Agents and direct publishing?

There's a discussion (h/t Bethany!) in the comments at the Book Ends (Agency) blog, about what role if any an agent has with direct publishing.  What do you all think?  Do you think an agent can help, and if so, how much do you think an agent's participation is worth? (They mostly get 15% when they make a deal for you with a traditional publisher.)

Alicia

Questions about Agents

We have our winners. Emails have been sent this morning.

In my last post, I invited questions about agents. Here's one from Livia:

Since we're asking questions, what are good ways to research prospective agents? I know the general advice to look at the website, previous sales and deals, etc, but I know less about specific places/websites to go to for that information (hopefully websites that don't charge too much money for a subscription :-P). And is there anything more specific to look for besides what have they sold recently and in what genre?

Many of you have already flagged agentquery for Livia. It's a great site, packed with useful information, and certainly deserves the recognition it receives. There are other places, too, such as P&E, a comprehensive listing of agents, publishers, and much more, with recommendations.

But let me point out that, aside from public resources such as these, there's a much better way to get inside information. Build your network. Create bridges to writers in all corners of the publishing world, and nurture those contacts. Ask them for their war stories. Ask them what their best decision has been. After you've cobbled together a list of potential agents using the public reference material, ask your private network what they know about the people on your list.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on dues for formal organizations. There are countless public fora in which you can meet other writers. Even here on this little blog, some of the regular commenters have begun to form a community, and I'm sure information-sharing is part of their interaction. It should be.


Leona said,

I can't figure out why there's so much negativity on the side of writers against agents.

Agents play a complicated role in the publishing industry. They act as gatekeepers and, to some extent, tastemakers. They might not own the keys to the kingdom, but they certainly know where the keys are kept and how to persuade the keyholders to unlock the doors. In some part, their effectiveness is determined not by their authors but by their relationships with editors. This can make it seem as though they're playing both sides to their own middles, but they're not. They're both important business partners for authors and important business relationships for publishers.

That said, a bad agent can destroy an author's career. That's not hyperbole. Thankfully, it's also not that common. But ask around. That network you're going to build? Yeah, bet you'll hear some lively horror tales from them.


Rachelcapps asks,

Is it best to look for an agent in your own country first?

If it were me, I would want an agent in the country where I intend to market my manuscripts. A foreign agent won't be as "in the loop" as one who's in the thick of the native action. And contract law varies from country to country -- witness google's recent troubles in France over moral copyright violations -- so you might be best served by someone in your target market.

I would like to hear some opinions from our overseas authors, though. How many of you work with agents in your home nations? Is this also where you sell your manuscripts?

Theresa

Housekeeping and a Question

First, a reminder -- today is the last day to enter the contest to get the first ten pages of your manuscript reviewed. We've received a good number of entries so far, and I look forward to compiling our "best of" list based on your recommendations.

In the midst of reading and responding to the entries, I found this question in the mailbag.

I recently ran across a fairly controversial anti-agent blog post, where a writer argued that you should always submit to editors first and get an agent after you have a contract in hand. He argues that none of agents who take writers without a contract are good, and in the comments says that writers should submit to publishing houses directly even if they have a clearly stated "no unagented submissions" policy. Could I ask your take (and Alicia's) on this post, as editors?

I'm not going to link to the blog post mentioned in the question. Suffice it to say it was a mix of nonsense and insight, with more of the former than the latter.

What I will do, instead, is respond to what I think the real questions are.
1 - Should you submit to editors before agents?
2 - Do you need a contract to get an agent?
3 - Is it okay to ignore "agented only" guidelines?

The short answers are Maybe, No, and Almost Always No. I'm guessing you want more information than this, though, so let's look at the rationale behind the answers.

1 - Should you submit to editors before agents?

That depends on the project, your target market, and your own preferences. If you're targetting a line that's open to all submissions, and if you feel comfortable handling things like contract negotiations and money disputes, then you can probably skip the agent. But I can't advise anyone always to do it one way or the other, and neither can anyone else, because this is a case-sensitive situation. Figure out your target, study their guidelines, and see if you can get some behind-the-scenes information on things like their boilerplate contract and maybe a sample royalty statement. Then you can answer this question for yourself, based specifically on your needs and circumstances and abilities.

2 - Do you need a contract to get an agent?

No. It might help you land an agent if you have a deal on the table, but then again, it might not. What if your deal is with a house or editor this agent rarely works with? Maybe they'll want to branch out, and maybe not. What if your deal is subpar, and the agent knows it, but you've already agreed to some bad terms? Then they might know they can't help you much -- not only that, but the work involved in unraveling what you've already done might be more than they can take on. What if the agent already has a full load? Then your deal will have to be stellar to grab the agent's attention, and it's unlikely you'll get that kind of offer on your own.

On the other hand, it can't hurt. Approaching agents with an offer in hand might be enough to get you out of their slush and onto their desks, and that gives you a leg up on the competition. It's not a guarantee of representation, but it might get you an extra look. There are plenty of other ways to get that extra look, though, the best of which is to write an unforgettable book.

3 - Is it okay to ignore "agented only" guidelines?

I have to give this one an, "Almost always no," instead of an, "OMG, are you fucking kidding? NO!" because sometimes special circumstances will get you around the agented-only requirement. Maybe you met an editor at a conference. Or dinner party. Or your kid's dance recital. And the editor invited you to submit directly after asking you about your work. Or maybe your best friend has written 20 major bestsellers for them and gave you a personal recommendation. Or maybe there's some other weird planetary alignment that grants you a free pass in the form of direct, expressly stated permission from an editor to submit without an agent. In that case, go for it.

Otherwise? OMG, are you fucking kidding? NO! You don't get to ignore the rules just because you don't like them or they don't work to your particular advantage.

There was some other nonsense in the post referenced by the questioner -- my favorite being the blogger's contention that only new agents ask for rewrites before submitting. That's laughably wrong. There are agents, legends in this business who revise for *years* before letting an editor anywhere near the client's work. These people have reputations for delivering only the finest manuscripts in near-perfect condition, and they generally earn deals commensurate with that kind of work. (A friend of mine is working with one of these agents, a guy so well known that I'm sure all but the freshest beginners have heard of him. Someday, maybe we'll invite her to do a guest post on their collaborative process. But first she has to finish the revisions he asked for -- a year and a half in the making, and still going -- and then we'll have to let her come down from the stress-and-xanax high.)

There's probably a follow-up post to be made, something on the agent's role in publishing as a whole. But before I write it, maybe you should all have the opportunity to ask questions about agents. With so much bad information floating around, I'm sure there are plenty of questions lingering out there. If you want to remain anonymous and don't want to post in the comments, remember that you can email us directly at editorrent at gmail dot com.

Theresa

Alicia opens the mailbox.....

Okay, so I'm going to combine a couple of the questions, because they're both about agents:

How important is it to acquire an agent? Do we dare submit on our own?
Cheryl

What are the differences (benefits, drawbacks) between querying an editor versus querying an agent, and should it be handled differently by we authors?,
Ian

----

Getting an agent, especially at the beginning of your writing career, isn't always a matter of choice. If you are going to submit to certain lines or certain publishers, you have to have an agent, as they won't look at "unagented submissions". (It is sometimes possible to get around this by meeting the editor, maybe at a writing conference, but their first question is often, "Who's your agent?") The big NY publishers tend to use agents as first readers or "gatekeepers," winnowing out the worst manuscripts. So if you've got a book bound for the publishers, you might have to get an agent whether you want to or not.

On the other hand, a lot of agents have taken to saying they are only open to currently contracted authors. (Anyone gotten the infamous rejection: "Love the book! Write to me when you've sold it, and then I'll represent you?") So if you WANT an agent, you might not get the one you want until after that first contract.

Do you need an agent? Well, think about what you want from an agent. If you just want a quick sale, you might decide to go it alone, if you're submitting to an editor who will read unagented material. But if you want more than the standard advance, or a better than standard contract, you might look for an agent first. Certainly there are certain types of "high-concept" books that a good agent can do wonders with—getting a great contract, reserving film rights, selling the film option to Hollywood. And a good agent can very likely get a contract for the next book or two on similar or better terms. That's hard to do by yourself.

However… notice I keep saying "a good agent." A good agent is worth his/her weight in gold (sometimes literally— I suspect JK Rowling would NOT be a billionaire if she hadn't had a good agent), but a bad agent is worse than no agent at all. Get a bunch of published authors together in a bar (so you can get them drunk) and ask them for their bad agent stories, and you'll hear things that will curl your hair-- embezzling agents and editor-antagonizing agents and negligent agents and cheating agents and so on. So don't think about getting "an agent," think about getting "a good agent," if you decide you need one. And remember, the prime purpose of an agent is to sell the book and negotiate the contract, not to make you feel good. I know too many writers who look at getting an agent as an end in itself, when there's another very big step after that (the agent getting you a contract). Focus on that, and find the agent who can help you most.

Once you've got a contract, however, you might decide your needs change—you need more long-term attention, beyond this single book. Agents should be focused on your career and not just this one book, so a good long conversation about what sort of books you want to write and what sort of career you want to have should happen early rather than late. There are good agents who simply aren't the right match for a particular writer. Let's say you want to keep your day job and write part-time, and the agent wants you to sell (and write) three books a year. Or maybe you want to sell big thrillers, and the agents thinks you should play it safe and continue working on those little cozy mysteries. Or you love what you write, and the agent loves your voice, but thinks you should be writing something else. These agents might all be great for someone else, but they probably aren't right for you, because their vision of your career is different from yours.

As to queries, it's a matter of focus. The editor is probably buying single books, while an agent is looking for an author. So the query to the editor should focus on the book, with maybe a paragraph at the end telling what's relevant about you (you're an attorney and this is a legal thriller, for example, or you think you will do a great job promoting this book because you have so many contacts in the community). The query to the agent should introduce the book, but spend maybe more time introducing you as an author—why you are likely to be successful, what your career plans are, what writing successes you have had in the past. If the editor likes your book, who you are won't make much difference (in the main… obviously if you're a US senator or the recent scandal-of-the-week subject, who you are might matter more). The agent probably won't take you on if she doesn't like the book… except that some do, especially if you have a strong track record of selling books before, or an existing relationship with a publisher. (I would not suggest going with an agent who doesn't like your writing… but one of the little secrets of publishing is that plenty of agents don't read every book they're submitting.)

So… just keep that in mind. Both types of queries should deal with your book and you the author; however, the editor-query generally focuses more on the book, and the agent-query focuses more on you. For example, I'd be sure, in an agent-query, to mention that I'm good at marketing and promotion, that I speak to a dozen women's groups a year and can hand-sell books then, that I can get blurbs from NYT-list friends (I'm making all that up, alas!). Those are items of interest that the agent knows she can use when she pitches your book to an editor.

This is why meeting with an agent at a conference is usually more productive than meeting with an editor. An agent can pretty much decide to take you on right then, but an editor isn't going to be much swayed by your sterling credentials and great charm—he'll say, "Send me the manuscript," and make his decision solely on whether the book works for him and fits his line.

By the way, I'm hearing more and more that agents often ask you to get a blurb (a recommendation) from a prominent author if you can—before submission. This is one more selling tool the agent can use. However, most new writers don't have access to a lot of prominent authors, and even if they do, many are resistant to asking for that sort of favor. But that's something to keep in mind. For example, if you're workshopping the book in a class with a well-known author, you might think about asking for a read and a rec. That blurb can actually go with your submission, whether it's to an editor or agent.

Alicia