Friday, February 04, 2011

Agents 101

Hey all -

Time for you to give me some advice.

Next week, I am doing a talk at an SCBWI event in Syracuse. It is to be on the topic AGENTS 101 - as in, questions and issues that an absolute newbie would bring up, along with some stuff for people who have been around.  It will be a mixed crowd, probably mostly unagented.  (But I am actually guessing about that a bit.)

I've given similar talks before and felt that maybe I was going over people's heads a bit, so this time I want to have an outline of topics and thoughts at hand that I can choose from, so that I can make it a bit more interactive and don't either bore or bewilder the majority.  (Possible anyway, but.)  In other words, I can say, "OK, who here knows what an agent does." - and if only two people out of a hundred raise their hands, that would be the place to start.

So I'd like you to give me ideas of topics to cover. What would you have liked somebody to explain to YOU when you were a newbie?  What have you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask?  No question or topic idea is too silly -- and even if you are repeating other people, that is OK, I am interested to see how much certain things come up.

Thanks in advance!