Agents and networking

[lizwilliams]

jaylake has just posted a very good piece on getting an agent (typically - please check him out on the business of writing). I posted a response to a comment about someone who did not feel that they were in a position to go to conventions and network, and I thought I'd repost it here. I feel that there are a lot of people out there who get dispirited because they can't run about chatting up agents and editors and who feel that because of that, they might as well not bother.

I was taken on by my agent (Shawna McCarthy) some time before we met. I found her through Locus and she was the first agent I queried. Because I'm based in the UK, the possibility of networking in the States was not feasible. I was also published in the US some considerable time before I met anyone from Asimov's or F&SF or Bantam, my US publishers. I still have never met the main men behind Night Shade.

I have not found Worldcon, in particular, to be all that useful as either a networking or a marketing enterprise (and I am fairly gregarious). WFC may be a different kettle of publishers. I won't be going to LA this year because I don't think the financial outlay justifies the results.

You know, I may be naive about all this...but the biggest thing for me is this: just write as well as you can. And send it out! If you're good, someone is going to notice you. This is the ethos that my (RL, based in the UK) writing group has espoused. One of us has just been up for the Clarke's. Another one is on the NYT best seller list. 4 (IIRC) members of the group, which numbers 9 people, have had stories published regularly in Asimov's, InterZone and Realms, stories that get mentioned in the Years' Best lists and the Locus lists. None of those people (apart from myself, now, in the UK) network all that much, because they have families and work commitments.

But they do write damn good stories.

And - this is worth pointing out, though I'm sure it doesn't apply to anyone here - there are a few people who seem to feel that because they network, it's purely a matter of time before they get published. (I know of a handful of cases of genuine nepotism, which ultimately crash when the person involved can't seem to get published anywhere else). I've watched people on the UK scene plug away year after year, to no avail, and they get very bitter about it. And what publishers say about them is: their work is just not up to it. This is a harsh profession (relatively speaking, I mean - to listen to some people, you'd think it was coal mining or bomb disposal) and anyone who comes into it with a sense of entitlement is going to be in for a short, sharp shock.

Here endeth the lecture. Do feel free to disagree!

Comments

[jonathanstrahan.livejournal.com]

I'd like to disagree, but I can't. I'm an editor based in Australia, who does most of his work, and has most of his books (anthologies), published in the States. I have a major literary agent, who I also got without meeting. In fact, I've met him exactly twice during our association. I agree that networking won't make you successful, and no networking won't stop you being successful. The one thing it will do is occasionally through some unexpected opportunities your way, and maybe shortcut one or two things. That's all. It can, of course, be pleasurable in itself, but you shouldn't get bent out of shape or worry a lot if you can't do it. Oh, and World Fantasy is the event to go to. Next year's will be in Saratoga, three hours drive or so from Manhattan. If you want to network, and you have to choose, choose Saratoga.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Disagree?!?

Everything you said goes for me, too. Even the bit about getting an American agent who sold books for me before we ever met (other than via email or on the phone).

[autopope.livejournal.com]

On networking ...

It is useful to go and visit your US publisher's office every so often. Because then you'll get the guided tour and meet all sorts of interesting and useful people who don't go to conventions, like your book designer and your editor's assistants and the marketing assistant who handles your books. All of whom may put more effort into working on a project for someone they know (ideally, for someone they view as a friend) than for a stranger they've never met -- as is human nature.

But from the UK or Australia, it's expensive to make that kind of trip and hard to justify it on spec.

(My approach is to pick a convention within relative spitting distance of NYC -- say, Boskone in Boston -- then do the con, with a side-trip to NYC to visit my agent and Ace and Tor's offices, as both publish me. Combining a con with two editorial visits and a meeting with my agent begins to make it look cost-effective.)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I've done similar - I try to get over to NYC when possible, but that started once I'd already got an agent and publisher.

[rosefox]

So come to Lunacon next year. *)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I'd like to - my reservations about cons are about their commercial efficacy to me as a writer, but I like meeting other writers, readers and fans (I am a fan, after all!)

[rosefox]

It's the 50th Lunacon, so a great many luminaries will be in attendance, plus the usual New York publishing crowd. It should be a blast.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Heartening to read, many thanks. I'm not a natural networker, but I am trying to write as well as I can; keeping working and pushing. Trying to commit to it, and trying to make it come together. Thanks again for some well-timed encouragement.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those encouraging thoughts on the perceived advantages of networking. They were particularly opportune because I've just started the hunt for an agent and/or publisher for the novel.

Because of family and work commitments, I can only make it to one or two SF cons a year. This coming WisCon will be my first US con and in fact first trip to the US. It's good to know that I don't have to spend my time hunting down any agents who might be present in an attempt to persuade them to take me on and that I should just let the novel speak for itself. *g*

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

This is encouraging! I am shy in a crowd, and the thought of networking at cons make me break out in crops of boils. My grand plan was simply to try to write the best stories I could. Sounds like I could do worse.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Networking doesn't have to be done in the flesh.

And I have a surefire method for networking in the flesh: just hang around in an active local sf fandom, and meet people who aren't working in the field yet. Note that trying to narrow this down, to ignore the ones who will never count, won't work -- because some of the most improbable people will turn out to be winners, and some of the obvious winners will turn out to be losers.

[cherylmorgan.livejournal.com]

WFC is a much better networking venue than Worldcon because there is far less going on. But more generally conventions are much less important these days. The thing that is really important is to get online.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. But it's interesting to see how perceptions have changed over the years.

[gwendolynstar.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this......I found it very informative. :)

Networking before you have a cart...or a horse

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah--this PR thing is a little out of control, actually. You only network and acquire leverage *after* you write something that's fucking great. And you don't do it every time you complete and sell a short story. You do it once you've acquired the vestiges of a career with a book out. Or two. And even then you'd best be able to see the dividing line between networking and being a bloodsucking parasite starfucker...and the dividing line between doing some networking/PR and no longer having the time or ability to do the thing that's important in the first place: zee writing.

Oh yeah--and *then* even when you *do* get that right, some idiot will come along and call you a commercial sell-out for doing the leverage/PR, even if you just wrote a novel composed entirely of musical notes and random bits of punctuation.

Cheers,

JeffV

Re: Networking before you have a cart...or a horse

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

>Oh yeah--and *then* even when you *do* get that right, some idiot will come along and call you a commercial sell-out for doing the leverage/PR,

Absolutely - this is the business of you-can't-win. Once you get published, you realise how much you've got to do for yourself in terms of publicity.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I call WFC "fan girl heaven" because the percentage of actual working writers, editors, and agents is so high. And I got an agent through nepotism, which I feel very guilty about.