I'm in this year's Pitch Wars class (hoorah!) and we're getting ready for the agent showcase in a little over a week. A question came up in the mentee group chat and I can't find a good answer online:
If an agent asks to schedule a call, is it okay to ask for a weekend or after-hours time? Everyone wants to be respectful of the agent's time, but we also have mentees across time zones and with varying schedules, so we were curious about protocol on that.
Thanks for any insight you can provide!
YES.
Schedule the call for the best time for YOU.
Agents do several of these a year.
You're doing one and maybe your first.
You get the home court advantage.
An agent may not be able to schedule a Sunday, but most of us work at least one of the weekend days even if religious observance means we don't work the others.
I have clients all over the world, and I ask them to set the time/day for calls as much as possible.
And if an agent gets up in your grille about only working 9-5 Monday to Friday, and you need to accommodate her, well, now you have some important info.
8 comments:
As I understand it, "The Call" is as much an agent competing for your talent as it is you wanting to be represented by that agent. Most of the time, the agent is calling because she is interested in taking you on as a client, and hopes she is the first to have the opportunity to make an offer of representation. Yes, you don't want to be an a-hat, but don't forget that it's in the agent's best interest to accommodate you as much as possible.
All the best with Pitch Wars, Opie!
This is good to know. For us day jobber folks. And for us that need to dig through the treasure chest first to get all the "what to ask" on the call posts.
For the noobies, this is the "Treasure Chest" about which E.M. is speaking of... which... about... of... :)
The Treasure Chest
Bookmark it and use it! And if you have any useful writing/publishing gems you think would make a good addition to the chest, e-mail me. My address is in my Blogger profile. :)
Good luck to all you pitchers. Fingers crossed.
"Noobies" - first, I was like WHAT is THAT. Ha ha, great spelling of zat vord. Now I finally know how to spell Toosday! Love it ;).
I would have felt awkward asking for an out-of-business-hours time as well. Made even more tricky because I wouldn't actually know what that translated too (I am awful at doing time zone calculations). Nice to know it's okay.
Good luck with the showcase, OP!
I would find a way to make it happen when they were in their office.
Cell phones are better these days but still pick up too much background noise in bars. Would hate to have to re-ask question six times to get to the point.
That new information you might pick up about an agent being unaccommodating - I wonder if you'd ever actually use it? Many of us are so keen to get agented and if we don't have multiple offers coming in, can we afford to be picky? I'd like to think I would be, given the horror stories I've read here, but if the situation actually arose, I'd find it such a hard decision to make.
Has anyone here had the willpower to turn down the only offer that has (thus far) come their way?
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