Agent Lost

I have a question for you.

It goes like this.

I got my first agent over ten years ago.

I lost him because… he died. I’m not kidding. I had no idea he was ill when I signed on with him and his partner – who happened to be his ex-wife – but after two years he passed away and I was out on my own. I found out later I was the last author he’d signed. His colleague offered to represent me but only in a half-hearted way. “He (meaning her ex-husband) loved your book. I didn’t,” she said. I passed on her offer.

My second agent, after representing me for three years, left the business to open a gourmet deli. Some time during the beginning of the third year she also had a nervous breakdown. I found that out later also.

My third agent left the business to take a job in public relations. He didn’t tell me he had left his agency until three months after he was gone. I didn’t know because I was working on revisions of my manuscript. “I’m sorry,” he said when I called him with a finished product – asking for his opinion of it, “I’m no longer in the business.”

“Why didn’t you tell me,” I asked.

“I forgot to tell you,” he said.

My fourth agent, one month before my debut novel hits its publication date – which she sold for me last summer –  called me yesterday to tell me she’s off to work for an investment company. She’d been taking courses to get her certificate so she could work as a financial advisor… or something like that. I had a hard time taking it all in after I heard her say she was leaving the business.

So here’s my question.

Are all agents like this or is it just me?

I called my wife and told her about my new agent lost and she said, “You’ve driven another one out of the business. You have a perfect record.”

Seriously. Did I?

The good thing is, my last agent sold my book. The bad thing is I’m without an agent again.

It’s hard to get one.

It’s hard to keep one.

So I’ve got three things to do. 1) Keep working on my next book. 2) Start looking for another agent because I still own the movie rights to Open Wounds. 3) Get back to work on my publicity campaign. Next month is going to be a busy one.

So it goes.