How I Got My Agent

NOTE: This post is a condensed version of a post originally published as a guest column on Chuck Sambuchino’s Writer’s Digest blog March 4, 2016.

By Janet Fisher

When I packed my bags and drove to the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference in Seattle to find an agent, I had been trying to get published for 33 years. During that time I wrote 19 books. Over the first half of that period, four agents represented me without success. For the second half I wandered in a wilderness of rejections and bursts of hope. I kept writing books, honing my skills, trying to find another agent.

My 18th book was a PNWA literary contest finalist in 2004, my second contest finalist in two consecutive years. I received lots of rave rejects but still no agent. My optimism took a blow.

In 2006 my dad died, and I chose to keep the family farm. Caught up in the turmoil of losing my father and taking on his farm, I began to think I could quietly let the writing go. I wouldn’t admit I was quitting. But who would even notice?

Then I became intrigued with the fact that my great-great-grandmother came west over the Oregon Trail and purchased this farm after her husband died. I decided to try one more book and write her story.

I arrived at that 2012 PNWA conference ready to pitch that book, but dreaded stepping into the crowded room where authors would line up for their pitches. Agents and editors sat behind a long table, each with a chair opposite for the person pitching. We had three minutes—one minute to pitch, two minutes for conversation.

My book was nonfiction, but most of my still-viable work was historical fiction. So I selected agents and editors who accepted both.

It all went so efficiently I pitched everyone on my list and still had time. As I pondered what to do next, I saw New York agent Rita Rosenkranz at the long table. I had seen her at PNWA conferences before and liked her, but she only accepted nonfiction.

It occurred to me that what I had this day was nonfiction. I whispered to myself, “I need something—now. I can deal with the fiction later.” I walked over to Rita’s line. After I gave my pitch, she asked me to send her a proposal and three sample chapters.

I got seven requests for material that day, but as the responses trickled in, only one came back with an offer of representation. Rita Rosenkranz. In less than a year she cut a deal for my book with Globe Pequot Press/TwoDot imprint. A Place of Her Own was released in 2014.

But what about the fiction? Would Rita send me back out to the wilderness again? She not only accepted the fiction, she was delighted to represent it.

So now my historical novel, The Shifting Winds, is out. Same editor. Same house. Same pioneer era as the first. Although the main characters are fictional, a lot of real history wraps around their story.

My own story doesn’t end there. Rita is shopping more books for me. More historical novels. All this, because I didn’t give up, because I dared to walk into that dreaded pitching session—and because of a moment’s decision in a crowded room.

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 Janet Fisher’s love of history and storytelling developed early when she heard

tales of her pioneer ancestors who traveled west over the Oregon Trail. Her first book, A Place of Her Own, tells of her great-great-grandmother who followed that trail and dared purchase a farm in the Oregon wilderness in 1868 after her husband died. Janet grew up on this farm, which she now owns and operates. After earning a master’s in journalism with honors from the University of Oregon, Janet taught college writing and wrote freelance for newspapers. Her new novel, The Shifting Winds, focuses on the same frontier period in American history.

CREATING BUZZ

by Janet Fisher

With the release of my new book, I wanted the world, at least my corner of it, to know about this story which is so special to me. I share a bit of the wanderlust my ancestors had, and have lived in many places over the years, including quite a few towns and cities in Oregon, the book’s primary setting. So I could be considered a “local author” up and down the state from Portland to Ashland.

In most of these I planned signing and reading events. And while I believed the hometown would come out for me, what about the larger towns?

I decided I wanted to do something special in Eugene, Oregon’s second-largest city. I had lived in this Lane County city, but a long time ago. Did I still have enough Eugene connections? An idea began to brew. The venue, Tsunami Books, was made for it. They often bring in musical entertainment. They have a stage, an old piano, and space large enough to hold the sound of a trumpet. And I happen to have a cousin, Don Fisher, who plays trumpet professionally. I wanted my reading for this event to be a reading set to music—Don on trumpet, backed up with piano.

Don agreed to do it, and a friend Patty Wilgus agreed to play piano. We started practicing, and it looked like a go.

My book follows my great-great-grandmother Martha’s trek west to Oregon in 1850 and portrays the struggles she faced on that raw frontier. The Civil War played heavily in Martha’s life during her years in Lane County, a hotbed of North-South rivalry despite the distance from the troubles back in the States.

So for this Lane County event, I wanted to bring a touch of that Civil War era into my presentation. Using the two great songs from opposing sides of the conflict, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” for the North, and “Dixie” for the South, Don and Patty would surround my spoken lines with song, sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy, as we dramatized a thread of story from the book.

On the evening of the event the rich sounds of trumpet and piano added a sweet blend with words, wine, and welcoming conversation. Before and after the reading, Don and Patty provided background music, offering some easy-listening tunes and revving it up a little from time to time for something a little sassier.

And the reading set to music? Folks seemed to enjoy it a lot. And we did have fun—which tends to be  contagious.

Did it add to the buzz? I think so. We got some mentions on it in the press. Besides the positive reaction from people who attended, traffic picked up nicely on Facebook and my blog when I posted about it. My son-in-law Robin Loznak took a video and posted on You Tube. And there’s word of mouth. People talk about something that’s different. Booksellers notice. And readers. And that’s what it’s ultimately about. Readers.

Janet Fisher grew up on the farm her great-great-grandmother Martha bought almost 150 years ago. Janet’s first published book, A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin (Globe Pequot Press/TwoDot imprint), portrays Martha’s daring decision to buy that farm when her husband died, leaving her alone on the Oregon frontier with their many children. After Janet earned a master’s in journalism with honors from the University of Oregon, she taught college writing and wrote freelance for newspapers. Two of her historical novels were Pacific Northwest Writers Association literary contest finalists. Now back on Martha’s farm, she’s the second woman to own and operate this family treasure—one of the few Century Farms in Oregon named for a woman.