Hello, writers. In our three years together I’ve changed my mind about many aspects of the writing business—partly because the business is changing so much. Three years ago I saw no reason to have an agent. Now I see a lot of reasons to have one. Here are a few:
1. A good agent knows which editor wants what. A writer can only guess. For example, an editor might put it out there in the blogosphere that she wants historical fiction, but she probably won’t put it out there that she wants a World War II novel, preferably set during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
2. Simultaneous submissions from writers are usually discouraged, if not absolutely forbidden. From agents, they’re expected. On your own, you can wait a year or more to hear back from a publisher. Then a year or more to hear back from the next. A good agent might send your manuscript to six or eight editors, and then nudge each of them after a month or two.
3. Simultaneous submissions can lead to auctions. I’ve never heard of a writer on his or her own conducting an auction, though I suppose it’s probably happened at some point.
4. A good agent can negotiate way more money than you can negotiate for yourself. Of course writing's not about the money-- but as long as you're going to get paid anyway---
5. A good agent can handle overseas sales, which are very hard to manage on your own.
(Note that I say a good agent. There are watchdog websites warning about the bad agents, but, alas, no sites warning about the mediocre ones.)
Anyway, lucky me, I have a good agent. And some questions for you:
How did you get your agent, if you have one?
If you’re looking for an agent, where are you in the search and what are you running into?
There’s some argument among writers as to whether it’s harder to get an agent than a publisher, or equally difficult to get either. I vote for the former—I think agents are pickier than publishers.
Publishers publish a midlist—in fact, most books are on the midlist.
Say a publisher pays a $10,000 advance for each book on their midlist. (Though some publishers pay a lot less than that.) 70% of books don’t earn out their advance, which is to say in this case the author’s royalties never total $10k. Take a $20 cover price and an 8% royalty: you’d need 6,250 sales in hardcover to earn out. Most midlist books don’t come close to that. Though in reality it’s more complex, because there are paperback editions with lower cover prices and royalty rates, and e-books, and sub-rights, and, well, anyway. That’s the midlist.
The midlist doesn’t bankrupt the publishers. Since their share is larger than the writer’s share, the publisher can still make money even if the book doesn’t earn out. And the midlist is also subsidized by big-name writers who will always earn out.
But it’s not appealing to agents. A 10k advance means your agent gets $1,500. Most agents aren’t looking for that—they’re looking for major deals. So IMHO it’s easier to get a publisher to say “Hmm, this could be a nice little addition to our romance list” than to get an agent to say “Hmm, this could be a six-figure deal.”
I’m not saying you can’t get an agent to handle midlist books. You absolutely can. I just think the bottleneck is a bit tighter than with publishers.
That’s been my experience in the agent hunt, anyway. I sold five books before I was able to interest an agent. YMMV.
If you have questions about the agent search I’d be happy to answer them, and hopefully others who have experience with agents will be happy to answer as well.
Tonight’s challenge:
Start with the word below and write for ten minutes. It can be a dialogue, a description, a set-up for a scene, a scene, whatever you want.
Edit the result if you want, or post it straight.
Here’s the word:
Suspicions.
Have at it.
Write On! will be a regular weekly diary (Thurs 8 pm ET) until it isn't.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.