Writing
  Thought for the Writer's Day: How Do
I Find an Agent?
An old friend bought me
North Face of Soho as a surprise gift this Christmas. Try this quote:
"I often get asked by young writers
about how one goes about getting an agent and the answer
is that I have no idea. Look busy enough, and an agent
will get you. She herself will probably be only at the
start of her career and on the lookout for clients.
Later on, the client list will be full.
But agents themselves don't place
manuscripts with publishers. Publishers are in the business
of looking for publishable manuscripts and the agent's
job is to look after the contracts. There is only a
market, which you can get into only by having something
to sell, and something to sell means something that
people want to buy.
That last bit is the poser. Quite
apart from the obvious nutters, many a good soul has
come to grief through failing to accept that nobody
very much wants what they have to give.
Since the necessary determination
to press on in spite of failure, a determination that
any artist must have, is indistinguishable from the
futile determination to persist in a hopeless cause,
the possibilities for self delusion are almost infinite."
Food for thought.
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