Monday, April 24, 2017

Wanted: Active Authors

When I am looking at new authors to potentially sign at the agency, one of the things I am looking for is how active the writer is. No, I am not necessarily talking about someone who is writing 20 books a year, but I am looking for someone who is always striving to make forward movement. Unfortunately, there are many authors who seem to think that once they get an agent, they just have to sit back and let that person do all of the work. This is far from true.

What we are talking about here is really an issue of "Out of sight. Out of mind." To really be successful when you have an agent, or even an editor, is to make sure they know what you are working on at all times and to show progress. Doing so keeps your name in their mind, so when they
are talking to editors, your name will always pop up.

I think one thing many writers seem to believe is, if they are working on a project and really have nothing new to share, they don't want to bug the the editor or agent. In reality, we want to be bugged. We want to know what you are doing. It doesn't take much. A simple update in a couple of lines with an email is enough.

When you just disappear, the agent is not going to know if you have decided to move on or not.

So, if you haven't talked to your agent recently, send them an email. Let them know what you are working on and if you have some new projects to review. Who knows what may happen?

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