Why Don’t You Have an Agent?

Yesterday a colleague at work asked me “Why don’t you have an agent?” In the context of our conversation – we were discussing Linden MacIntyre’s 2009 Giller Prize win – she was suggesting that I need another body to shop my work around to publishers and manage the ensuing contract negotiations while I toil at my day job. Mr. MacIntyre is a full time broadcaster with the CBC and part time novelist. And I, alas, cannot afford to give up my present employment unless weaned from serious addictions to eating several times daily and sleeping in warm dry places. I don’t know why approaching an agent never occurred to me before, or why I shouldn’t try it out. It can’t be any more difficult than pitching a publisher, can it? I’ll keep you posted.