Category: agents

Your Ambassador

First off, it was great to meet those of you who came to the Southwest Florida Reading Festival!

On November 22, 2012, Ilsa Eruaistaniel wrote, Gail: could you please do a post on literary agents? I have been submitting queries, but I’m not sure how to find an agent with enough influence to submit my book to the publishers that I’d like, such as HarperCollins or Aladdin Book Publishers. Agents are skipped over and kind of sketchy in all descriptions of them and I’d like to learn just how I can find an agent who can help me get the best out of my book.

And carpelibris contributed this: Could I add a suggestion? Always check prospective agents at the Preditors and Editors website. There are an awful lot of scam agents/editors/agencies out there. I’ve found P&E to be really helpful in finding the reputable ones.

Please, if you are an agent, weigh in on what I’m saying. Your thoughts – and corrections – will be most welcome.

Here’s the Preditors (this is how they spell it) and Editors website: http://pred-ed.com/pubagent.htm. And here’s the website of the Association of Authors Representatives (AAR), which you may find useful, too: http://aaronline.org/Find.

I’d suggest noodling around both sites to see what they offer. Then, I’d use the AAR site to identify agents or agencies that interest you. Next I’d cross reference them on the P&E site to make sure there are no alerts against them.

Next stop would be the agent’s or agency’s website, which may list the agency’s clients or may list the awards their clients have won. If you see names you recognize or prestigious awards, you can feel reasonably confident that these agents can command the attention of an editor. If you feel that this is the right place for your book, follow the submission guidelines and submit.

You can submit a query letter and synopsis and/or sample chapters to more than one agent at a time, but if an agent asks to see the whole book, she’ll probably want to be the only one looking at it.

Let’s back up. Do you need an agent?

The P&E site says you don’t. I say, it depends. In the world of children’s books and big publishers, you probably do. I assume the same is true of adult books. If you’re sending to smaller presses, if you’re a free-lancer, maybe not. If you’re writing poetry, definitely not.

Even in the children’s book world, if you meet an editor at a conference, and he wants to see your manuscript, you can send it to him unagented. If he wants to buy it, there you are. But these opportunities usually arise only with face-to-face contact. The big houses don’t accept unagented unsolicited submissions.

Suppose you meet an editor at a conference and he wants to see your manuscript. You send it to him, and you wait, and after three months you follow up. Alas, your manuscript has been lost. Please send it again. You do, and after six months, he rejects it.

If this had been an agented submission from an agent known to the editor, the wait would be less. The agent would be able to follow up more effectively than you can. The manuscript probably wouldn’t have been lost in the first place.

On the other hand, I don’t know how long agents take to get back to writers or if they frequently lose submissions. One website I looked at said six to eight weeks, which isn’t bad.

Remember, in the case of both editors and agents, the manuscripts flow in. Tidal waves sometimes.

Remember also that writers do break in. Newbies do get published.

Suppose you do get an offer of publication without an agent. You will probably want help negotiating the contract. You can find an agent at that point, generally pretty easily, because you’ve already made the sale. Or you can use a literary lawyer. P&E lists them, too. The literary lawyer will get a one-time payment rather than an ongoing share of your earnings. You can decide which you want, but don’t expect any other kind of lawyer to be able to negotiate the contract. This is a specialized field.

When you’re hunting for an agent, one of the things to watch out for, which the P&E site discusses, is a reading fee. You should not pay an agent to read your work. An agent’s income comes from a percentage of your advance and your royalties. She succeeds only if you succeed. Because of this, your interests are aligned, for the most part.

What does an agent do for you?

She should know a lot of editors and who likes what kind of work and who is eager for submissions. My agent sent Ella Enchanted to my first editor because she knew she was “hungry.” Your agent should know the market, what’s selling and what isn’t and what’s a hard sell.

She should be up on changes in the industry, like the latest on ebooks. She should be an insider.

She’ll negotiate the contract and will probably get better terms for you than if you were negotiating on your own. (So should a literary lawyer.) The agency may have a boiler-plate contract with different publishers that includes the best language possible.

She’ll follow up on submissions, so you won’t be waiting a year for a response, although editors may still be slow.

If there’s a rejection it will go to her. This is no small advantage. Your agent will soften the blow and give it context. Also, the editor may be more frank with an agent than with the author, and you may learn something helpful or encouraging. For example, you may learn that the editor loved your book but the marketers weren’t sure it could be profitable.

Your agent may work with you to revise before submitting. Some agents do this; others don’t. There should never be a charge for this! You may want the help, or you may not, so this is another thing to find out about a potential agent – although the opportunity may not arise until she wants to take you on.

When that time comes, if you can, meet with the agent in person. If that’s not possible, talk on the phone. You should feel comfortable with her. You certainly want to be sure she sees your work the same way you do. You may want to know how she works with clients. Does she mind questions? Will she get back to you quickly? I would not do well with someone who didn’t, but some people are better at waiting than I am.

This may be a long-term relationship. As I said before, your agent will get a percentage of your advance and royalties on any books that are signed up while she’s your agent. If things aren’t working out and you end the relationship, she’ll continue to be involved with those books. In the life of a book more may happen than the initial sale. You may have to continue to be in touch, which may be awkward. Try to choose well the first time.

But if you haven’t, of course you should move on.

There’s much more to say, like about rights that you sell the publisher and rights that you retain because your agent may be able to market them more profitably. And then there’s the royalty statement. The publisher will pay her; she’ll take her percentage and pass the rest on to you. She’ll also check for errors, and so should you. But I’m really getting into the weeds, and there are books about all of this. Let me add just one more thing, if you’re having problems with your editor, your agent can step in. Or in the case that you’re being the slightest bit unreasonable – your agent can be the voice of reason. She’ll have experience in the publishing world to give her perspective.

Long post. No prompts today. But I suggest you visit the websites carpelibris and I suggested and explore. Have fun!

The book biz

I’ve contributed a couple of books (Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It and Writing Magic) to a silent auction in relief of victims of the shootings in Connecticut. There are many wonderful items in the auction, which you can view here: http://pubheartsconn.blogspot.com/2012/12/list-of-auction-items.html, and some of which have bearing on today’s post. There are manuscript critiques on offer, which may be great and seem to be at bargain-basement prices and the cause is certainly worthwhile. My only caution is that I don’t know the people making the offer, so before you bid, do a little research.

Back from poetry land: On September 4, 2012, Lark wrote that she was wondering “how to get published” or “the publishing process.” I know that’s a tall order, and might be a lengthy post- I wrote my 9th grade research paper on book publishing and got a C because it was WAYYY too long, was more of an instructional manual (!), and most likely mediocre at that because I’ve never been published- but as a FAMOUS 😉 published writer I, at least, would love to hear your thoughts on that. I’m sure that getting published is a main goal of at least a few of the readers here. 🙂

Well, this is fortuitous! I was going to post this link anyway, and it fits right in. A few days ago, on the Guestbook of my website, robin s. asked  if there are any novel-length contests for teens. I didn’t know, so I googled and found this opportunity from Scholastic: http://www.thisispush.com/write/. Scholastic is about as reputable as you can get, so I would absolutely trust it. If you have something ready or almost ready, I would encourage you to put on the finishing touches, follow the instructions, and submit. The deadline approaches.

If you can’t get ready in time, you can make next year your deadline and have it to work toward.

If you do submit, be sure to follow the instructions, which require a certain number of chapters with a minimum and maximum page length and an outline of a specified length. My guess is that if you don’t follow the rules your submission won’t be read.

When I googled “novel writing contests for teens” the Scholastic one was the only one that popped up that I recognized. There was one from Delacorte, but it seems to have been discontinued. If any of you know of any others that you can vouch for, please post the information. There may be online contests that are good. I’m just not informed enough to judge.

In fact, I’m not knowledgeable enough about online publishing to discuss it at all. Or self-publishing, which I understand is more and more an acceptable way to go. This post is about traditional publishing-house publishing that results in a print book and, probably, an e-book. My perspective is from the children’s book corner, which includes young adult (YA) books, which have recently been inching older and older into upper teens and even early twenties. And I think that most of what I’m about to say applies to adult publishing too.

This post can’t be nearly long enough to cover a subject that many books have been devoted to. The one I know is Harold Underdown’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books. Mr. Underdown also has a super-informative website at http://www.underdown.org/.

Also, in October I gave you the name of an agent who is willing to read submissions from teens. Here’s the information again: She’s Brianne Johnson, an agent at the respected Writers House. She said to email her a cover letter describing the book and to send the first 25 pages in a Microsoft Word document, as an attachment. Brianne prefers to receive submissions via e-mail, at bjohnson@writershouse.com. In your e-mail, say you got her name from my blog. Your writing sample should be double-spaced in 12-point type and the typeface should be easy to read. Your name, address, phone number, and email address should appear on the left above the title. Your last name and the title of the book should be in the upper left-hand corner of every page that follows, like this: Levine/Ella Enchanted. This is in case a page gets separated from the rest.

I’m not sure if the Scholastic contest rules specify double-spaced, but assume that is the requirement, because it’s standard. The double-spacing gives an editor room to write in edits and comments. If an editor takes the time to do that, it’s a very good sign.

And, just saying, whether you submit to Brianne or the contest or both, make your manuscript as free of typos and punctuation and grammatical errors as is humanly possible, because those will rule you out in a heartbeat.

If you do submit to Brianne and the contest too, let her know in your cover email that you’ve entered the contest. Not necessary to inform the contest that you’ve submitted the manuscript to an agent. The contest editors won’t care.

In the regular publishing process, aside from contests and special arrangements with agents, you don’t need to say anything about your age, whether you’re fourteen or ninety-four. If an editor or an agent falls in love with your book you can confess then, and the likely response will be delight that you’re so young or so ancient. Either way, there’s a story there for the marketing folks.

Conferences are the best way I know of to meet editors and agents. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (www.SCBWI.org) offers regional conferences throughout the year (and throughout the world, pretty much) and two national conferences annually. Alas, you have to be at least eighteen to join the organization and attend. The Rutgers One-on-One Conference (http://www.ruccl.org/One-on-One_Plus_Conference.html) is the absolute best conference You have to be at least eighteen for that one too – sorry! You may find other conferences online. There are certainly conferences for other genres, like mystery, romance, fantasy. Look for participation by agents and editors.

If you meet an editor at a conference or in any other circumstance, like through a college class, and the editor says you can send her something, then you can. Otherwise, the major publishers don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts – manuscripts that just arrive in the mail. Some smaller presses may – I don’t know. Most editors find new authors through agents.

AAR, the Association of Authors Representatives, lists agents on its website, which is www.aaronline.org. It may take a long time to load, so be patient.. I suggest you check out individual agents’ websites or, if the agent works at an agency, the agency’s website. When you do, look at the authors who are represented by that agent. Look up the books published by those authors. You can even go further and read one of the books to see if you like it, to see if you respect the agent’s taste. The website and the AAR site say what kind of work the agents is interested in seeing and how to submit. Follow the guidelines slavishly!

If an agent is interested in your work, he (or she) may ask for revisions before he’s willing to represent you. He should never ever charge for any editing he does. If his suggestions make sense to you, if you think they’ll get you to a better book, revise according to his guidance. Even after he begins to represent you, he may edit your manuscript just as an editor would, meaning that you don’t have to do whatever he wants. The edits have to seem right to you.

Most agents edit but not all. Mine doesn’t.

One advantage of an agent is his knowledge of the industry. An agent has relationships with lots of editors; he sees them at conferences; they meet for lunch. He knows who’s looking for what, who like what. My agent sent Ella Enchanted to a particular editor because she knew Alix was “hungry,” eager for new material. Often these hungry editors are just starting out and don’t already have a slate of authors they work with. For example, Ella Enchanted was Alix’s very first acquisition.

If you do meet an editor somehow and the editor wants your book, you may still decide to be represented by an agent, and you’ll have an easier time finding one if you already have an offer of a contract.

The agent will negotiate your contract, and here industry knowledge is essential. The agent will know what a reasonable advance is, what reasonable royalty rates are, will probably have a standard contract with the various publishers, so you’ll get the benefit of that.

When you reach this point: an agent wants to represent you, I think you should meet the agent if you live or work near each other. If not, I think a phone call would be a good idea. You want to be sure that you’ll work well together, that he sees your work in the same way you do, that you’re a good fit. My first (brief) agent didn’t like fantasy. You can guess how that worked out.

If you don’t want an agent, however – the agent will take fifteen percent of your advance and royalties forever – you can have a literary lawyer negotiate your contract or help you negotiate it. You’ll have to pay the lawyer, but all your earnings after that will go straight to you. However, do not involve any other kind of attorney in the negotiation. Any lawyer who doesn’t know the territory will find the contract terms unacceptable, and a deal will be impossible.

This post is going on too long. I’ll continue next week with a partial post or a whole one. Your prompt is to ask me questions. If there was anything you didn’t understand or if there’s an area you’d like me to go into in greater depth, please ask. If you have industry experience, please add your expertise.

Have fun!