Evil Elf the One and Only
11-14-2004, 10:01 PM
No, it's not a joke thread.
I'm on the board of a writer's conference up here in the Great White North, and each year we invite a number of writers, editors, agents and producers to give workshops and also make themselves available for appointments. It's relatively easy to find out if a writer is legit, by reading. It's a little more difficult to find out if an editor is legit, but so far we've not had any nasty surprises that way. Where we HAVE had some surprises is in agents.
One example: We invited one agent, on the basis of a strong resume, good sales, and the personal recommendation of another presenter. She taught well, she was very helpful in appointments, she asked some people to send her their manuscripts, and POW! suddenly we find out she charges a reading fee. This is NOT what we had in mind when we invited her, and it seems to be a great time to raise the issue of minimum standards for agents whom we'll invite.
Keeping in mind that we're inviting agents who deal with books as well as scripts, what would you suggest be the minimum professional standard we should require? No reading fees seems a no-brainer. Meaningful sales within the past six months seems to be another. What else?
Help Me, Obi-Wans, You're My Only Remaining Hope! (http://terminalcity.diary-x.com)
I'm on the board of a writer's conference up here in the Great White North, and each year we invite a number of writers, editors, agents and producers to give workshops and also make themselves available for appointments. It's relatively easy to find out if a writer is legit, by reading. It's a little more difficult to find out if an editor is legit, but so far we've not had any nasty surprises that way. Where we HAVE had some surprises is in agents.
One example: We invited one agent, on the basis of a strong resume, good sales, and the personal recommendation of another presenter. She taught well, she was very helpful in appointments, she asked some people to send her their manuscripts, and POW! suddenly we find out she charges a reading fee. This is NOT what we had in mind when we invited her, and it seems to be a great time to raise the issue of minimum standards for agents whom we'll invite.
Keeping in mind that we're inviting agents who deal with books as well as scripts, what would you suggest be the minimum professional standard we should require? No reading fees seems a no-brainer. Meaningful sales within the past six months seems to be another. What else?
Help Me, Obi-Wans, You're My Only Remaining Hope! (http://terminalcity.diary-x.com)