May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

The odds that a writer finds an agent are 1 in 6,000.

Thank you, Google, for that uplifting thought of the day.

Not to brag (really, not to brag because as I am currently unpublished, I have nothing to yet

brag about), I am one of those lucky ones who has an agent.

How did I do it, you ask?

Beats the hell out of me!

Maybe it was the right timing – the stars aligned in my favor. Maybe it was dumb luck (probably

the most likely). Perhaps it was fate (I write that word with a loopy smile because I like to think

it was divine destiny that I work with this agent, but probably not.)

I wish I had an answer – a foolproof, three-step process to sign with an agent. But I definitely

don’t. I can only tell you what I did and hope that it brings you the same luck it did for me.

When in doubt, create a spreadsheet!

After completing the first… and then the second… draft of Diamonds in Auschwitz, I decided it

was time to find an agent. I weighed the pros and cons of indie publishing vs. working with an

agent. I clearly leaned toward the latter.

I took a day off work, because I needed a full day without the interruptions of the family. It’s

amazing how much time gets sucked up when you are the only one in the house who knows

where the dragon water bottle is (and other such tasks). With eight hours to devote to the job, I

sat myself at the kitchen table with a spreadsheet, a cuppa and a new subscription to Publishers

Marketplace.

And I searched. A lot.

I read through the postings, showing deal after deal, focusing on the book description and the

agent. Was the book similar to mine? If so, the agent went onto a spreadsheet as a possibility. I

did this for hours until I had a list of 70+ agents.

Then I hit the agency websites. I looked up each agent, again trying to surmise if they were

interested in the type of book I had written. On my spreadsheet, I recorded the agent name,

the agency name, how they take submissions and any other relevant notes (like how long they

take to respond). THEN (see, it was a full-day process), I sorted the list by my top preferences. I

was going to go for broke from the very beginning.

That’s when submissions went out. I like to bite-size things because I can be easily

overwhelmed. I gave myself the goal of sending out five submissions a day, until I hit 20. Then

the plan was to wait.

Cue Jeopardy music.

Just to keep you in suspense, you’ll have to see my next blog post to find out the results of my

spreadsheet and patience.