Demystifying Literary Agents by Jill Nagle

Demystifying Literary Agents

Seven Essential Points on Literary Agents
By Jill Nagle

(An excerpt from "How to Find A Literary Agent Who Can Sell Your Book
for Top Dollar.")

As an aspiring author, you may have heard, "if your work is really
good, you can get an agent. Getting the work into shape is the hard
part. If you get the work into shape, the right agent will follow".
Is it really that simple? Well, yes and no.

The seven essential points below prepare you for what to expect when
seeking an agent, or literary representative.

Point 1: fiction or nonfiction? Differences in approach

As a novelist, or fiction writer, you need to complete your whole
book, format it properly, and find an agent who specializes in
selling novels. If you write nonfiction (self-help, how-to, memoir),
forget about writing the whole book, unless you want to self-publish.
Instead, write your book proposal.

A book proposal is like a business plan for your book. Its job is to
convince the publisher to part with money so you can get paid to
write your book.

In either case, to minimize your chances of rejection, you'll need to
have your proposal or manuscript polished before approaching an agent.

Point 2: That someone calls themselves an agent says nothing about
what they can do for you

Some things haven't changed in the century since the first literary
agent was born. Today, anyone can still hang out a shingle and say
they're an agent—many people do. Not all agents are effective,
ethical, or even sell any books.

Jill's Guerilla Caveat
Don't settle for just any agent. Agents vary tremendously in their
effectiveness and in what they sell well. Get your proposal (for
nonfiction writers) or manuscript (for novelists) into tip-top shape,
then go for the agent who has a proven track record selling work
similar to your own.

Point 3: Membership in the Association of Author's Representatives
(United States) indicates that the agent has agreed to abide by the
AAR's code of ethics

This professional guild for agents requires, among other things, that
an agent:

* has sold at least ten literary properties (i.e. books) in the
eighteen months prior to application for membership; and
* does not charge any fees for reading or evaluating authors' work.

However, not every legitimate US agent belongs to the AAR. Many
extremely successful agents opt out of AAR membership. A comparable
agency called the Association of Author's Agents operates in Britain.

Point 4: Legitimate agents earn their living by selling to legitimate
publishers the rights to publish authors' books

In return for writing your book and granting a legitimate publisher
the rights to print it, the publisher gives you, the author, a
percentage of whatever the book makes, otherwise known as
a "royalty". In return for brokering the deal and acting as your
advocate, you in turn give your agent a percentage (usually 15 per
cent) of this royalty.

This is how legitimate agents make their money. They pick good
literary prospects for the publishers to consider, who rely on them
to reduce the time and energy it would otherwise take to wade through
the enormous amount of submissions the publishers receive.

Publishers know the legitimate agent's living depends on being able
to separate the wheat from the chaff, so they tend to look more
seriously at submissions from reputable agents.

To reiterate, legitimate agents get paid through commissions on book
rights only, period. If an agent charges you any money, except a
small fee for expenses (and many people believe agents shouldn't
charge authors even for those; they should simply be considered the
cost of doing business), they have little incentive to sell books.

Successful agents use a well-established network of relationships
with editors in legitimate publishing houses. They know the right
editors to call for the particular projects that come their way. They
don't have time to do anything but sell book rights, because selling
book rights is how they make their money.

Aside from selling the rights to publish your book in your own
country, many other possibilities exist for making money from your
book both within your own country and abroad. These include
translating the book and selling it overseas, making an audio
recording of the book, or having the book used as the basis for a
movie. The legal permission to do these things is called foreign
rights, subsidiary rights and options, respectively.

To help you make the most money possible from your book, your agent
should be able to negotiate for the subsidiary and foreign rights to
remain with you, and then work either on their own or with someone
else, to help you sell and make yet more money on sales from those
rights.

Jill's Guerilla Caveat
Apart from those agents who are simply mediocre, watch out for
scammers – there are plenty! Apart from trusting your gut, and not
paying an agent, avoid any agent who:

* insists you hire a particular editorial or consulting service
(this is different from making a referral, or even better, two or
three referrals and letting you interview them and make up your own
mind);
* refers you to a publisher who wants to charge you money;
* suggests representing multiple works of yours simultaneously
(unless they have a really good reason for thinking this is a good
idea – see Q&A below).

Agents who profit from upfront fees for reading or handling
manuscripts, who affiliate themselves financially with editorial,
coaching or publishing services, or who claim to need your money for
any other purpose probably aren't selling the rights to your book for
a living.

Why should they, when aspiring writers who don't know any better are
kind enough to bankroll their other enterprises?

Point 5: At their best, agents advocate for author interests, and
earn their commissions by:

* using their inside information, reputations and well-oiled
relationships with editors to approach just the right publishers for
your book – especially the increasing number of those publishers who
won't take unagented submissions;
* applying their contractual and negotiating expertise to
garnering higher advances, more rights and a lot of other stuff you
might not be aware of;
* helping you refine both the form and content of your book so
that it appeals to the publishers they plan to approach;
* intervening on your behalf if you get into a disagreement with
the publisher;
* assisting you with making long-term decisions about sequels,
options, subsidiary rights, next steps and other aspects of your
career.

Point 6: Agents reject 99 per cent of all material that comes their
way

The best and most reliable way to up your odds of getting published
is to a) research your market, b) know and communicate to the agent
via a perfect query letter how your work fits in with and stands out
from others in its class, c) deliver an original, well-written,
impeccably formatted manuscript or proposal, then d) choose an agent
who is obviously interested in and has a record of selling work like
yours. Read that again.

Point 7: Don't initiate contact with a phone call – really. Approach
an agent with a query letter instead

Unless you are famous (and even then), approach an agent with a query
letter. A query letter introduces you and your book idea, and invites
the agent to see your book proposal or manuscript. We'll give you a
sample query letter below.

Don't email unless the agent specifically states somewhere in print
or on the internet that they welcome email queries. Also, don't call
with general questions about their qualifications.

Agents who haven't expressed interest in representing your work
generally will not consent to have you interview them unless you're a
journalist calling to give them publicity.

Once an agent has expressed interest in your work, you can and should
ask questions of them, which we'll cover below, then take up to a
week (or longer, by mutual agreement) to decide whether to accept
their offer of representation.

If you've read this far, congratulations—you now have a solid
introduction to agents, a crucial piece of the mainstream publishing
world. However, as you might guess, finding exactly the right agent
for your work, so you can beat those 99 per cent rejection odds,
takes a bit more effort.

Jill Nagle, an author as well as a writing coach and consultant, has
been helping writers get published for over a decade.