I got a call from a Literary Agent.
A dream come true, right?
However, I was suspect. I didn't want to get too
excited, for I know getting a Literary Agent is about as rare as finding a
hen's tooth.
I have been getting calls from people interested in a
book I wrote way back in 2008—I don't know why it suddenly got attention, but I
wondered if this was like the other calls—they wanted me to pay them to market
my book.
No, says this agent, he would take a standard 15%
commission. He would write up the proposal, a pitch, and approach publishers,
plus promote worldwide distribution. He thought it had universal appeal, for it
was a journey, a life story, human interest, horse training, and is about an
animal-human bond.
The book It's Hard to Stay on a Horse While You're
Unconscious is a horse book I paid Xlibris to publish. I was innocent then.
I didn't know you could publish a book for free on Amazon, which would take a
small fee if it sold, but not before. Xlibris provided some editorial input;
they sent paperback and hard copies to me, plus I got a Kirkus review. (It was
good; I rambled some, but they liked it.)
I sold a few.
I stopped paying attention to the book when it wasn't
selling, and I thought it was overpriced at $19.99 for a soft copy, $29.99 for
a hard copy, and $9.99 for an eBook. (I made around $2.50 a copy plus or minus
a few cents.) I thought the title was too long. I was rebelling when I heard
that you must use a short title, and I felt that the two ways of looking at the
word unconscious made sense. If you are hit in the head and out cold, you can't
stay on a horse, and I was awed when I discovered that a horse would follow
your conscious attention to a point ahead. Also, when you aren't paying
attention, a horse can spook, and you will sit in thin air while the horse is
elsewhere. (I once rode my daughter's horse Dee and found if I focused on a
fence post ahead without touching the reins, she would go straight for it.)
When I read the contract, it sounded much like a real
estate buyer's agency contract. (A realtor once tried to coerce me into signing
one of those, which meant I would owe him a fee for any house I bought, no
matter what agent showed it to me, or if I found it myself, or had an
owner-to-buyer agreement. In other words, I was stuck.) Yes, sign a buyer's
agency contract when you like the agent and want them to help you find or buy a
particular house. Now Oregon law is pushing that, and I'm a licensed Real
Estate Agent.
What to do?
(In Real Estate School, the instructor taught that
most Real Estate issues are negotiable. Remember that when buying a house or
signing a publishing deal.)
