now with a website
A couple of people have recently asked me about my agent, Emily Sylvan Kim, who left Writer's House to start her own agency.
Ta da! Here you go, Prospect Agency.
Ta da! Here you go, Prospect Agency.
No snark. Bad puppy. No. (Review stuff.)
A two star Amazon review on His American Detective: "Bodice ripper about gay men by a woman." and I'm longing to comment "don't you mean a waistcoat ripper?" God, no. Stop me. The reviews rarely rattle me any longer -- except when I spot a truth in a bad one. When that happens, I actually lose sleep. This means I still care about writing. Speaking of reviewers and writers: A couple of days ago, a writer said she was tired of getting white ladies writing reviews of her books. She had an excellent point in the long run: her stories are meant for a particular audience and she wants them to resonate with those people and get more reviews from them. But that first line was just....horribly obnoxious. I say this from my POV of course. Not a white lady who writes reviews -- but as a review grubber. Anyone who disses any reader (especially ones that give honest reviews) deserves to be cast into the pit of being ignored. ...
Can you tell your story of your search and ultimate acquisition of an agent? As someone who is just starting to consider agents, I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've read a couple of other blogs that weigh the question of agents for category and single title. What are your thoughts on that?
MY AGENT HISTORY:
ReplyDeleteI figured out I needed an agent when I saw the contract from Kensington. I went into drool-mode immediately. Pages of stuff and I couldn't tell what mattered and what was trivial. Hell, I couldn't figure out what all that junk meant.
I called a woman who'd been interested in my work and she agreed to take me on. She was a former editor and very good. Very professional and she worked hard. However the personality thing didn't fit (and I was the one who really didn't fit. Entirely me. It was a great shock to realize that I can't work with everyone on the planet.)
She's a New Yorker and scared the bejeezus out of me. There're a lot of people who think having a bulldog of an agent is great, and I think if I were further along in my career it might be fine. But as a newbie, I needed to feel like I could ask lots of dumb questions.
Anyway, that's when I learned that maybe having no agent is better than having a bad fit.
I found Emily when a friend, Susan Meier, suggested I contact her. They'd worked together at some conference or another. Emily's mellow and has a sense of humor.
Do you need an agent if you're writing category instead of mainstream? I don't know.
A lot of my friends who write category don't bother with agents, but I'm getting the impression that the world of category is changing fast. That might mean that the so-called "boiler-plate" contract is also changing? I'd ask a H/S author, if I were you. They're usually a nice bunch.
PS I've made my own sales (so far). I was unagented when Hilary Sares made her offer and when Ellora's Cave took me on.
ReplyDeleteHey! She's got Kate Donovan, too! I haven't seen her in forty freaking forevers! Love her stuff. Oh. And I love Edit Layton, too. (From above post)
ReplyDeleteVery cool design! Useful information. Go on!
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