I have always believed (and have proven in my own career) that a solid manager is everything. Someone who hopefully has a background in producing or development and offers a reassuring hug when thing go badly—and frequently does on our screenwriting journey. Every time I’ve had an agent, it was my manager who had a personal relationship with them. The odds of hooking an agent are very difficult because if they are an agent of merit, they will already have clients who are commissioning and they usually don’t want to break a new writer. It simply isn’t something they want to do. Managers are a different breed. My own manager has no become my producing partner and has expanded my network.

I love reading uplifting stories of this. I try to teach in my workshops and to aspiring writers that patience is necessary for this long haul.

“The professional understands delayed gratification. He is the ant, not the grasshopper; the tortoise, not the hare… the professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work. He knows that any job, whether it’s a novel or a kitchen remodel, takes twice as long as he thinks and costs twice as much. He accepts that. He recognizes it as reality. He conserves his energy. He prepares his mind for the long haul. He sustains himself with the knowledge that if he can just keep the huskies mushing, sooner or later the sled will pull in to Nome.” — Steven Pressfield, “The War of Art”

What you were saying about “just keep putting yourself out there”: it’s what my acting coach constantly tells us in class. We just need to be creating and working on our projects and telling everyone what we’re up to. And if we keep doing that, the things we seek will just find us (like how your manager found you).