HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT AGENT

Maybe I should have talked to people at the MFA who had dealt with agents, but I wasn't in the habit of bothering people with my needs — lacked what my therapist calls a healthy sense of entitlement

I was asked to speak a bit on how I “got” an agent. I don’t normally talk about the professional side of writing as there’s already so much agent-adjacent info online, a diluvial torrent of advice on how a writer might best navigate the business of writing. But as I was asked in good faith I will attempt to answer in good faith.

The whole agent thing kicked off at Cornell. Back in 1995. Before smart phones, before social media, before AWP had been super-sized. I had just graduated from my MFA and was doing this one-year teaching gig at the program and also submitting stories to magazines. I always had this idea that I’d only sent out a handful in the pre-agent days, but recently my friend returned a box of my crap that I’d left with him two-plus decades ago, and in that box were all my rejection slips (and the handwritten opening chapter of my first dique novel — horror, of course). Turns out by the beginning of 1995 I’d already collected close to 20 rejections, nearly all of them perfect, no notes.

But as with real love, so with publishing — you only have to get lucky once.

And I got lucky.