I’ve been in this business a very, very long time, but in all of that time the one thing I have never had is a good agent. Before you assume I’m just sour-graping here, bear with me. The bad choices were all my own, and maybe my experiences will help. Who knows?
When I was in the US Navy and starting out, I knew a couple of authors. One was a romance novelist actually selling books, and she introduced me to her agent. I literally do not remember the agent’s name. She agreed to represent me. This was in the middle of the mid-list boom. I got a letter, late, after returning from a cruise stating – just like this – if you have a finished manuscript – anything – send it. I have a slot. That is how loose things were back then. And I did have a manuscript, but by the time I got that letter, the “slot” was gone. Then I came home from the cruise to the news that said agent was heading to jail for embezzling funds from her authors. Agent one, out the window. This one I literally could not have seen coming, but even then there was a disconnect. She had not seen my book, but was sure she could just sell it without any real knowledge or enthusiasm, and that felt weird… just not weird enough for an author with no experience to trust his gut. (It’s me… I’m that author, or was).
The Navy, and life, kept me writing for some time, and I sold My Star Trek novel and all of my White Wolf novels without an agent. Eventually, though, I wanted to get back into that game. Agent #2 was a small press guy, Stanislaus Tal. Look him up. He did some cool things, published Deathrealm for a while, and then disappeared with money, properties -even tried to steal my royalties from Pocket Books for the Star Trek novel. Yes… two agents, two crooks. Two for two. A lot of folks were fooled by Tal, who called himself “The Bad Boy of Horror.” I called him the boy of Bad horror, but that’s an entirely different story. Needless to say, he sold nothing for me, and again, I was mostly turned off by agents. Again – this was not the fault of agents, but all on me.
I finally managed to hook up with a NYC agent after some queries. She submitted a couple of my books, while asking me to come up with something like The Da Vinci Code, asking for 3 chapters and an outline over and over, and over and over saying it didn’t excite her. All of those books eventually sold, but of course not by her. After time I met one of the editors she claimed to have sent my books to to find that no, they had never received anything. Turns out there was an accident of some sort, the agent had suffered a concussion, was not really active, but wasn’t telling anyone about it, so at least two years wasted.
I finally hooked up with Robert Fleck who was my agent for many years, but mostly he handled contracts after sales, or helped me get projects to people who only took agented submissions. He never really had the contacts to make big sales. There were minor sales, but I made those myself. Around that time I started Crossroad Press and while still writing, published my own work for many years. That was probably a mistake. I now have a lot of books out in a lot of genres, a nice stack of wonderful reviews, several from Publishers Weekly, but nothing important.
I’m not a spring chicken, but I am still writing, and if the reviews of my latest book are an indicator, doing it well. That sale was to Shortwave Publishing, and, again, I sold the book myself. I have never had an agent who really was excited about my work, who pushed it and sold it for me because they had confidence in it, and in me. I have a new book finished and it’s being queried. I have it out to two agents I admire and would love to work with, but the competition is huge… only time will tell if I succeed.
My point in all fo this is, be careful. Don’t get excited by the first representation that comes your way unless they have a good reputation and a track record. Don’t settle for someone who does not communicate, and does not read and understand the work they are representing. Don’t be me, in other words. I will update on all of this as time passes…but for now,
Happy Halloween…