Lara Zielin

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: The stupid things people say on Facebook.

My friend Colleen has launched a month of gratitude over on her awesome blog, and she’s encouraging people to get in the spirit of thanksgiving.

You bet I’m jumping on that super cool bandwagon.

And even though I have about a bazillion, jillion things to be thankful for, there’s one in particular that I want to blog about.

My agent.**

I know there are a lot of awesome agents out there. I’m sorry but mine is the absolute best.

I tell this story a lot, but it’s worth re-telling on the blog: A few years ago, I attended the Backspace Writers’ Conference in New York and asked my agent (who was at that time not my agent) if she would meet with me while I was in the Big Apple. I’d queried her and had a roundabout  introduction to her through a published friend, and even though she didn’t really know me from Adam (or Eve for that matter), she agreed to lunch. Prior to us meeting, I sent her not one but TWO of my books, which she not only read by the time we had lunch, but which she also provided feedback on while we ate. Did I mention she’d read both? Two books, people.

She was kind, gracious, and took time for someone who, by all accounts, probably shouldn’t have registered on her radar. At lunch that day, I asked her if I made revisions to my novels if I might send them to her again. She said yes. For the following months I did largely nothing but revise DONUT DAYS. When I re-sent it to her, she accepted it and from then on she was my agent. But you know what? To this day I still am floored (and tremendously grateful) that she didn’t just tell me that she’d already been generous enough with her time and that I should probably go bug someone else. She could have said that, and it would have been very, very fair. But she didn’t.

Since then, I’ve sent a fair handful of books to my agent. Some of them have worked. Some, not so much. What I’m thankful for, though, is that my agent gets me, and she works to further my writing career in a way that jives with my (oftentimes impatient and oftentimes scattered) personality. My agent is always in my court. Always.

I’m also thankful that my agent is part of an amazing literary agency that’s run with integrity and kindness. In the publishing world, especially these days, there are a lot of ways to do business. They choose to do it the right way.

I shudder to think where I’d be without my agent. Maybe I would have found someone else but I guarantee they wouldn’t be as smart, as committed, or as patient.

So thanks, awesome agent. I am thankful for you and your agency colleagues every day.

** Please do not ask me if you can email my agent and use my name. Please do not email my agent after reading this unless you have read every single post on this blog. Thank you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 6:12 pm and is filed under agent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.