How I Met My Literary Agent

I've been with my agent for twenty years. Here's my story, and why our partnership works.

By the time I met my literary agent in 2003, I had queried and been rejected by at least thirty different agents. Still, through persistence, a little luck, and a contest, I had published a story collection with University of Massachusetts Press and a debut novel with MacAdam/Cage, a small literary publisher in San Francisco that has long since gone out of business. Sales for both had been meager, which is common for university and small press titles.

A few months after my first novel was published, I attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference on the recommendation of a friend. It was a two-week conference—filled with workshops, readings, eating, and socializing—set on the beautiful campus of Sewanee University. It was also one big party.