Understanding your book agent
A literary agent is your business partner. They are not your friend, your confidant, or your editor. And the only part of your business they care about is revenue from your book.
This is not a knock on agents. Agents are wonderful people and can be quite instrumental in helping you succeed. But because they tend to be friendly, extroverted, and verbal, people sometimes misinterpret their role.
When dealing with agents, there are three rules you must understand:
- Agents act when they can make money. Legitimate agents make their money from a share of your book advance and royalties. The royalties only show up over the long term, while the advances appear within a year or two. So they are motivated to work on books that generate larger advances.
- Agents have limited time. They spend that on increasing the likelihood of a deal for promising books. They don’t spend it on author whose books they believe won’t sell.
- The agent’s reputation with acquisitions editors publishers is crucial. While they work for you, the author, they will not take any action that damages their reputation with publishers.
Let’s look at what that means before you’ve signed with them, while they’re pitching, and after the publishing deal is done.
Before you’ve signed with the agent
An agent who hasn’t yet signed an author would like to either turn that author into a marketable commodity or waste no further time with them. So:
- The agent’s praise (“this looks promising, keep working on it”) means absolutely nothing. If you haven’t written a proposal, you can interpret this praise as “Send me a proposal so I can make an actual judgment.” They have every reason to be encouraging, because you might come back with a marketable proposal (see Rule 1). If there is any chance that the agent will sign you in the future, they’ll say nice things. This praise, while it seems reassuring to desperate authors, is ultimately meaningless, especially before they’ve seen an actual proposal from you.
- “I want to sign you” is the only promising feedback that matters. If the agent says this and offers you an agency contract, you’ll be working with them. They wouldn’t spend time with you if they didn’t think they could sell your book (see Rule 2 above).
- If you hear nothing for several weeks, that means they’re not interested. They often don’t say “no,” they just ghost you. They’re just busy with other authors (see Rule 2). If you give them a deadline and then move on, they’ll often give you a polite, perfunctory response.
After you’ve signed with the agent but before you have a deal
You can only sign with one book agent. Do not sign with more than one or you will end up paying both of them on any deal and confusing the crap out of the publishers.
Once you’ve signed with the agent, they’ll come back to you with suggestions on how to improve the proposal. Address them. The agent knows what they can sell, and you need to respect that.
When you agree on the final form for the proposal, the agent will send it to publishers. The agent will send you any communications they get from publishers, including rejections and requests for additional information.
This is an anxious time for authors. You may be tempted to communicate frequently with the agent or ask for reassurance. But the agent can do little for you, and while reassuring you is in some ways a part of their job, it’s not what you hired them for.
Sending the agent little notes about how you’ve improved the proposal won’t help — you don’t get to change it after it’s been sent.
If something big changes in your life (for example, you just won the Nobel Peace Prize), share that with the agent, it might matter to the publishers. But “I just got tenure” doesn’t qualify. That doesn’t help sell the book.
It’s likely that at some point there will be bids from publishers. (If that doesn’t happen, the agent misjudged the book, and that is a waste of the agent’s time. Agents only spend time on book that are likely to sell, see Rule 1 and Rule 2.) The agent will manage the bidding process. In the end, you get to choose, but by default, the agent assumes you’ll pick the bid with the highest advance (because that makes the most money for them — see Rule 1).
If you don’t get offers, you can’t improve the proposal and try again. The agent won’t be party to that, because it annoys publishers (see Rule 3).
After you have a deal
After you accept an offer from a publisher, you have a handshake deal. The publisher is not going to go back on that deal, unless you’re convicted for wire fraud or appear in public in a Nazi uniform.
The publisher will help you negotiate the details of the contract. In many cases, they have legal resources for that. It is in their best interest to complete the deal in a timely way, because you and they usually get paid the first installment of the advance after the deal is signed (see Rule 1).
One the deal is signed, the agent has done their job. Your interactions from this point forward are with the publisher.
You can still ask for the agent’s help if the publishing relationship is having problems. For example, if the publisher wants to force an ugly book cover graphic on you, is failing to pay you in a timely way, or is failing to deliver promised marketing resources, you can ask the agent to step in. They are often very helpful in these situations, because they know exactly how publishers (and their accounting departments) work. They want the book published as much as you do, because then the rest of the advance gets paid (see Rule 1).
But the agent does not have time for your continual complaints about the publisher’s editors being unreasonable or mean. They can’t fix that and they’re not your therapist — it’s a waste of their time (see Rule 2).
After the book is published, there may still be other elements of the publishing deal that involve the agent. These might include audiobook rights, foreign translations, or royalties if the book is selling well. All of these make money for you and for the agent, so they will help with them (see Rule 1).
A good rule of thumb is this: if you want to force the publisher to do something they’re contractually obligated to do, tap the agent to force them to do it. If not, deal with it yourself.
Understanding how it works will make you happier
Most of the time when authors are unhappy with legitimate agents, the problem is that they expect agents to do things that are not in the agent’s best interest, and are not the agent’s responsibility.
Agents can help you get a publishing deal so you can both make money. They don’t want to waste time on anything else. That’s not evil or bad or inappropriate. That’s their job. Once you understand that, your relationship — and your own future success — will go far more smoothly.