Newsletter #2: What I Learned My First Year of Agenting

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Hello everyone! 
 
It's officially August, aka “salt air & the rust on your door” month for fellow Swifties. It's truthfully one of my favorite parts of the year. Sometimes, the air feels cooler in the morning. The stores start to fill with Halloween decorations. It feels like a natural restart, a way to reassess the year as it's been and time to take charge against the coming colder months.
 
It also just so happens that today, August 14th, marks my one year anniversary as an agent. To celebrate, we're spending this newsletter discussing the three biggest lessons I've learned and what I'll do to make the second year even better (what a tough challenge)!

I always tell my clients to celebrate every single thing, no matter how small it may seem. Finished your round of revisions? Go get a yummy drink! Got your first response on sub? Eat your favorite snack! 
 
So, I'm going to take my own advice here and start this newsletter out with mind-boggling things I've accomplished this first year of agenting.

• Signed with seven incredible authors. Y'ALL ARE THE BEST!!
• Sold my first project to one of the big five!
• Read over 2,500 queries! Thank you to all the authors who trusted me with their work.
• Attended several in-person and virtual writing conferences.
• Met with some of the coolest, hard-working people in this industry.
• Somehow started a pitching contest on Twitter called #Careypit that blew up my notifications for weeks. But how fun and beautiful!

Now, let's get into some of the ways I've been challenged this year.

LESSON ONE: It's Okay to be Sad

​As a once querying author who spent over a decade in the trenches, I thought I would have a very good mentality against rejection. 
 
But I was wrong.
 
Yup, my first lesson includes pointing out how naive I was. When I started signing my first clients and putting them out on sub, I knew those “nos” were going to come. It's just a part of the process. This business is subjective, not everyone is going to feel the same about one story.
 
And as those “nos" came in more and more frequently as I put more and more stories out into the world, it started to take a toll. It confused me at first, why was it bothering me so much? But in my mind, I had to be strong for my clients and just keep moving forward. I didn't have time to be sad. You see the issue, yes?
 
I needed to slow down and reflect, one of the biggest themes of this first year of agenting. My clients' beautiful, wonderful stories that I fell in love with were facing rejection. These talented and wonderful humans that I am so lucky to work with had to hear another no, when all I wanted was to help make their dreams come true. Of course that would make me sad!
 
So, I had to learn to embrace those uncomfortable feelings so they wouldn't remain pressed against my lungs and rotting away. I let myself feel sad. I let myself cry or eat a pint of ice cream or go on a drive to look at the sunset. 
 
Doing those things kept my head above water and reminded me of the truth: that rejection is just one step. I am just one human trying her best, spinning on this planet, and there's multiple paths that end with what I want for me and my authors. But no hero comes out at the end of their book unscathed, and aren't they all the more beautiful for that?

LESSON TWO: Balance or Burn Out

​The turn around in this industry is no joke. This year I've watched countless of agents and editors leave the business. And it's no wonder based on all the problems publishing faces (if the CEO of a publishing company is reading this, please pay your employees better thank youuuu).
 
I already knew stepping into my role I would be facing a ton of those issues. Not to mention I have two other jobs (author and full-time gig to pay the bills). And for some silly reason, I didn't really have a plan to keep myself sane against the uphill battle. Why did I think I could handle it all just fine? Me, a person with multiple mental health disorders and my stubborn, grudge-holding Taurus personality.
 
But I've got a  plan now, after a few grueling months where I felt myself slipping over the edge of balance and crashing into the pit of burn out. Too close for comfort, I wasn't going to do that to myself or my brilliant authors.
 
So, I set up some boundaries and habits, things I am still working out and testing to this day. I'm sure it'll adapt even further the more experience I get. Some specific examples include: shutting down my email on my phone past a certain hour, not doing any work on Sundays, and picking up hobbies that have nothing to do with publishing (hi puzzles!). I'm also very sad to report that exercising and spending time outside does help (gross). 
 
I've got some things I'm still working on, like finding a way to balance reading for fun and lessening my time doom scrolling. But there's a big difference between now and then.

LESSON THREE: Developing My Best Practices

​This one is a little more technical, but over the past year I've learned lots of tricks and work methods that keep me and my clients organized and focused. It was basically a whole year of trying out different ways to agent and finding things that best served me and my clients. I had to ask myself a lot of questions. What should my sub plans look like? When should I nudge? How should I word my emails to editors? Thank goodness I have a ton of experience with project management and great mentors to help along the way. 
 
If you're looking to get into the industry or are curious about details like this, here are some things that stuck:

• A combination of Airtables and Notions for sub plans is my go-to. I love how pretty Notions can be for client-facing stuff, but I also like the functionality of airtable for organizing bigger things.
• Quarterly meetings with my clients, together and one-on-one, are an absolute must for so many reasons, mostly because I love them.
• This app called Speechify that takes documents and turns them into audiobooks? Soooo worth the money. Long drives are the perfect time to catch up on subs.
• Write down everything. Ideas that come to your mind, things editors say about their MSWL, dreams clients have. I have several Google Docs with just thoughts and sometimes strange ideas. Organized chaos, baby. Not everything has to be perfect or make sense to other people.
• Hand-written cards go a long way. That's it, that's the tweet.
• You're going to make mistakes. So are editors. We are all human, and we all deserve grace. They're just opportunities to learn.

I could share more, but some things I've learned I'm choosing to keep close to my chest. But safe to say, it's been a fun year of trying, failing sometimes, and improving.

WHAT'S NEXT?

I know we've talked about how much I love autumn, but you know what else I also love? New years. That energy when everyone is planning for the months to come and getting excited for all they can accomplish…oooh I soak it all up and love to find ways to recreate that magic. So, with the first year of agenting officially over and a second year on it's way, let's set up some goals, shall we? But I'm not going to write things like sell more books. Of course I wanna do that, but those things are outside of my control, as frustrating as that is.

• Sign horror clients. I am oh-so hungry for it. MG, YA, adult, I want them all!
• Similarly, I would love some adult clients across all the genres.  I love me some kidlit, but you should see my Libby account history (spoiler alert, it's a lot of adult fiction).
• Attend one major writing / publishing conference! I'd love to go to something like YALLFEST or ALA's annual conference.
• Focus more on continuing my education. Whether that's by finding online courses to attend or something else, I want to be the best advocate for my clients and my genres in this ever-changing industry. So I gotta keep up!
• Keep working on my balance between life and work and agenting. I want to be in this business for a long time, so I have to make sure I'm supporting myself mentally and physically.

And there you have it, the biggest lessons I've learned this first year of agenting. I won't pretend I'm an expert by any means, and I recognize some of the stuff I've talked about might not work for other agents. I'll be the first to say that I've still got so much more to learn, do, and try. But to me, that's very exciting. Life would be too boring if I had all the answers. 
​
Thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this first year. To my amazing mentors, friends, and authors, I wouldn't be here without you. I am beyond thankful and appreciative of everyone's love. I cannot WAIT to see what happens next in year two!