Providing Hope

Someone once asked me what I sell the most of. My response was “Hope.” And it’s still true. Agents do sell hope to writers and to publishers. Agents, like editors, are optimists. Every day, when the mail hits the desk in our mailroom, we sort through it with hope. Yes, we hope for big checks. But we also hope for salable books, for authors who will deliver wonderful books every year that continue to sell every year.

--Publishing as a Circus, by Elizabeth Pomada, from the book Making the Perfect Pitch by Katharine Sands, p. 248