After a few months, they offered me a full time job as an assistant.Īs an assistant I had a lot more administrative duties, but I started to learn more about what it means to be an agent – most of their time is actually not spent looking at queries. I read multiple projects for every agent in the office and did a lot of editorial work on their manuscripts to help out, and I also started re-organizing the database software on our computers. I loved it so much that I started coming into the office every day and I stayed well beyond the hours I was supposed to be there. I spent my days as an intern reading queries and reading manuscripts – that’s it. I took an internship (unpaid) with FinePrint and commuted from Philadelphia to Manhattan a few days a week, thinking it would be a good opportunity to learn about the agenting side of the business. But when I moved to NY, publishing houses were getting hit with a lot of layoffs and job opportunities were pretty sparse. My initial plan was to try to get a job in the editorial department at a publishing house, hopefully in a science fiction, fantasy, or romance imprint. When the CA budget crisis hit the district where I taught, I started to think about doing something other than teaching and I decided to try to go into publishing. I found that I really liked revising and critiquing manuscripts, and that I was actually better at that than my own writing. I did join several writing groups, though. I started a ton of projects but I never took any steps towards publication. I’ve always loved to write and I devoted most of free time and my summers off to writing when I was in college and teaching. I’m a former English teacher and now an (almost) agent and the executive assistant to the CEO of FinePrint Literary Management. 1) What made you decide to become an agent?
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