Think of book agents as something akin to baseball talent scouts. These are the guys who sit in the bleachers at high school games and generally just watch. What are they looking for? What interests them more, raw talent or hustle? What brings them here, and will they be back? A real player who wants to “make it” needs to know.
For the Kids
Why on earth would anyone want to be a writer?
In my case, I avoided the idea for many years. I won a few contests as a kid, and genuinely enjoyed writing. But none of it was really for the public. It was simply something I did. Is there a career based on breathing?
Wurst Writing
“Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”
Otto von Bismark understood both well, being a German and a politician. What he could have included in this homily is writing.
Progressive
There are many ways to define “Civilization”. You could start with the plow and clay pots, working your way forward. Another option is to reference cultural icons and storytelling, if you want to take a literary approach. I, however, prefer to focus on the basic concepts of law and justice.
Credentials
By education, I am not a writer. The nice piece of paper says “Chemical Engineering” on it.
I don’t consider this to be a problem, however. I taught myself to be a writer largely by watching the world around me and gently crumbling it up onto a piece of paper with scribblings in English. Teaching myself to edit was a more difficult problem, since it took re-reading my own stuff and not recoiling in horror at the mistakes. But I did it.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 