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…
John Taylor “Ike” Williams was my agent and publishing lawyer. He died on December 26, 2024 at the age of 86. Ike was a commanding presence at his literary agency, Kneerim & Williams, and law firm, Sennott & Williams. Six-foot-six and good-looking, he had a unique combination of unshakable Boston Brahmin confidence and good humor….
The best way to get a book agent is through a referral from somebody who works with them. The worst way is to fling a manuscript, proposal, or query blindly at a Web site. But it is so difficult to find an agent — and they are so selective — that some people get desperate….
The process by which agents pitch publishers can be confusing, as it’s often characterized by periods of waiting followed by rapid shifts in perspective. I’ll explain not only what happens, but how long it takes. For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll assume that you already have already written a proposal and secured a…
You want to publish a book. Do you need a book agent? Yeah. You probably do. Since there’s so much confusion about agent and publishers, here’s an FAQ for you, answering the questions I hear most often from authors. How do agents get paid? To understand when an agent makes sense and what they do…