Questions About Literary Agents© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
When you have at least one novel manuscript or screenplay completed
and an idea of what your next couple of books (or screenplays) will
be. You don't need an agent to represent you on short stories or
poetry. If you only want to sell the one book that you've completed
and you never want to write another, you might need an agent to
get the best terms for the book you've done, but you probably won't
be able to get one. Agents want clients who work in profitable fields
(novels, screenplays) and who will produce salable work on a regular
basis.
The instant an agent tells you that he charges a fee to evaluate
your manuscript, RUN---do not walk---in the opposite direction.
NO REPUTABLE AGENT charges a reading or evaluation fee. The AAR
(Association of Author Representatives) forbids its signatories
from doing so, just as it works in other ways to uphold the ethics
of the field. Good agents are signatories of the AAR. Real agents
make their money by taking a commission when they sell your books.
They, like real publishers, take you on because they believe in
you and in your work. They read your material, they say to themselves,
"I can sell this writer's work and make enough money from my fifteen
percent to make it worth my while. I can see this writer becoming
something special in the field, and I can help him get there."
Ripoff agents feed you the following lines---"I charge a $50 processing
fee. If the manuscript is sold, the fee is refunded. If the manuscript
is not ready to be submitted, the writer gets a professional critique
as to what must be done to the manuscript." Oh lucky you. Or, "$60
reading fee for first three chapters and outline or synopsis---but
only when I request this material once I've read the query letter.
Fees for reading complete manuscript are on a sliding scale." Gee.
How generous. (These come from actual agent entries in a popular
writers' guide to agents, publishers, etc..)
Here is the unspoken translation to the agent's reason for requiring
a reading fee. "I absolutely suck as an agent. I cannot make as
much money off of my sales of books for my clients as I can by ripping
off naive writers who don't know that my job as an agent should
be to sell books and make money for my clients, and that my search
for new clients should be part of my cost for doing business, just
as the writer's investment of time, talent, office supplies and
postage is part of his. Furthermore, I have the ethics of the scum
you scrape off the underside of a dead tree, and I've found that
P.T. Barnum was right: There is a sucker born every minute. I'm
out to milk my share of them."
Never pay an agent a reading fee. Never work with an agent who
charges reading fees. There are no exceptions to this rule.
(For more information on this, also see WriterBeware [offsite,
opens new window])
The best way to find an agent is through the recommendation of
a happy client. Your time will be well spent if you meet writers
whose books you read at conferences or conventions or online and
ask them who their agents are, what their agents have done for them,
and whether they would recommend their agent to anyone else. Don't
ask if they'll recommend you to their agent (unless the two of you
are friends and the writer is familiar with and likes your work).
That is an imposition. But just asking about their agents is not
an imposition. It ain't top-secret information. And most writers
are more than willing to brag or bitch about the person representing
them. This is what I have
to say about my agent. You can learn a lot from these conversations.
There are two reasons why you only ask writers you've heard of
these questions. The first is because you have heard of them, so
you know their agent must be doing something right. The second is
that most writers write the sort of stuff they read -- so if you
read SF and want to write SF, you'll be eliminating a lot of agents
who loathe SF from your query list if you get the names of agents
who already represent SF writers.
The next best way is to go through the most current edition Insiders
Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents or
a similar guide and look for agents who express an interest
in the
kind of work you do.
You should also check the Association of Authors' Representatives,
which lists Association of Authors' Representatives-members. The
AAR
requires
members to
follow a code of ethics, so while it won't guarantee that the members
listed there are good agents, it does at least
make a valiant attempt to weed out the scammers.
When you've found an agent that interests you, query. Don't send
the completed manuscript without his having requested it first.
For detailed instructions on how to query
an agent, click here.
No. Of course not. You don't even have to have an agent to be
a professional writer, or a successful professional writer.
Writers have successfully represented themselves before, and if
you're a lawyer with previous experience in the publishing field,
you are probably safe representing yourself.
The old saw about the doctor who treats himself having a fool
for a patient, however, is not without its applications here.
I
would be much worse off professionally without my agent. Good agents
do much more than find homes for manuscripts. If he (or she) did
nothing more for you than remove bad clauses from contracts, the
agent would be worth
his ten or fifteen percent.
You know this because you are going to take my advice and find
both a reputable agent and a reputable publisher, and because real
agents and real publishers are in the business of getting good books
into print. They wouldn't fool around with plagiarism any more than
they would voluntarily contract bubonic plague. Also, you might
want to click here to read about the other
reason that professionals don't steal ideas.
Robin Rue of Writers House. Follow this link for more information on
my agent and how you can contact
her regarding representation.
Not unless I know you and I know your work. I can and do recommend
my agent, and have made the information freely available if you
choose to use it (follow the link to get information
about my agent), but getting her to represent you will be
your job. For questions about whether I'll
read your manuscript, etc, click here.
A good agent will represent people you've heard of, and will be
willing to give you references. He will be able to tell you the
titles of a couple of books he's agented recently, and these will
be books you'll be able to find in the bookstore. A bad agent will
tell you that his client list is confidential, and will not be able
to point to any books currently on the market that he's agented.
Evasiveness surrounding this issue should set off warning bells
in your head.
Good agents will be members of the Association
of Authors' Representatives.
Good agents will never, never, never charge a reading fee, up-front
expenses, a charge to take you on, or any other charges or fees
in advance of selling your book. This is really important. There
are a multitude of agents out there who do not make their money
from selling books. They make their money by gulling naive hopefuls,
either by charging reading fees to "evaluate your manuscript" or
by taking on clients who pay in advance to have the agent place
the book. This is not the way good agents make their money.
Good agents receive a percentage of the advance and royalties for
every book they sell, usually fifteen percent. They get no money
from you until they have produced results. If an agent asks for
money from you before producing results, fire him.
Good agents, those who believe in your talent as a writer, will
not receive your manuscript and immediately recommend that you send
it to Book Doctor X to punch it up. Good agents will frequently
recommend ways that you can make the book better yourself. If you
prove incapable of following these suggestions, good agents might
suggest a collaborator or someone to help out, I suppose. Still,
if an agent recommended to me that I spend money on a manuscript
before it was sold, I would be suspicious.
No. Agents go to conventions to shmooze with their clients and
publishers and meet potential new clients. But they don't go to
read manuscripts, and they don't go prepared to carry dozens of
manuscripts or disks home with them to evaluate later. If you meet
an agent you like, and he likes you, enjoy the conversation you
have and see if he'd be receptive to having you send your manuscript
or a partial. When both of you get home from the convention or conference,
write him a letter reminding him of who you were, what you talked
about, and that he said he'd be willing to look at what you've done.
Send only what he said he'd be willing to look at. If he said, "I'd
love to see the first three chapters," don't send the whole book
and hope he forgets what he said -- he probably never requests more
than the first three chapters, and you won't look too good for being
pushy.
People who ask this question almost never want to know how creative
their book should be. They want to know how to get the agent's attention.
They want to stand out, be different, be colorful. They ask if they
should paint their envelope in rainbow hues so that it will stand
out, or write a funny query letter, or send photos of themselves
dressed in a barrel and nothing else, or enclose a couple of hundred
dollar bills with the manuscript.
Agents want to represent professionals. You'll stand out by being
one. White paper and black ink, a simple typeface, professional
courtesy, brevity and concision in your letter, and the inclusion
of a self-addressed stamped envelope with your manuscript will move
you ahead of the majority of queries the agent receives.
Save your creativity for your book.
Because a good agent doesn't just sell your manuscript to your
publisher. He also negotiates your contract to remove harmless-sounding
but deadly clauses; gets you more money for your work than you could
ever hope to get for yourself; tells you when it's time to move
on to greener pastures; sells subrights to foreign publishers; hounds
slow-paying publishers for the money they owe you; tells you when
you've ridden on your laurels for long enough and when it's time
to write bigger, more challenging books; helps you figure out what
your next project needs to be; keeps an ear open for editors who
are looking for projects you'd be perfect to write; and listens
to you bitch and cavail about things that are going wrong in your
life (but do keep the bitching and cavailing to a minimum).
For all of this, your agent gets fifteen percent of what you make---and
if you realize how lucky you are to have such a gem of an agent,
a dedication in your best book.
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