The Writing Commitment: What Do Agents Do?

A literary agent is a very, very valuable person to have on your side. You can get published without an agent.

An agent is someone who knows the editors at a lot of different publishing houses, and can call them up and say, “I think you'll like this.” And they'll say, “Cool. Let me set aside these eighty books written by complete strangers to read yours, because I trust you.” Without an agent, your book is one of those eighty.

And then the publisher says, “We'd like to buy this. We'll give you three pieces of string and a muffin.” Only they put that in sixty pages of contract. And the agent is used to reading those contracts, and calls them up and goes “A ha ha ha ha no. You're giving us cash, buddy.” And they do. But when you get that contract.... good luck.

Let's say you found it and you're getting money. The publisher goes, “We'll give you a $5,000 advance.” The agent goes, “No way buddy, we want $30,000.” And so do you. The difference is, the agent gets $15,000 and the unagented writer gets $10,000. And yes, it's been proven that agented writers get better deals, everything else being equal.

The cover art for your novel is a bare-breasted chick. You call the publisher and go, “This is a middle-grade fantasy novel!” And they tell you, “We know what sells. You don't. Go away.” The agent calls them up and goes, “Do you think this is appropriate for a middle grade fantasy? Children that age want swords and sorcery. Why don't you look for a cat, since this has talking cats?” And the agented author winds up with a cover of a spooky castle, but that's okay, it takes place in a castle.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

There are good agents, and there are bad agents. For a list of bad agents, scam artists, and warning signs, check out Writer Beware ( http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ ). However, here's your most basic clue: if they ask you to pay anything-- ANYTHING-- run. 99% of the time, if they want you to pay, they're a bad agent.

Agents get paid when you do. Remember that $15,000 advance I mentioned earlier? Agents, on average, get 10-15%. They'd get $1500-2250 of that. Still more money than you get unagented.

So how do you get an agent?

There are several steps. Not all agents go through all the steps; on average, though, you can expect to do one or more of these things-- which I'll cover later.

Expect future posts on:

Query Letters

Synopsis: What It Is, Why It Matters

Rejection Letters: The different Types

Partial and Full Manuscript Requests: What They Mean
and maybe more!
 

Happy Writing,

-Alaina