Introducing my agent: Laura Nolan

I’ve been away hiking in what must surely be one of the most spectacular places in the world – the Milford Track in New Zealand’s Fiordland. For a week I was far, far away from any computers, showers or washing machines. My writing desk sits right next to our washing machine, so despite my love of laundry I enjoyed a little break from its company.

But even in the midst of all that sublime isolation my iPhone was hard at work keeping me in touch with not one but two New York literary agents who had, just before I left for the trip, both offered me representation for my memoir, Zen Under Fire.

If any of you are aspiring authors who are trying to find an agent who believes in your book enough to say “Yes please, I’d love to work with you in this”, then you’ll have some idea of how stunned and excited I was to receive two offers of representation in one day. A friend who visited me that day said she loved the expression on my face and described it as 'reeling with delight'.

Once the elation began to wear off, I realised I had to make a decision. It wasn’t the sort of decision one complains about, choosing between two fantastic agents who are both enthusiastic about your book, but it was very difficult. I entertained fantasies of working with both agents. After more than a year toiling away on the book alone and imagining that I would never find an agent at all it seemed ungrateful, almost wasteful, to send one away.

But in the end I had to make a choice and I did. I am thrilled to announce that the wonderful Laura Nolan of The Creative Culture is now officially my literary agent. I am very excited about working with Laura.

When we spoke on the phone about Zen Under Fire I had the uncanny feeling that Laura had been eavesdropping on my own thoughts about the manuscript. She understood the heart of the book implicitly and had fantastic ideas about how we could strengthen the manuscript. I was sold.

If you would like to find out more about Laura the best way to do that is to follow her on Twitter. Twitter is the best way to contact her as well. If you are an aspiring author and you are not on Twitter I highly recommend that you join now. I’m planning a post soon on how to make Twitter work for you.

I know that there are plenty of writers reading this who are also working towards finding a fantastic agent like Laura to represent their work so I asked her if she would answer a few questions for you. She kindly obliged. I'll be posting her responses tomorrow so please come back or, even better, subscribe to my posts.

Related posts coming soon:

• Laura's tips for finding an agent
• How I got my agent
• How Twitter helped me get an agent
• How my blog helped me get an agent

If you don't want to miss out on these posts you can subscribe by using the link in the left side bar. Thanks!

Comments

[asiyah]

I am SO proud of you. Well, I was proud of you before but still, YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!

Good for you for following this path with grace and goodness, I'm so happy.

[Jenna/The Word Cellar]

Great news! And thanks for sharing the knowledge and love. You're good that way. :)

[Di]

Hey, congratulations!! I'm rapt for you and thank you for sharing the info too. Much appreciated.
xx

[Swirly]

You are such a stud!

[tiny noises]

absolutely awesome. I am just bursting with excitement for you!

[Nikki]

Hey M
Congratulations on finding an agent... and one that is the right fit. Not an easy task I imagine!
Can't wait to read your memoirs. Best of luck with the next part of the journey
xo