The Elusive Agent

I've been following Cynthia Morris' progress in her quest for an agent. I love her resilience in the face of rejection--how much more peaceful we are when we don't take these things personally! I wrote a little about my own experience of rejection at gresik.ca last week.

I also like Cynthia's suggestions for navigating the submission process, especially the deadline:

My deadline for a fully polished novel is May 28th. My deadline for seeking publication: December 20, 2007. If I haven’t found an agent or signed a contract by then, I’ll move on to something new. Who knows what that would be, but right now, I don’t have to worry about it.

That endpoint gives a sense of freedom, knowing that you're not stuck in this cycle forever, but will give yourself permission to move on with something else when the time comes.

Even the famous and successful have difficulty finding agents. My husband pointed me to the blog of Ken Levine, "an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer" who has worked on shows like CHEERS and FRASIER. In his post "Even I don't have an agent", he describes his own attempts to find a New York theatrical agent:

I made a few calls and found no one was interested. The fact that (a) I wasn’t 25, and (b) they couldn’t cash in on movie rights made me persona non representita. And this was before anyone even bothered to read my play.

Through a playwright friend, I was referred to one agent – we’ll call her Beth B. I had a nice conversation with her, she said she really wasn’t looking to take on new clients but wanted to read my play. So I sent it along with a resume. Two weeks later I get a letter from her. The first sentence was “Ohmygod, I had no idea you co-created ALMOST PERFECT!” She went on to say it was her favorite show, the writing was brilliant, she wrote a letter to CBS complaining when they cancelled it, it was like we were in her bedroom, and she was often confused for our star, Nancy Travis. I thought – I am IN!

Next paragraph – pass. Okay. Whatever.

Ken's whole blog is fascinating, with lost scenes from CHEERS, writing advice, and descriptions of the life of a sitcom writer.

I'll close with Ken's words of wisdom to everyone hunting that elusive agent.

I know it’s discouraging when an agent doesn’t want you, but always remember, there are plenty of agents out there that YOU don’t want. If it takes more time to find a better match it’s worth it.

Hear that, Cynthia? You hold out for the best match you can find!