Q&A Thursday

Wait and See edition

Friends! I hope you are doing well! Let’s answer some questions!

K asks: I’m a graduate student, and an agent from a reputable agency learned about my research and asked if I might be interested in talking more about it and other book ideas I have. We have a call scheduled next week. So exciting! I obviously have no idea what (if anything) will come from this call, but I want to make sure I’m not making any major missteps. I had always hoped to query agents with this project, but had planned to wait until I was closer to defending my dissertation (I’m just starting to write it) to do so. Should I just wait and see what comes of this conversation? What should I be looking for in a conversation at this stage? Should I be talking to other agents now?

Congrats! This is a wonderful thing! Regardless of what comes out of it, this is a nice vote of confidence that your work is attracting the kind of attention you want, i.e. an agent’s attention.

The only misstep that you can take right now is signing with an agent you’re not wild about. You don’t have to say yes to this agent if they offer you representation. I know that sounds scary! But it’s true. You can have a conversation with this agent, ask a million questions, enjoy it immensely and think the agent is great and still say, You know, I’m not quite ready to make this decision. But I will contact you when I am! Since you haven’t even written your dissertation, no less a trade book or book proposal, you have time.