My Agent Story: Guest Post by Beth Fred

Not all agent/client relationships go according to plan. 

For some of us, perhaps we feel that the moment we get an agent, it's smooth sailing from there on out. But, unfortunately, that's not aways the case. Bad things happen. Clients and agents end their working relationship for many reasons, just like once you have an agent it doesn't necessarily mean your book will sell to a publisher. 

For today, I've asked romance author Beth Fred to stop by and share her agent story. Beth was kind enough to take a minute and share some of her experiences. Thank you, Beth! Take it away!

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When Kristin first asked me to write a post about how I got my agent, I hesitated. Why? Because I no longer have an agent. While it was a very mutual parting of ways (I started writing genres she no longer represented), it still felt like a huge step back to be in the slush pile again.

But at the time Kristin asked for this post, I was already thinking about what my next steps would be. I’d decided to query three agents with a YA novel I’m working on and begin work on a clean na/adult romance while it was on submission. Two of these agents were people who I’d pulled fulls from in 2013, and one works at an agency I highly admire. Here is something important to think about—and that I couldn’t help but think about. In 2011, I queried for the first time. 110 letters sent. 105 form rejections. In the fall of 2012, I was more confident in my writing and looking for something more specific in an agent. I’d decided to query less than 20 agents and if I didn’t get an offer self publish. I queried 19 and obviously signed. After my agent amicably separated, I’d decided I would query only 3 agents and self publish until someone queried me. This means one thing: I thought being queried as an author was a real possibility.

I got my agent with a query letter straight from the slush pile, but I had an offer from a publisher at the time. At this point, I don’t foresee myself querying again. I will write a more detailed post on this later, but I thought my story would help show that times have changed. The publishing industry has changed.

Beth Fred: YA & Romance author

Her books: