After my musings last week and my attempt to come up with commonalities in this year’s new clients (to date), neutronjockey suggested looking at “what key decisions originally sparked their interest in writing then later to submit to your doorstep.” So, I asked them (and, with their kind permission, I’m going to paraphrase a little here)….
What led them to writing?
Author #1
* being able to work at home
* in it for the fun and the money (it’s a job, too)
Author #2
* read a Ray Bradbury essay as a teenager and being already in love with books and reading, realized they also wanted to write
Author #3
* lousy at Not Writing
Why me?
Author #1
* had a friend who had signed with me and had gone from beginner to multipublished, and recommended me as hands-on
* agency has good visibility
Author #2
* knew one of my other clients and how supportive I had been to them and assisted them in getting what they wanted
* serendipity of getting an introduction
* wanted someone who would see the value in developing their talent and skill and career over the long haul and would invest themselves more personally in that work
Author #3
* loved my list and that I didn’t limit myself to a specific genre
* loved my passion for my clients’ work
* found my blog charming and informative
* noted that I had “damn fine taste in whiskey”
I’m not sure I can draw any concise conclusions from this either. But it’s more fodder for the ever-elusive question of why this particular agent will sign a new project, I suppose.
Et in arcaedia, ego. 
I hope you continue with these musings, because I’m finding them very insightful. I’m having trouble getting past the automatic rejection phase, and would love just one to read it — then blow it apart, you know?
Can you say, diffinitively what it was in each case (or others) that made you want to read their work? Or would you say that they simply were so charming you couldn’t help it?
And just so you know, I’m not hoping to interest you. You already rejected me long before I knew you on LJ. But I am compelled to learn from my mistakes. I’m just having trouble figuring it out since I’ve not really had input.
Actually, I see a common thread here. The reputation of the agent as personal, personable and willing to work with writers to develop their craft and product out of a strong love for a good story. And two of the three were by way of existing clients who recommended you as that kind of agent. Pretty solid thread, IMHO.
I think there might be an emergent pattern…
2 of the 3 authors submitted because of someone they knew — and I would guess that (other than your very first clients) that many of your present client list came by word of mouth — or to boil it down in pop-culture terms — like Kevin Bacon, can be separated by less than six degrees. I imagine less than 3-4. If you include the internet as part of the “shrinking world network” phenomenon you could justify degrees of separation of 1 to 3.
Given the number of clients you have, I have no doubt that there is also network clustering as well.
I’d be curious to see a diagram of “referrals” from an agent’s client list. I think if you charted a diagram you would find that with a few exceptions that most of your clients fall within several tight social networking hubs.
There are key “trigger events” which lead to your clients’ decisions on submitting to you. While we don’t necessarily see a common event between these three authors (only a common viral marketing modality (ie positive reputation by word of mouth) — we can trace these authors’ lineage (each author you represent) to trigger event 0… which is the common point in which all authors your represent share.
…and I am done with pseudophilomathematicalbabbling for the evening 😉