Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Agent Changes

If you are an unagented writer who reads this blog, here is a bit of advice. Given a choice between two equally great agents, one in a large agency, and one in a smaller one, I recommend you go with the larger agency. (And may you all have such decisions to make!) Or at the very least, be sure to ask about the agency's policy if your agent leaves.

I'm represented by FinePrint Literary Management. My agent there was the wonderful Colleen Lindsay, but my contract is with FinePrint. Colleen is moving on to a great new job elsewhere. And because of my contract and FinePrint's client policies, I'm not finding myself agentless. Instead, Colleen worked hard for each and every one of her clients to find other agents within FinePrint that would be good fits for our work.

My new agent is Stephany Evans, President of FinePrint. We met briefly at the Backspace conference last year, and I found her to be most friendly and professional. She's been in the business for twenty years, and is a member of AAR (Association of Authors Representatives), so I think I'm in great hands. I'm told she has a particular fondness for strong female protagonists. Sounds like a good match for what I write. I'm looking forward to working with her, and I am pleased with the way in which FinePrint is handling what could have been a very scary situation for writers. The thought of returning to the query process makes me a little ill. No, I take that back. It makes me very ill. I don't want to do that again, and I'm glad I don't have to.

So, I wish Colleen all the best and am eager to start working with Stephany Evans. My manuscript is out on submission right now. It's too soon, but I still jump when the phone rings. Time to go focus on something else--like my new manuscript.

2 comments:

Sandy Wills said...

Oh, I hadn't heard that Colleen was moving yet. Ahh! I'm so glad to hear she's taken care of you and the rest of her clients. You brought up a good point about the big agency / little agency thing. I hadn't thought about that. I'm with Nancy Coffey Lit, which consists of Nancy, Jo, and an assistant, but they're practically the same thing as Fine Print (well, they share offices, at least).

I wonder how it would work if Jo left (which I forbid her to do!). I'm pretty sure my contract is with NCLit, but I'm fairly certain Nancy doesn't handle UF/sci-fi stuff at all.

suzie townsend said...

Great post Lisa! You're definitely in great hands. Stephany is phenomenal!