The Truth About Getting a Lit Agent and/or Manager

After spending decades in Hollywood, I finally understand what they really mean when they say "don't worry about finding an agent or manager, they'll find you" and it might not be what you think.

I can't tell you how many times I heard that phrase uttered throughout my career, and every single time I heard it I thought "what the hell does that even mean? How are they going to find me?"

As a self-starter, who was used to just going after whatever I wanted, that was the last thing I wanted to hear. Because what I wanted was an agent or manager. Or both. And I didn't want to wait around for them to find me. I wanted them NOW.

In my mind, getting an agent or manager was the magic bullet. The solution to all my writing career woes. I knew I was great at my craft. And I knew I was an untapped idea machine. But I was terrible at selling folks on this. Terrible at talking about myself. Terrible at pitching my vision. Terrible at even wanting to get out of my creative shell in any consistent way long enough to build networks.

So representation was the solution, right? I felt like if I could just have some representation that really saw me and my talent, and had a vision for how to pitch me to the powers that be, they could be the wind beneath my wings. I could create, and they could sell, and all would be right with the world. 

The problem with that was: I completely misconstrued what agents and managers actually do. As a very wise A-list actress once told me, “they aren’t visionaries, Holly. They just sell your vision”.

I should have known this. I had temped in various agencies and management offices around town. I saw the reality of how they work. And what I saw was that even if they did have visionary skills, they didn’t have time for them. 

They were far too busy to ever spend copious amounts of time sinking deeply into the personal mythos of any one particular client, in order to then come up with some groundbreaking way to market them. And even if they did have that kind of time, it certainly wouldn’t be used on behalf of an unproven newbie who made them zero money.

They were lucky enough to have the bandwidth to know who their next meeting was with, and why, without their assistants briefing them.

The truth I didn’t want to see is that being a professional writer is about so much more than being great at your craft. In order to be that writer that breaks through and sells scripts (the kind reps are looking to sign) there’s no getting around the fact that you are the one that has to come up with a vision for your own career and cause that breakthrough. You have to be your own first rep that figures out how to brand and market you. 

It’s true agents/managers can open doors. But you have to be that full package that walks through them. Because reps know they’ll never get to the part they want to get to, the negotiating and money making on your behalf part, unless you are.  

And what do I mean by the whole package? I mean, you have to not only be great at your craft, but you also have to be willing/able to go the next step and see yourself and your scripts as commodities on the content market. 

You have to know where you fit. Know which producers and distributors you want to work with and are likely going to want to work with you. And you have to have taken the time to craft short, memorable pitches about yourself and all of your projects, designed to catch the attention of the business folks. Meaning your pitches should be angled towards which aspect of your project would be most interesting to them (the prod cos/studios etc), and save the chatter about what’s most interesting about it to you, for your chats with fellow artists. 

It’s like anything else, if you want to sell something, you have to put yourself in the head of the customer, learn how to speak their language, and then have those marketing tools ready.

When I finally gave up on the idea of getting an agent or manager to save me from the perceived pain of having to treat myself and my projects like a commodity, and just started doing the work that I listed above, things changed. 

When I started researching companies, figuring out what they wanted, and then started offering up my projects as solutions, using short little catch phrases they could easily repeat to their biz partners. When I gave them the language to be able to chat about my project, traction started to happen.

Suddenly I was able to get pitch meetings with prominent production companies and studios like Netflix and Amazon, all on my own. Without the help of representation. 

And guess what? When you start getting traction, agents are everywhere. If they don’t know about a project or a talent gaining traction in the market, they will soon. This is what they really mean by “they will find you”. 

And even when they find you, they may not strike right away. They may want to wait and see what you’re like to work with. They may want to vet you quietly and make sure you’re not crazy before they consider signing you and pitching you around to all their hard won contacts/relationships they have cultivated over decades. 

But once they do decide to sign you, they will be so excited to have you. They’ll feel like they’ve landed a real opportunity in you. And that’s how the order of things needs to be. Because a rep that feels like they’re doing you a favor is likely worse than no rep at all.

Ironically, by the time I figured all of this out, and got good at it, I realized I didn’t particularly like the rigamarole that came with being a professional writer in Hollywood. And that I am much happier writing for my own enjoyment and personal growth. That coaching fellow writers, and geeking out on story, was far more fulfilling of a life for me.

But if you’re someone with projects you know you need to find an audience for, and have been resisting in the same ways that I used to. If you’ve been wishing a rep would come and take away your need to handle all the business and marketing side of things, I hope you’ll take my hard won wisdom to heart and stop waiting. Stop resisting. You can do this! Just take those storytelling skills you’re already good at and turn them loose on you and your projects. 

First, put yourself in the shoes of those you’d like to work with. Think about what they might want and why. And then spin a tale about why you are the answer to all it is that they want. A short, repeatable tale (very important, because you're giving them the ability to easily spread the word about you). Practice it until it's in your bones. And then get on out there and start telling it. 

And don’t forget to have fun. If it’s fun for you, it will be fun for them. You’ll have reps excited to go on this adventure with you.

***Holly Payberg-Torroija is a writing coach and partner at Humans on The Verge where she guides writers through her signature curriculum, Loving The Process. To find out more about her programs and upcoming retreats click HERE.