Comments on: To Plan a Writing Career…or Not

By: Eva Ulian

Eva Ulian — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:07:55 +0000

I agree!

By: KC Frantzen

KC Frantzen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:55:02 +0000

Very encouraging.
Thank you very much.

By: janetgrant

janetgrant — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:57:44 +0000

Thanks each of you for your comments. And Richard, you’re correct. An agent never has all tasks complete, clean desk, empty email folder. There’s always more that could be done. Agents try to find time to just sit and dream about what can be done to stimulate a client’s career.

By: Judy Christie

Judy Christie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:59:45 +0000

Such a helpful column, Janet, and I want to add my “amen” to this. My wonderful agent, Etta Wilson, has helped me so much with career planning as a writer. Her coaching and guidance help me focus on writing projects and make me prioritize and teach me as I take ideas to proposals to manuscripts to published works.
Thanks for the great Books & Such blog! I know it’s a big time commitment, and it’s so useful and inspiring.

By: Cindy R. Wilson

Cindy R. Wilson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:37:08 +0000

Thank you for the post. It’s a good confirmation about seeking an agent for my work. I want to have a career in writing and I want to have an agent on my side to help guide me in those tougher times. Thanks again!

By: NikoleHahn

NikoleHahn — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:17:28 +0000

I love this post. A speaker at our writer group once talked about a small bit character in her book the publisher wanted the author to get rid of. The speaker claimed responsibility for not convincing the publisher through her manuscript how important to the story line this small character was, and this author managed to convince the editor. The character was kept.

I am so glad her hard work will come out later on. I’m just now understanding the complexity of novel writing.

By: Lynn Rush

Lynn Rush — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:02:18 +0000

Great post, Janet. I really think the writer/author has to be open to suggestions from the editor and agent, but when is it too much change that’s being asked for? I’ve always wondered that.

This was a great post and gave a nice look into an agent/author relationship. Thanks.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:30:11 +0000

Very cool.

By: Teri D. Smith

Teri D. Smith — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:05:32 +0000

I love the wise advice you gave the author. Thanks for the concrete example of what you mean when you speak of career planning.

By: Richard Mabry

Richard Mabry — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:55:59 +0000

Janet, Excellent post. Some might think an agent’s job is easy–send out the work, look over the contract, collect the commission. Not so. I can assure readers of this blog that an agent’s work–like the proverbial “woman’s work”–is never done. And I’m grateful for that.