The Agent Decision

I just made the most difficult decision of my writing career and (after thinking long and hard) decided to blog about it.

 

I passed on an offer of representation from and agent in a large agency.

 

I know, a ton of you unagented (and maybe some agented) writers just fell out of your chair, and to be honest, I’m feeling a little ill myself.

 

So, why did I pass? I’m not going to go into details. I can say, I liked the agent. She was bright, intelligent and had a passion for books. She offered me the opportunity to break all those pesky “rules” that made my book cross-genre. She liked the idea that she also saw the potential of the book to cross the YA/Adult line.

There was something –not a BAD thing– that made me realize we weren’t a good fit for a partnership at this point in my career. And so, after 6 months of querying , I did something I NEVER thought I’d do – I sent her a letter thanking her and explaining why I’d made the decision.

 

I’ll admit it, it was an AMAZINGLY DIFFICULT (like difficult to the level of blanking on words to measure the level of hard it was) — but when it comes down to it, we all know our own writing styles and personalities better than anyone else.

This is what I learned: Know what you need in an agent so that she can take what you’ve done and make you BOTH successful at what you do.

While this person will be a great match for someone else, I know that I’m not that girl.

 

OK, I’m still feeling ill, but I’m sure this is the right decision and, after all, this is a business we’re running here, right?