What to do once you get an agent?

macandal said:

Ok, let's say you've reached the point where an agent wants to represent you, what do you do then? Do you take her/him since it's so hard to get one or do you first see if you two are compatible and will be able to work together? If the latter, what do you do? Do you ask her/him questions, etc? What do you do? Where can I read more about reaching that moment in the quest for an agent? I haven't seen anything here or anywhere else. Thanks.

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i think this is where personal preferences comes into play

personally i'll stay clear of anyone that seems like a deadbeat. if the agent doesnt' look respectable, i'll look on further.

All ya wanna do is talk-talk

Macandal:

I would suggest that, before even considering your personal preferences, you make sure that the agent who wants to represent you is LEGIT and COMPETENT. It doesn't matter how great you two get along if the agent is either 1) stringing you along to vaccuum out your wallet; 2) stringing you along because s/he can't sell a ms. to a publisher even if someone's life depended on it.

There's plenty of info on these forums about how to determine if an agent is legit and/or competent, so I won't bother to go into that.

Now, after you've determined via research that this interested agent can help you get your ms. published ... take the time to talk to the agent about his/her plans for getting your ms. published ... what s/he particularly liked about your ms. ... etc. You want to gather facts, yes, but also get an idea of the agent's personality and work-style.

When you ask about plans for getting a publisher, does the agent have detailed steps #1, #2, #3 all worked out for you already ... or does s/he provide more of vague,"step #1 and then we'll see" sort of answer. Which would you prefer?

Does s/he ask you questions, too? Ask you questions about your ambitions, what got you started writing, etc? Or is s/he "all business" -- focusing on schedules, etc? Again, which would you prefer?

You get the idea.

macandal said:

Thanks smallthunder, how do you determine if an agent is competent? Where should I look. I've only seen info on whether s/he is legit.

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Find out which other authos he/she has repped, which publishers she has sold to. There should be no problem getting this info; any good agent would be proud of his client list. You should recognise those publishers; there should be some of the big names among them. Better still, you should recognise the authors.

I'll second that!

aruna said:

Find out which other authos he/she has repped, which publishers she has sold to. There should be no problem getting this info; any good agent would be proud of his client list. You should recognise those publishers; there should be some of the big names among them. Better still, you should recognise the authors.

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Aruna took the words right out of my mouth ... er, so to speak. Umm ... took the words right from under my fingertips?