Literary agents can be the key to your writing success, if you know how they work, why they work and the secrets for getting them to work effectively for you.
They’re also incredibly inexpensive and can help your writing career relentlessly.
So let’s start with the first few questions you might have.
To begin with, literary agents are actively looking for you. They want good new manuscripts and they want good new authors. But a lot of novice authors are convinced otherwise. They’re convinced the literary agent wants to work only with those authors they already have under contract.
That’s just not so. But what is true, is that literary agents don’t want to spend their time, any time really, with manuscripts that won’t sell, with authors who can’t write, and with clients who are difficult to work with. They don’t make any money spending time on those areas so they do everything they possibly can to eliminate them from the work day.
Literary agents are folks, sales people really, who represent the authors of manuscripts and shop those manuscripts around to publishers who are likely to want them.
They work on commission. For the most part, they get paid only when the author gets paid from the publisher.
Lately quite a few agents have been charging a reading fee to take a look at manuscripts from unknown authors. Not all of them do that. But it’s not unethical. The rationale is pretty obvious. Today’s agent could get dozens of unsolicited manuscripts every day. You simply can’t get through them and do the work that pays the daily bills as well. Of course, they’d like to get through them because there may be a gem in that ‘slush pile.’ A modest reading fee is often the compromise. This fee will pay for the agent’s (or more likely a professional reader’s) time to take a look at the manuscript.
By the way, most literary agents would rather NOT see the manuscript right away. They’d like to first know a little about the book, the plot if it’s fiction, the topic if it’s non-fiction, just to get a sense of whether it’s worth pursuing.
What’s an agent looking for? Well, ask any of them and they’ll tell you they’re looking for writing talent, something new, something fresh. But the truth is they’re looking for something that will sell.
They’re perspective, as crass as it may sound, can be summed up by the theme line in the movie ‘Jerry McQuire’: Show Me The Money!
You’ve got to show the literary agent why or how your book will be profitable for everyone involved in the publishing business.
Once they like your idea, they’ll ask for a couple of chapters. Here’s the logic of the process. They want the initial query letter to verify that you have a book idea that would sell and that the book idea is completely thought through. They want a couple of chapters to prove to themselves that you can actually write the book… that you have both the talent and the staying power to make the book a reality.
When everything is a go, they’ll send you an agreement between yourself and the agent. This is a contract that outlines what you’ll do and what you’ll get, and what they’ll do and what they get.
It’s a binding contract, and it protects both of you.
They agree to try to sell your book, you agree to write the book if the book idea is sold to a publisher.
Now, here’s where the real magic of an agent comes in. You see, the agent knows, or should know, all the prominent editors and publishers in their fields of specialty. They know them by name. They send them birthday cards. They often have lunch together. But, more to the point, when they call them, their phone calls are returned.
There’s a relationship there. And if the agent is being paid for anything, they are being paid for having that established relationship with folks who are anxious to buy new manuscripts.
They have the magical rolodex of names and numbers of people who they do business with all the time. They’re not cold calling.
They’re not some faceless voice on the telephone when the conversation with the editor begins.
“Hi Ed, it’s Angel Agent here. Not bad, how’s little Tommy? Has he got those braces off yet? I was giving you a call because I’ve got this manuscript that I think is exactly what you said you were looking for. Of course, I’ll send it over by courier to you right away. Do you think you could get back to me by tomorrow afternoon? Great.”
The existence of that relationship is exactly what you’re looking for in a great agent.
How much do they get for their efforts? Usually about 10% of whatever you get. And because what they get is tied directly to what you get, you can bet they’ll be trying to get you the highest advance possible. The more money you make, the more money they make.
That really is the sum total of what the agent does. So don’t think their job is to hold your hand, or edit your manuscript, or set up marketing opportunities, or light a fire beneath the public relations folks.
That’s not what they’re there for. Their job is to sell your manuscript for the highest price, in the shortest time possible.
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