New writers often think of agents as inaccessible gatekeepers.

With these perceptions come many misconceptions about what we do and don’t do:

• Agents are fairy godmothers. It’s not our job to ‘fix’ things. Once you get an agent the work does not end, it just begins. You need to present your best work and we may help you shape it to get it ready to submit to editors, but deep editorial feedback isn’t technically our job. We aren’t fairy godmothers. We aren’t editors. We are here to sell your work and advise you on your career.
• Agents sell everything they represent. We sign every project up with the highest hopes for it, however, sometimes we aren’t able to sell a book–for any number of reasons. It breaks our hearts when a project doesn’t sell. You see the rejections we pass along, but we see any number of rejections for all the…