Agent Expectations

Expectations are difficult to manage.  They're the voice inside you whispering that you deserve all the things.  When we were trying to sell Deathday, I fantasized frequently about the money I'd make.  I planned how I'd quit my job, how I'd buy a new car, how I'd take vacations to Europe.  Even though my agent at the time and I had spoken about what to expect, I couldn't keep those tiny, chattering voices in my head from making me dream.

That's a trap I believe a lot of writers fall into–new and old.  They expect that signing with an agent is the road to amazeballs happiness.  They expect to sign on the dotted line and be ushered into a literary brotherhood of non-stop wine parties¹ and greeted with a metric shit ton of cash.  But that's not how it works.  Not usually.

I'm all for dreaming.  I still dream of the day when I can write as my sole source of income, but I keep my expectations in the realm of the real.  And writers who are querying agents should do the same if they want to avoid slipping into that deep, dark trap of "why does everyone hate my book?!?" self-pity.

Signing with an agent is just one of many steps along the road to being published. It's a big step.  Huge, really.  But there are still a ton more.  Agents aren't magic².  Signing with one doesn't guarantee your book will sell.  It doesn't guarantee wealth or happiness.  What signing with an agent should do is give you an advocate.  Someone who can help you make your book better and hopefully sell it. That's all.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Publishing is a long, hard road.  But also a hell of a lot of fun.  If you let your expectations get the better of you, you run the risk of missing all the cool stuff along the way.

As cliché as it sounds, it really is all about the journey.


1.  I lied, the wine parties are real.  There are also a lot of cupcakes.
2.  Except mine.  She's totally magic.  Or part awesome cyborg, I haven't decided yet.