Hunting for Agents

There are ups and downs when it comes to acquiring an agent, but for me, the hunt is the most difficult. Even though agents are supposed to work for the author, the difficulty is in acquiring them. I know we all think our work is the biggest and brightest star on the horizon. I just had that conversation with a fellow writer not long ago. But, the truth is, we have to figure out how to make an agent we really desire to represent our work see how brilliant we really are. (Tongue in cheek, there).

I met an agent in October who I thought would be a perfect match for me. She readily agreed to read the first 100 pages of my manuscript, but declined taking me on saying the character in the story didn't grab her. Okay! I can take rejection, but the best thing here is that it made me consider WHAT and WHY the character didn't grab her. Was it a personal preference or something about the character that wasn't strong enough to hold the agents attention? I gave it some thought after feeling sorry for myself (for about twenty minutes) and then decided to perservere. "Onward and Upward" is my motto, so I moved forward and sought a new agent of interest. (There are lots of them out there, by the way. Sort of like fish in a barrel, swimming around, waiting to be scooped up).

I figure I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain, so I sent the partial to another agent and heard from her yesterday. She wanted to read the entire manuscript. I sent it out right away and hope to Heaven that she likes it enough to warrant a working relationship. The moral of this story is to NEVER give up. Brush your hurt feelings and/or disappointmnet aside and keep going. The brightest star on the horizon could be you, no matter what field you are in.