Today’s the day, a windy kind of cloudy and gray unusual South Floriday day yet, today is the day something wonderful has happened to me. Will you celebrate with me? Today…I got an agent. Thanks to God’s divine intervention (remember my favor ain’t fair post) I was introduced to Rachelle, a literary agent with this company. She called me back in December to “talk books” and to see if I was interested in pursuing my dream to finally get the book bubbling up inside me to print. Due to holidays and my move from Pembroke Pines to Miramar, I asked if we could talk in January (had I known we would be having “THE” talk I would have stopped everything LOL). Today we had THAT talk and well folks, I got myself an agent! I am represented by Wordserve now. Someone is actually going to work with me to get my book done and then go to the Christian publishing houses and try to get it to print. All I can say is wow. That was way to simple but then again, that’s just God like that!

Some other writers they are representing are here and here both of these ladies were stunned, elated and as jubilant as I am right now when they got the call. I can hardly believe someone wants to represent ME! This agency is no fly-by-night agency and the agents are not new to the Christian publishing industry. This agency represents some well-known authors like Steve Arterburn, Jim Burns, Doug Fields, Calvin Miller and Wayne Cordeiro, names you would recognize if you have widely read Christian leadership books on various topics. Greg Johnson who is the founder of this company wrote this piece for aspiring writers and who signed many of these authors. This is who he has worked with in the past, so again, I’m thrilled to have this agency representing me.

So who’s my agent? Her name is Rachelle and you can read her blog to find out more about the woman who is going to invest precious time on Latina Liz! You may be asking why is this such a big deal? Well, first you have to understand that my life has had ups and downs, twists and turns that I could never have expected or imagined. I’ve had dreams shattered and in many instances, new dreams, different dreams emerged. When I thought I would be knocked down forever, better yet, when people thought I would be knocked out forever, I rose again and most importantly, I arose better not bitter. The way I got an agent is viewed by me as totally a God thing because I wasn’t looking for it, I was just doing my thing and keeping it real by still being me. And then it happened. But again this is testimony to the fact that even in your own life, even after dreams die, even after you count

yourself

out, God tugs another to bring you back to a place where you try again, perhaps in another way but nevertheless you try again. You see, that’s just God like that!

Another reason having an agent is so important and helpful is because of what they do for a writer:

* Tells you the truth about your ideas and your writing;
* Helps you create a proposal that answers all of the publisher’s questions so there is no delay in the decision-making process;
* Does the work to insure your sample chapters don’t have typos and/or bad writing. Basically, they help make sure you don’t look like you can’t write a book;
* Advises on whether it is better stewardship to write the book yourself or use a professional collaborator;
* Saves you months of time by sending your proposal presentation to the right editor at the right publishing houses (and knows these editors well enough to call them);
* Answers publisher questions about you as the author, or the material (basically, says the truthful things about you that you shouldn’t be saying about yourself);
* Negotiates aggressively the pertinent details of the publishing agreement, representing your interests. (Publishers have teams of lawyers and accountants protecting their interests. You should have someone knowledgeable protecting yours.);
* Makes sure the contract is letter-perfect;
* Handles any potential conflicts with you and the publisher (title or cover issues, marketing promises not kept, and a thousand other details that come up along the way);
* Helps guide your writing career to help insure you’re publishing books that are “in your gut,” “from the Lord” and “market friendly.” It’s bad stewardship to write a book that only 143 people will read (not including your mother);
* Communicates with you often; gets back with you in a reasonable amount of time when you have questions (24 hours, usually);
* Charges not more than 15% (of the author’s share for as long as the book is in print).

So with all this written, will you celebrate with me? Today’s the day I got an agent! That’s just my awesome God like that! Holllllla!