KIller Nashville Agent Roundtables

Agent Roundtables at Killer Nashville

A new experience for me during this year’s great convention “Killer Nashville” was to attend two agent roundtables.  Writers who were prospective clients were advised to bring multiple copies of the first two pages of their unpublished but completed novels to a room where one or two agents or publishers listened to a reader read aloud each submission.  The idea was to avoid having a long line of authors sweating and exuding massive amounts of anxiety waiting for overworked agents or publishers who were inevitably running late and wondering when they’d have time for a bathroom break.

I remember one time during an agent event when the woman immediately in front of me in line sat down at a table with an agent. A workshop staff member told her she was out of time before she had a chance to say a single word.  The agent the writer and I all objected.  I assured the staff member I was willing to wait until the writer had her full time with the agent.

I was surprised by how well the roundtables worked.  Two pages were enough for experienced professionals to get a flavor of the work and make insightful suggestions. I have always been aware of the need for strong openings and — wow— do I believe it now. I was very impressed by the quality of the submissions.  I heard a wide variety of genres and approaches with strikingly good writing.

I do have one hint for those who attend similar events:  Follow the directions! The agents I met with were polite when presented with single-spaced submissions, three-page submissions and two pages that were not the first two pages in the novel.  So this is my reaction, not theirs.  How utterly clueless. If you were an agent, and a prospective writer/client did not comply with simple, clear directions would that make you more or less interested in representing the writer’s work? Well?

I used to be part of a team at work that hired mental health professionals.  We always had at least five candidates for every opening. While it was often difficult to choose between qualified candidates, each time the task was made much easier by those applicants who disqualified themselves. Some people did not following the simple directions on the application form. Some submitted ungrammatical resumes with spelling errors and clumsy sentence structure.  (Writing clinical progress notes was one part of the job.) Inappropriate dress and/or behavior and a lack of basic information about the jobs, which was available online, were other clues that a person would not be a good fit. 

My wife used to help hire people for academic positions. She still talks about a candidate who called the next day asking to be bailed out of jail. That candidate was not offered a position.

What have you seen people do that undermined their attempts with an agent, an editor or an employer?