Have you ever 'fired' an agent?

STAR.

i did. it was amicable - and done via email - and i signed with another soon after. ain't no thang. if the relationship isn't moving forward, it isn't moving forward.

Sure. Sometimes you just don't have the same goals, or the same approach, or you just don't communicate well. Agent/writer is about business, and when your business calls for a change, you make the change. . The only time it was a tough decision was when I had a chance to do some serious ghosting, but part of the deal meant going with a particular agent.

I left my agent early last fall, and am still looking for another. It's not always easy to get another agent. I know that there's no guarantee I will. But I still believe I made the right decision.

Whatever's going on, you might ask yourself whether, if you still don't have new representation a year from now, or two years from now, you'd still make the choice to leave.

Because sometimes people have a new agent within a month, and sometimes people are still trying years later. So there's no guarantee it will be no big deal.

However, if it were me and I had serious concerns and the agent hadn't yet started shopping my work, I'd break it off ASAP, because once the agent starts shopping your stuff, things can get more complicated.

Also, check your contract if you have one. Read carefully to see what it says about how and when you can leave, and what this means for your work.

To be honest it got to the point where my agent needed babysitting. And you can't take care of your end and your agents end too. He was the first to believe in me. I cried when I dropped him.

But make no mistake: It was the right thing to do.

Its business and nothing more.

I got signed a month later but even if i didnt get someone new, i needed to move on.

I left one agency and fired one agent.

The agency I left had changed significantly from when I signed with them (we had good success from the outset). The agent I initially signed with left and though I gave it a shot, there wasn't anyone else there who was a good fit for me. Couple that with having met a couple of good prospective agents at a conference, I withdrew from that agency.

I signed with one of the agents from that conference, but he proved to be a flake (putting it nicely). He was actually a great editor (his initial career), and made some good suggestions for my proposals. But 6 months after I made the suggested changes and sent them to him, he hadn't submitted them to anyone--not even the publishers who'd already requested them. Thus, the firing.

PS--Yes, I have another agent. There was a significant gap between the past and current as I was waiting for the elusive "best" one for me. Passed on a couple of opportunities and shopped around before landing (happily) where I am currently.

I've fired two. One was a bad fit, and one was MIA. Both were really well-respected agents and had clients that loved them, but we were a bad fit. I'm very happy with my current agent.

Almost everyone I know has changed agents at least once. It's just part of the business.