Post-Agent Meeting Glow

I shook the agent’s hand before standing up, “Thanks for meeting me. I hope that you find some good material today.” I figured it would be cool of me to acknowledge why he’s there. He’s there to support his livelihood, as he makes a commission off of the authors that he sells to publishing houses and he was there to find new talent.

I strode out of the room and went back to the break out session. I made my way to the middle to sit beside Michelle again. The way they set up the chairs in the session rooms was kind of strange. The aisles in the center of the room were way too small. I bashed about 4 different heads with either my bag on my left shoulder or my right hip. “’Scuse me… pardon me…” I whispered so I wouldn’t interrupt the speaker any more than the “Oof! Ouch!” from my victims already had.

Exhausted from the trek I flopped down next to her, “How’d it go?” she whispered. I smiled and nodded back while I pulled my notepad out of my bag. I bobbed my knee as the Q&A session went on. I am trying to remember, but I have no real idea about what was said after I’d sat down. I was busy replaying every little bitty microsecond of the agent meeting.

I wished that we weren’t sitting in a break out session; I needed someone who’d done what I had just done. I needed someone who understood the feeling of exhilaration that I felt after having a positive discussion about this thing I’ve been working on for three years. In the discussion he asked me questions about my work, he took notes, he said things like “That’s interesting.”

Mercifully the breakout session ended and the other attendees filed out.

“OK, tell me.”

“Oh my God! It was exhilarating!” I replied. I told her all about it and then I said “He asked me for my first 50 pages. But I think he’s just asking everyone for that.”

“No, they don’t just ask everyone for their first 50 pages. If he wasn’t interested he would say ‘I’m not interested in this’ because he doesn’t want to waste his time. When I went to that conference in San Francisco I met with 6 agents and only 3 of them wanted more. The others said that they weren’t interested in it. Believe me, if he wasn’t into it he would have said so.”

My hopes climbed a bit after she’d said that. We went to another session and then upstairs to lunch. We were in line at the buffet when a woman struck up conversation with me, “I saw you meet with Agent McAgentton. I met with him right after you did. How’d it go?”

I told her that I thought it went well and she said, “Yeah, he asked me for my first 50 pages.”

I looked up at Michelle as if to say “See, he’s totally asking everyone for their first 50.” She shrugged back at me.

No matter if he asked everyone in the conference for their first 50. He still asked me for mine.