Team Hartline! Rah, rah…by Linda S. Glaz

Team Hartline! Rah, rah…by Linda S. Glaz

Four years ago I tentatively sent my resume to Joyce Hart without a clue what to expect if she said “Yes!” She did. Now what?

I was an agent, or on my way to becoming one. What did I have to offer Hartline? I’d been a reviewer for romance sites for years. I was a final proofreader, first for Wild Rose Press, and then for White Rose Press, now Pelican Book Group. I’d been an assistant to my own agent Terry Burns for a couple years, and I belonged to numerous critique groups. Why crit groups? Because I am also a writer.

Still, how would the rest of them accept me? Many had been editors at large publishing houses, editors in their own rights, booksellers for decades. What could I offer this awesome team of agents?

I’m a firm believer that those who’ve made the mistakes: alcoholism, drug addiction, and the like, and who have come out of the lifestyle are the best to minister to those struggling. Could I offer authors anything? I’d certainly made all of the mistakes. Wrote everything wrong for eighteen years, sent things out all wrong for years, and though I’d attended dozens of conferences through the years, I didn’t think there was anything I could really learn.

There! I said it. I didn’t think there was anything more to learn. So I was stagnant, foolish, and going no place really fast. Like the proverbial snowball downhill, I was gaining momentum and freezing like a Popsicle in Alaska.

After mulling that over for a couple days, I realized I had plenty to offer after all. I had done it ALL WRONG! And who better to teach and work with folks anxious to do it all right.

How had I finally managed to get an agent, get my first novella published? My first book? My second book? My multi-book deal? Could I help steer other fledgling authors in the right direction?

Well, team Hartline was awesome. They held my hand, walked me through many things, and supported me at every turn on the path. They contacted me to see if I’d like help even before my asking. They were and are true brothers and sisters, not only in Christ, but in the industry.

They sent me clients! YES, as I got started, they sent me clients. And I learned they weren’t pity submissions, the agents at Hartline do this often for each other.

“Here, know you love a great romance, and I think this one would be better served by a female agent.”

“Linda, I’ve worked with this client before, but I’m having trouble getting her to understand the pure romance idea. Would you like to take a stab at it?”

“Linda, I’m overwhelmed with subs this week, would you like to take a look at a few?”

And to think I’d be worried whether or not I’d fit in.

A couple years later, I was able to do the same for my teammates.

HARTLINE IS A TEAM. These are amazing agents there to do a primo job at placing their clients. They are also there to support one another, lift each other up in prayer when needed, and to forge forward with the newest ideas and possibilities. They aren’t afraid of controversial works that have “brilliant” stamped all over them.

Yessir. We are a team. And I’m proud to be part of the team that has represented some of the best award-winning authors in the business today.

Do I only represent Christian Writers? by Terry Burns

Well now, that's a good question?

I'm not sure, because I don't ask people about their faith in the submission process. I suspect since people can clearly see that this is a Christian agency (even though we do work in the secular market as well) that they would probably be comfortable with that if they were going to submit to us.

But I don't ask.

I do know one thing, an atheist or non-Christians might be decidedly uncomfortable in my client group. You see, I require all clients to be in a private online group which gives me the ability to contact them all at once. The group offers three options, priority messages only (I'm the only one that can send a priority message), on digest, and on full access where they can talk directly not only with me but with other clients as well.

I do watch what the group talks about and do participate, maybe more than I should. Once the group was set up another interesting aspect came out. They turned out to be an amazing group of prayer warriors who genuinely care for each other and pray for one another with great effectiveness.

See why I think a non-believer would probably not be comfortable in the group?

Then there is the fact that I am drawn to content that has a good faith message. Yes, that narrows the possible places it can be submitted but that is after all why I decided to start doing this. Will I represent something that does not have faith content in it? Sure, we need good family entertainment as well as Christian books. Saying that you can tell I don't park my beliefs and morals at the door even if I am doing general market books.

My mother has passed on now, but she is still my measuring stick for projects. If it is something that would have offended my mother then it isn't something I want my name associated with. It's a measuring stick that I'm comfortable with and I don't mind if people shake their head and say I'm giving up sales. Of course I am, but they aren't sales I want to make. There are plenty of agents that do those, they don't need me doing it.

But I'm taking the long road around the mountain answering the question. Do I only represent Christian authors? Probably. Is it intentional? No, I just think all of my clients are Christians, and whether I actually ask someone or not, that is who I am likely to end up with.

How do I become an agent? By Terry Burns

I've had people ask me about becoming an agent, and it's true that anybody can hang out a shingle and say they are an agent. There are no licensing requirements, courses one has t take or tests to pass, which is why people have to be leery of unknown agents. But acquisitions people know this and a submission from an agent they don't know can receive even less attention than a slush-pile submission from an unknown author. Personally I would have never jumped off myself without being associated with a known agency like Hartline.

So, how do people start new agencies successfully? Most come out of publishing where they established their name in the industry with a known publisher. I'm one of few that came out of the writing side. The key is having contacts, having people in the industry who know who you are. Either that or they get accepted to intern at a big established agency. Most agencies have such interns patiently working their way up the ladder. Most have college degrees.

The next key is building those contacts. The first few years I worked doing writing conferences at the rate of a couple a month, building my name and building exposure. I was looking to acquire some good clients, but maybe even more importantly I was firming up those contacts with editors. Not a lot of money made during this formative period. Being a little off the beaten path I had the choice of apologizing for living in the Texas Panhandle or coming right at it. I'm not big on apologizing, so I wear the big hat and boots and a flowing mustache and hope it causes people to remember me. I've cut back and this year only doing a dozen conferences and if the economy keeps going the way it is going may cut back a bit more.

At Hartline Joyce was my agent, and still is, but she gave me my start and mentored me. I'm very grateful to her and loyal to her as well. In return I have mentored some people myself. I had a young lady come up to me at a conference and convince me that I needed an assistant and that she would work for free to get the experience. This is known as a remote internship. I helped her get the experience she needed to go on and found her own Indy press. 

Since then there have been others willing to work to get the experience they need and to start forming contacts. One has gone on to become a Hartline agent alongside me, two others have become editors at small presses and one founded her own PR company. I have a couple of others working in that capacity with me now and they put in quite a bit of work as I let them try more and more of the process to learn what is going on.  I worked with a client to form his own literary agency and another client to found another Indy press. Those who have moved on from it did 2-3 years with me until they had enough of a grasp of what was required for me to be able to write them a letter of recommendation to someone.

So what am I saying it takes to become an agent? It takes learning the business somehow, from someone. It requires gaining visibility and contacts either by getting with an established organization or building credibility ourselves. It takes learning about contracts and negotiation and getting comfortable doing both. It takes learning how things work in the industry and how to keep up with the people changes as well as the publishing changes.  It takes some business savvy and sales ability. In short, it takes a whale of a lot more than someone just announcing that suddenly they are an agent.