Twitter Tuesday~Ken Atchity

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Today's Twitter Tuesday is about someone with excellent taste in books who is incredibly dear to my heart, my agent, Ken Atchity. As you may know from prior posts, I met Ken at the Hawaii Writer's Conference in 2008. I pitched a book to him that he found very interesting. However, I ended up going with another agent. Ah, the mistakes we ametuers make. Anyway, while the other agent was trying to sell that book I wrote another, in a different genre. This other agent wasn't interested in young adult. So I pulled out Ken's card and shot him an e-mail to see if he remembered me and would be interested in looking at it. He did and he was.

I already knew from past research that Ken had an excellent on line presence. His agency website is extensive and he blogs regularly. By the way, I love that in an agent. It is the technological age after all and I love someone who shows their progress and supports their clients. I looked him up on Twitter. He had an account! Only days after I started following him he followed me back.

(Just an aside for aspiring writers: Here's where it's really important to be aware of what you're twittering and blogging. You never know who could be following you or looking you up. It could be agents, could be publishers, could be prospective readers. Twitter and blog responsibly!)

I was so impressed at how he supported his clients that I was itching to hear back from him. In the meantime, another agent wanted to read my book. Long story short, I ended up going with Ken because I knew more about him and knew he was the right match for me and my work. Without Twitter and the wonderful world of blogging, I wouldn't have known that.

You can follow Ken on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/kennja Or check out his blog here: http://kenatchity.blogspot.com/

And um, no, sorry folks, you can't tell him you know me and that I refered your writing, because I haven't read it. (And in case your thinking of asking, I'm terribly sorry, I don't have the time to do so. I wish I could because I love helping aspiring writers but I'm crazy busy writing my next book!) Just think of this as an inside tip on a great agent in the industry to follow and learn from.

Comments

  1. LindseyNovember 17, 2009 at 9:44 PM

    This is great! Love the whole post, made me smile. (What, no referral for me? *bats lashes innocently* J/K, girl!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. HeatherNovember 18, 2009 at 9:00 AM

    Thanks! It' not easy to admit I picked the wrong agent the first time around. But it does happen and other aspiring writers need to know that when it does it isn't the end of your career. Just time for a change! We need like a match maker website for authors and agents. Who, someone should jump on that idea!

    ReplyDelete

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