Quote from: witch on January 08, 2017, 03:32:00 AM
hewritez, did you have an agent before you got the offer or no?
No, I never had an agent.
With writing it's weird, you either have to get published to get the attention of an agent, or you have to have an agent to get published. It's frustrating.
I published a few stories in some literary journals and an agent reached out to me after reading one--a major agent who represented and sold the film rights for Million Dollar Baby.
I was going to sign with him, but quickly realized that he didn't give a fuck about trying to build my career as a writer, and was only interested in me providing him with a novel to sell...
This agent (the one I'm going to sign with) is younger, gets me, and wants to help build my career, which means trying to get my stories in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and some other higher profile places, which will in turn lead to a bigger contract (I hope) with a publishing company.
The literary industry is actually really similar to the music industry.
My collection of stories serves as a sort of "EP" or "mixtape", where as my novel would be the "album".
If I can get some stories in high profile publications, it's like having singles on the radio. It creates a buzz and builds anticipation for future work.