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Topic: my ''agent'' just trashed me! should I call it quits?
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| Author | Message |
| nychippy | Posted – 1/25/2005 7:17:18 PM | show profile I'm a freelancer in my early 30s and mostly write corporate work. I've also done a smattering of short pieces for Glamour, House Beautiful, etc., plus a pocket book sold at Urban Outfitters. Swell and all, but I was hoping to make the leap to the likes of Vogue and Elle Decor, and write another book. It was time to find an agent. A galpal knew someone at one of the city's mega agencies, I sent him my stuff, we agreed to meet. Big mistake. Over coffee, he told me I had zero chance of making it any higher up the writing food chain. That my clips weren't impressive. That any 23-year-old Harvard grad could write what I did, and probably better. That I was too old to be a literary sensation, etc, ad nauseum. Bottom line: He wasn't interested in repping me, and doubted anyone else would be either. So...should I continue to slog away? Look for a different agent? Or pack it in, buy a dozen pair of nude pantyhose and settle for an office job in Hackensack? |
| meccalis | Posted – 1/25/2005 7:34:57 PM | show profile | email poster The Bright Side At least he was upfront with u. Worst thing is to have an agent who smiles in your face, and does nothing, but wastes your time. I'm an author with a major house and former freelancer, and I have a great agent. A great agent is imperative. It's someone who believes in you, but more importantly, they want someone who can generate dollars. Just find another agent. Brush it off. We are writers! We have thick skin and have heard worse. So keep it moving in another direction, preferably UP! |
| eriksherman | Posted – 1/25/2005 7:40:34 PM | show profile Sounds like horse manure. Agent who are any good don't spend time meeting with writers they don't think they can successfully rep. If you need to improve your writing, you can. If you want to break into new markets, you can. Being in your 30s will not stop you if you don't want it to. ------ Author of "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS" - hidden at a bookstore near you... |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/25/2005 8:12:07 PM | show profile He was never 'your agent' And be thankful for that! This is NOT normal agent behavior. Good, successful agents do not take the time to meet with someone unless they are seriously considering making them an offer. That this guy met with you and then trashed you, is just too bizarre. Don't give it another thought. You Are Not That Into Him. Seriously. No agent is much better than a bad agent, and that is what this guy is, or if he is successful, then he is also fairly psychotic and you're still better off without him. Keep in mind too that writing and publishing is Highly subjective. It is completely normal for dozens of agents to not 'get' your stuff before you find the one who does, and then knows exactly who else will love it, and buy it. I'd come up with a killer book proposal, and THEN start shopping for an agent. Do it all by e-mail, using publishers marketplace and a great new site, www.agentquery.com (free!) so you can carefully target the right agent for what you do. Do NOT let one idiot like this guy slow you down or doubt yourself for even a second. |
| eriksherman | Posted – 1/25/2005 10:47:17 PM | show profile In case I wasn't clear, I agree with foodlit. Agents worth their salt just don't act this way. I wonder if the person actually was an agent, or some assistant who is hoping to move up and is trying to act like he thinks an agent would. The person would also have known that agents generally don't get involved with magazine work - the money is too low for 15% to mean anything. Unless you are a big name with magazines willing to spend large sums, look to agents when you want to do a book project. Decide on a book you'd like to write. Fiction will require the entire manuscript, while non-fiction will need a good proposal running anywhere from 30 to 50 pages. Then you shop the manuscript or proprosal around to different agents and find someone who is a good fit. ------ Author of "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS" - hidden at a bookstore near you... |
| Janetblueyes | Posted – 1/25/2005 10:53:59 PM | show profile Just remember how many people turned down Stephen King. |
| limericks4all | Posted – 1/25/2005 11:32:34 PM | show profile I am not sure how long you have been writing, but anyone in the writing profession will endure a lifetime of criticism and rejection. If you decide to pack it in, fine, that's up to you. But don't do it just because of one guy's opinion. I mean, do you think he would quit his profession if you told him he sucked as an agent? |
| siervolino | Posted – 1/26/2005 1:49:33 AM | show profile Yeah, well... At least you got a meeting with an agent. Christ, I hate people with connections sometimes. |
| VillageGal | Posted – 1/26/2005 9:49:15 AM | show profile Why are you getting so discouraged because of one idiot? His behavior does not sound normal. I'm a bit confiused. Did you already write a book? Do you have a new proposal ready to go? Remember, all you need is for one agent to say, Yes. |
| scribechick | Posted – 1/26/2005 12:09:26 PM | show profile chippy Please don't get a chip on shoulder over this incident. I too, have experienced humiliating times during my quest for an agent. A few years ago, one well-known agent took my call, put me on his speaker phone and well, it wasn't fun. I still cringe thinking about it. A few years later, his partner took my call. She lectured me about the ''p'' word -- gotta have platform. But I didn't give up. Later on, I spent a serious three months looking for an agent; got a dozen of rejections. But finally, I connected with one--and I am very, very pleased. Don't give up because of what one agent said. Persistence does pay off. And yes, timing and finding the perfect fit does matter. |
| Man Over Miami | Posted – 1/26/2005 5:56:23 PM | show profile You mean he took coffee with you just to tell you that your writing sucks? Was he doing this out of the goodness or his heart? You should have thrown the coffee in his face. What an a-hole. You're better off without him |
| media1221 | Posted – 1/31/2005 1:59:40 PM | show profile What happened to you doesn't make sense. Generally, literary agents rep projects. If you have a specific project an agent thinks he/she can sell it doesn't matter how old you are ________________________________________ Eric Neuhaus is the author of the upcoming book ''Iron Yoga'' (Rodale, 2005). For more information on his work please visit www.ericneuhaus.com |
| arewrites | Posted – 1/31/2005 11:37:01 PM | show profile This guy, first of all, is not your agent. He never was your agent. That you call him your agent makes me wonder about other aspects of this post, frankly, but okay, so you met with this agent and he trashed you. I agree with those who find that really bizarre behavior. Was this ''over coffee'' in his office, or did he actually take you to a restaurant? Did you insist on a meeting or did he offer one? Had you sent him your book? Did you present a proposal for the one you want to write? Agents, as others have noted, don't rep magazine writers. They rep book authors. If what you had given him were short, fob pieces for ''Glamour, House Beautiful, etc, '' then he would indeed have felt you weren't ''agenting'' material. He might be wrong in this judgment, but if that's all he had to go on, I can understand his conclusion. That said, there is also the possibility that he was teaching you a lesson. Anyone who would buy a dozen pair of nude pantyhose and move to Hackensack because some jerk carried on about her ability to make it as a writer *won't make it as a writer. You make it as a writer by saying, ''uh, huh,'' and carrying on with your writing. So while what he *said was probably worthless, what he *did was pretty valuable in itself. But he does sound like a nutcase. |
| allaboutadvice | Posted – 2/1/2005 11:38:56 AM | show profile pissy and mean agents gadzooks! If someone in her early 30's is already too old to be a literary sensation, we might as well all pack it in. I'd read between the lines and not take this too much to heart. Agents for the most part are only interested in repping people they think will be easy to sell. Your style or talent may not appear ''instant celeb'' to this agent but that doesn't mean you aren't going to be a success. This is just one person's opinion. I have also met some people in this business who sense vulnerability, and really DO take pleasure in pulling the proverbial wings off a fly. If this particular agent decided to take his or her own frustration (and possibly, failure) out on you, realize it for what it is. You don't want to work with a pissy, mean agent anway. There are plenty of others. Get a thicker skin and even more solid resolve to prove this person wrong. You've licked your wounds, now get going again! and good luck |
| Ward Cleaver | Posted – 2/1/2005 2:45:56 PM | show profile I don't understand what the point of this meeting was in the first place. It was really too early to talk to an agent. The only time to do that is when you have a book idea that you are willing to turn into proposal. If it is a non-fiction book, there are very few agencies that wouldn't give the idea serious consideration. If it is fiction--again, no competent agent would have an opinion unless he actually read a few chapters. |
| Marie | Posted – 2/1/2005 2:48:27 PM | show profile That sort of puzzled me too--you don't use an agent to place magazine stories, unless you're well known and the agent already reps you on a book(s). You need to develop your book proposal (outline, sample chapter, and so on), and then shop it to an agent. |
| nychippy | Posted – 2/1/2005 5:28:56 PM | show profile Hate to be the one to tell you this, arewrites, but agents *do* rep magazine writers. Your assertion that ''agents, as others have noted, don't rep magazine writers. They rep book authors,'' is totally off base. That's why I met with this agent--because he reps magazine writers (both vets and hot young authors) who routinely do pieces for Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Harper's, etc. Yes, those particular pieces are long investigative articles, but I wrote similar stuff earlier in my career at respected city mags, and was hoping to get back into that area. I had sent him those clips, my more recent articles, and my book. And my crack about the pantyhose was, uh, a joke. No one in NYC wears them anymore. |
| eriksherman | Posted – 2/1/2005 6:52:02 PM | show profile >> Your assertion that ''agents, as others have noted, don't rep magazine writers. They rep book authors,'' is totally off base. << Actually, it's not. Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper's, and the like are unusual markets, either because of the level of pay (at least at VF) or the chance of quickly turning an article into a book proposal. So, for example, my agent might approach the New Yorker on my behalf under certain circumstances, but more as a favor and an investment in future work. I've never run into an agent that puts much focus on magazines because the numbers just don't add up. Even if you were doing one of the special long quarterly narrative pieces that run in the Atlantic, for example, you're probably talking about 7,000 words at maybe $1.50 a word (plus pretty decent expense reimbursement). So call it $10.5K. So the agent's take would be $1,575 - not all that big a fee from the agent's view, when not that much more work might land a book deal. ------ Author of "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS" - hidden at a bookstore near you... |
| limericks4all | Posted – 2/2/2005 2:55:51 AM | show profile I agree with Erik on this one. I don't know any agents who primarily rep magazine articles. I know some who handle magazine projects for their book-writing clients. In many cases writers I know who use agents for books handle their own magazine stuff -- writers can often do just as well on their own without giving the agent a cut. A well-connected agent might be able to help get your pitches in front of those lofty pubs, though. But I'd imagine it would be much harder to get an agent for magazine pieces than a book. In the latter case, he's taking on a project he can sell. In the former, he's taking on a writer he thinks he can developer -- the upside is much lower. <<Hate to be the one to tell you this, arewrites, but agents *do* rep magazine writers. Your assertion that ''agents, as others have noted, don't rep magazine writers. They rep book authors,'' is totally off base. That's why I met with this agent--because he reps magazine writers (both vets and hot young authors) who routinely do pieces for Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Harper's, etc. Yes, those particular pieces are long investigative articles, but I wrote similar stuff earlier in my career at respected city mags, and was hoping to get back into that area. I had sent him those clips, my more recent articles, and my book. << |
| VillageGal | Posted – 2/2/2005 10:02:52 AM | show profile I agree with Erik and Arewrites. It is rare for agents to rep magazine articles. This meeting made no sense from the get go unless you had a book proposal ready. If you want to break into bigger magazine markets, study those markets seriously and write some killer queries |
| Mr. Complex Adaptive Systems | Posted – 2/2/2005 10:15:49 AM | show profile So this is one of those slick magazine agents. The kind of guy who shops around a great piece until National Hog Farmer Weekly offers the best price. I hate those guys. |
| limericks4all | Posted – 2/2/2005 11:52:04 AM | show profile This would be my guess on what really happened. This agent reps books and occasionally reps a magazine piece to a high profile magazine. The original poster has a friend who knows the agent, who agreed to meet as a courtesy. The original poster was hoping that the agent would get him entree into the New Yorkers of the world. The agent saw the writers recent clips were on the order of fairly routine service peoples for the likes of Ladies Home Journal. The agent said there wasn't really he could do. One of both of them might have gotten nasty and it escalated. The original poster needs to realize that no one's going to help him break into the big-time world of the top literary magazines until he's done some work in lesser publications that justifies their interest. It will be easier for him to approach these pubs on his with a great idea, if that's what he wants to do. No agent will be interested in him until he has a good book project to rep. The new agents who handle magazine pieces won't be interested in him until he's a much more proven commodity in this area. |
| arewrites | Posted – 2/2/2005 10:51:14 PM | show profile I think Limericks has this down pat. I particularly think so because of the claim that this ''agent'' was ''*my'' (the poster's) agent, when he wasn't; because the poster didn't get the fact that I fully understand that the bit about the pantihose wasn't serious; that the poster actually believes ''no one in New York'' wears pantihose anymore, and tries to sell me on that without knowing who I am, where I live, or what I know; and doesn't know that agents do *not rep magazine writers unless said writers are already very well-known and able to pull in, as Erik noted, significant amounts of money from significant publications -- which this writer is not. And with that in mind, the story of what happened makes much more sense; it didn't occur exactly the way this poster presented it. What, NYchippy, was *your part of this? What did you say to the agent before he ran off at the mouth? What *really happened? |
| arewrites | Posted – 2/2/2005 10:55:01 PM | show profile Here again, another distortion(?)/misunderstanding(?) of the situation: >>They rep book authors,'' is totally off base. That's why I met with this agent--because he reps magazine writers (both vets and hot young authors) who routinely do pieces for Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Harper's, etc. Yes, those particular pieces are long investigative articles, but I wrote similar stuff earlier in my career at respected city mags, and was hoping to get back into that area. << ROUTINELY. READ YOUR OWN WORDS. You do NOT ''routinely'' write for these pubs. You don't even *occasionally write for these pubs. Hence, you are not one of the people he is likely to represent. That you wrote ''similar stuff'' at ''respected city mags'' doesn't even come close. Increasingly, I wonder if the agent was actually the problem here. |
| Marie | Posted – 2/3/2005 1:27:39 AM | show profile AreWrites, Erik, and Limericks are correct. I used to work at a major magazine, and once in a while, a pitch came in from an agent, a agent of a well-known writer whose books he already repped. Agents do not rep unknown magazine writers; as part of the package, they'll sometimes send in a proposal or article from a client whose book they're repping. I'm not condoning this agent's rudeness to you, but it may have been more exasperation at your naivete. |
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