How I work with my agent

As I mentioned in last night's entry, Maria asked me to comment on how I sold my first book and on my agent. I covered in that entry how I sold One Jump Ahead; tonight, I'll briefly discuss how I work with my agent.

First, as yesterday's entry makes clear, I did not use an agent to sell my first book. It never even crossed my mind to approach an agent for that sale, because I figured I would have to go through the slush pile and sell at least once on my own before any agent worth having would even consider taking me. I was luckier than that, as I explained, but I never contemplated getting an agent at that point.

After I sold the first book and wrote a story I owed an editor, I began plotting and then writing a mystery/thriller, Fatal Circle. I wanted--and still want--to work in multiple genres. It occurred to me that an agent might be valuable for this thriller, so I thought about getting one.

Dave's agent, Kay McCauley of the Pimlico Agency, was not accepting new clients, but a long time ago in a discussion about a nonfiction book, she had said she might consider representing me. Though I have never met Kay in person, I have exchanged multiple email messages with her and had multiple phone conversations. In all of them, she has come across as gracious, cultured, intelligent, and generally wonderful. Plus, Dave trusts her, which is big. I contacted her, she agreed to take me on as a client, and that was that. We never signed any paper; we're honorable people and didn't need it.

At that point, I was about 38K words into Fatal Circle. I did not want Kay to sell it until I had finished it. Then, Toni, based on preorders, decided she wanted three more Jon & Lobo books--and she wanted one each year. I was already behind schedule. We did a contract--again on my own, because I had done the first Jon & Lobo book deal on my own--and I had to put aside Fatal Circle to begin work on Slanted Jack.

This left Kay in the position of having nothing of mine to sell aside from foreign rights, on which she and her folks work.

I hope one day to give her the thriller to sell.

That's it. As you might expect, this whole setup is not the usual one, but that seems to be par for the course for my novelist career so far.

Not as good a story, Maria; sorry.