449. My Agent-to-be and I

I’ve heard so many sad tales of authors not getting along with their agent, like marriage, they find they are incompatible. But to some extent that can be avoided, surely.

Like everything else in life, there’s nothing, apart from death, a hundred percent certain, but at least you can clear the path for establishing a good relationship if you research your agent first, that is, before submitting to that agent, just in case you suddenly find yourself with a “YES”.

If you research your agent, and I don’t just mean by looking up their bio on their website, but by delving into interviews they may have given, and if they haven’t, that says something too; but also take a look at the way they post and interact on social media, twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and so on.

Anything you can find about that agent on internet will help give you a feel of their outlook, or even personality. Sometimes you need to be even more subtle when researching information. There are moments when you need to really narrow down your future agent’s views on a particular aspect in life. It’s probably pointless in sending an MS with left-wing undertones to an agent who professes his open admiration for Donald Trump. The same is true with faith. One can’t expect an agent who is a complete atheist to find empathy with an MS on the lives of women closed up in a Catholic convent. Even if it means frantically researching which high school or university the said agent attended, will give you a clue if they are Catholic, Jewish or anything in between. After all, I need to find the most suitable someone, if as in my case, I want to come up with an angel who will love my bitter nuns.

Hence, as I see it, if you query only those agents you know you have a good chance of getting along with, should the magic moment come, you are ready with your acceptance without dilly dallying around with uncertainty. Because in the uncertainty of the publishing world, you have to know if you and your agent can get along together, if not quite like husband and wife, but at least know you can put up with each other with adequate civility. In this business, you really can’t ask for more.