're feeling like getting a book published will never happen (and it may still may not, I know having an agent is no guarantee), a teensy part of your brain tells you, "Chin up. Someone else is counting on you." So you open the laptop and get the creative juices flowing, because my agent is at home, counting on me to do my best because her ability to pay her bills depends on me creating a saleable manuscript. And that's the best part of having an agent--knowing that someone in the publishing world thinks what you write is good.
6. It's cool to drop the words, "My agent said..." into a conversation, the same way I felt when I first got engaged and got to say, "This is my fiance," or after marriage, "my husband and I..."
For those of you who don't have an agent yet, hang in there. (I know...pretty cheesy advice coming from someone who has had an agent for all of two months.) But it truly was a matter of having the right person at the right time see my manuscript, and I still feel so thankful and pretty damn lucky that Michelle signed me. That said, I'm working my butt off to make sure she doesn't regret that decision.
And for those of you who have been agented for a lot longer time than I have, I'm sure I'm missing some other perks, so what are your favorite things about having an agent? KYM