Time Well Spent

A time comes in one's life where absconding our compulsions becomes moot. As much as I like to think of myself as an easygoing person, there is that OCD side of me that rears its ugly head whenever my type A personality is dissatisfied. The result is that it drives me diligently and with obscure focus to the finish line.

Now if you were married to me, you may not like the overly driven Marisa at times. My clients on the other hand... well, just picture them with big grins on their faces, jumping up and down while clapping their hands going, "Yey, keep up the good work!" This of course encourages me even further.

The point that I want to make is that I hate wasting time. When I get into my driven zone, I make my lists and my schedule, and heaven forgive the in-perceptive soon to be sadling that tries to move my cheese.

Every year I travel to several conferences and teach many workshops. This time that I invest in my agenting and consulting practices is time that is often my family time. And so, it is even more important to me to ensure that the event is worth it.

This weekend we hosted Up Close & Personal, a full day workshop with my Literary Powerhouse Consulting partner, Jo Ann Kairys. We invited authors to her home in NJ and spent all day there chatting and working, and drinking lots of good coffee. I have to say that in spite of my apprehension to forego another weekend day away from my husband and kids, the workshop turned out to be a huge success. I am happy to say that it was really a wonderful time. I may have even found an incredible manuscript to represent.

After the workshop on Saturday, I went home content that it had been a good day. This great feeling was reinforced the next morning when I received a very nice note from one of the attendees. In part it read...

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for yesterday's amazing experience.  From top to bottom--the expert consultation, the company, and the laughs--it was so much better than I could have imagined." -SW, San Francisco

A note like this pleases me to no end. I'm satisfied that the workshop was productive, interesting, and fun. This type of positive experience serves as incentive for me to keep doing what I'm doing. Although it is difficult for me to find the time to go to conferences, do live workshops and chats on a regular basis, I find that these efforts aren't just helpful to authors' work, they help us all to create a wonderful network and connections between agents, authors, and publishers that may have never been forged otherwise. 

And so you can expect to continue to see my agents and myself at some more of these type of events in the future. I hope that you decide to participate as well, because overall it is time well spent... even for the busiest of us.

~Marisa