Do you have an agent?
DO any of you have an agent for your writing?
Has he/she helped your career?
Thanks,
It's easier to sharpen the end of a worm if you freeze it first.
I signed with an agent in November. Can't tell you the full story yet because we have yet to start submitting to publishers, so I'm still seeing how it goes myself, but here, so far, are the pros and cons:
Pros:
-Access to larger publishing houses by someone advocating my work who knows the business far better than I do (she's been in the business over 30 years).
-She represents not just the novel I queried about, but all future novels, so if I remain happy with her, I don't have to worry about the whole querying thing with future novels.
-My particular agent started as an editor for some of the large publishing houses before becoming an agent and so I've been getting very detailed professional editing essentially for free at the moment (not counting the percentage she will make when/if the book sells).
-Giant ego boost when an agent calls you telling you how much they love your work and want to offer representation.
Cons:
-My agent is the head of her agency and so is insanely busy, which is frustrating because the editing process is really dragging on slowly at the moment. At this rate I think I'm going to have the draft of my next novel done before we finish editing my first one. That's pretty much the only con so far, but I'm anal and impatient, so it feels kind of big.--I should add that despite this, every time I do actually talk with her or work on things, those interactions have been very good and I've learned a considerable amount. But there is a lot of "next week" turns into "next month" that goes on, which to a degree I suppose is par for the course.
I had one.
He got my screenplay in front of some producers and directors and it was optioned, so that was nice. Then came turnaround. C'est la vie.
When the option expired I wasn't really interested in writing anymore and our business relationship dissolved.
I have one.
We're in the early stages of selling a book so I can't really say much results-wise yet. I know that he can get me in front of the major houses and has access to things I don't. Other than that, it's a wait and see on what he actually does for me.