Sign up for Richard Engling's newsletter. (Scroll down to see a sample).

I will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.



January 13, 2004

Novelist Fires Dead Agent

A number of years ago, I decided Max Becker, my literary agent, was not doing enough for me. I had struck up relationships with some film people out in Hollywood, but it didn't seem Max was following through. No one optioned my novel. No one even acknowledged my teleplays. Was Max mailing them?

Now, Max was a well respected agent. Nearly venerable. Maximillian Becker had handled the rights to that perennial favorite, The Little Prince. He'd sold thousands of novels, including my first. But Max was getting on in years, and I wrote him a letter letting him know I intended to find a new agent.

A few weeks later, I got a letter back from his office informing me that Max had passed away six months earlier.

That's when I knew the kind of literary mover-and-shaker I really was. I might tolerate a lot of things in an agent, but once he was dead, that was it! I would simply have to fire him.

I did find a new agent. Another industry stalwart, Jane Jordan Browne, took on the task of representing me. Ms. Browne sold over 3,000 books in her career. However, she passed away before selling one of mine. And I kept writing advertising.

Could being my agent be akin to playing drums for Spinal Tap?

Now I've got a new novel ready (Train-for-Cocaine Dot Com), and I'm starting to search for a new agent.

The book is about Dwayne Finnegan, a 350-pound entrepreneur who fails at one business after another. His best friend, a popular self-help author, challenges him to lose half his weight over the course of a year. While he's losing the weight, he'll be appearing on The Oprah Show and collaborating on a diet book. To succeed, Dwayne must overcome a local gangster who wants to ruin him, a District Attorney who wants to put him in jail, and an overpowering addiction to cream-filled donuts.

You can read the first four chapters, if you like, at RichardEngling.com.

P.S. Know any agents -- with good insurance?