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The next step is getting an agent to like you and/or your project. What do agents like? Oddly enough, they're almost like real people.
They like friendly folks who're easy to work with. They like writers with projects the agents think they can sell. They like making a living and feeding their kids. They're also usually interested in stories and people who tell them. Did I mention they really like projects they think they can sell?
Agents relax a good deal once you demonstrate you're not an idiot and you're not demanding. You should present a project to them that's well-researched and clean. Don't expect your agent to be your copy editor. You should also demonstrate that you understand this basic principle of literary sales: exactly the same, but different. Let me type that again. Exactly the same. But different. We'll come back to that in a moment because that's a key element to the third step. So what did they like about you? One thing I had going for me, besides the personal connection, was that I was odd. I was a female Naval Officer in a very male sea-going and joint warfare environment and a lot of agents and editors found that intriguing. Of course, down the road, they lost their nerve and didn't push that connection, but that's neither here nor there. At any rate, I managed pretty much accidentally to ring a bunch of major bells. I could write fairly well, I had an interesting background and I was comfortable talking to editors and others. They were also focused at the time on the weirdness of female protagonists in military technothrillers and, even more odd, having a female write about military matters. |
