More On Agents

I’ve talked before about my decision to remain unagented and why I’m happy with it. Today I got an email making me want to expand on a specific aspect of the agented / unagented debate.

First, to take a step back, if you read as many publishing / literary blogs as I do, you’ll know there’s a raging debate out there about getting an agent / not getting an agent. This debate is pretty much on par with the traditionally publish / self-publish debate. It’s not always polite – it’s not even always accurate – but it is a hot topic.

And an interesting thing has happened – very recently too (from my perspective) – in the face of all the questioning, analysis and – yes – attacks, agents are beginning to make an attempt to justify their existence / place in the publishing process.

Major disclaimer – unless otherwise stated here, I’m talking in generalities. I’m not talking about this or that fantastic (or terrible) agent – I’m talking about my personal, and general, impressions of the landscape.

So, this justifying feels new to me. And, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. The first time I looked around at agents, too many agencies had a basic message along the lines of, ”We’re very busy, we’re quite important, you aren’t likely to find representation through us but, if you really want to, you can try.”

At the time I remember thinking “Good for you if you have enough clients, so if you really don’t want any new ones, just say so.”

(Again, disclaimer, some agencies / individual agents were very welcoming / polite / professional but I felt they were the exceptions.)

And, now, we see agents publicly stating why they’re still relevant and why writers should seek representation. It’s an interesting change.

The latest of statements was the one I mentioned above – the one that arrived in my inbox this morning. This is from a person who I have come to deeply admire and respect and who seems to me to be, not only incredibly business-savvy, but to love books and to genuinely want to help people. I’ve mentioned her many times before on this blog – her name is Rachelle Gardner and you can read the post in question here.

However. I can’t agree with Rachelle on one particular aspect of her post. I may or may not agree with the other points she makes, but the one I really take issue with, is the explanation of the benefits of having an agent for writers who have already secured a publisher. Rachelle says, even if you already have a publisher in place, you can still use help talking to your publisher about:

writing your book,
dealing with several rounds of editing
having your book cover designed
possibly having your title changed
promoting your book in cooperation with the publisher’s marketing department
launching your book

Rachelle makes the case for an agent being the go-between / facilitator / contact for all these issues. Which, maybe (depending on your personality) sounds nice. Except, is it worth 15 per cent of what you’ll earn from the book? Think about it. To some people, it may be – good for you – as long as you go in with your eyes open, that’s great. For me it definitely isn’t.

Let’s take just one example out of this list – the book cover issue. This is one lots of writers worry about and some end up very unhappy with their covers. Here’s the story of my cover.

1) A loooong time ago, when Red Deer first expressed interest in my manuscript, I started doing my research on them. I asked my local children’s librarian about them. I read many of their books. I learned all I could about the people who worked there. I felt their vision was in line with my vision. When it came time to sign a contract with them, I trusted them – not because of blind instinct, but based on research – to edit, create and design a book we’d all be proud of. I also understood that, bottom line, I didn’t have the final say on my cover and I was OK with that – it was part of my decision when publishing traditionally.

2) I saw the first version of my cover. I loved it. I really did. As I suspected, Red Deer’s design esthetic was in line with mine. But there was a small technicality in the image they had used that made it somewhat inaccurate. So – what to do? Grin and bear it? Fall to pieces? Ask somebody else to deal with it (keeping in mind, I’d first have to explain the technical inaccuracy to that person so they could, in turn, relay it to my publisher)? No, I …

3) … emailed my publisher! What a concept. I explained what I just said above – love it, small issue, suggested solutions, etc.

4) They fixed it. If they hadn’t, I could have lived with it. But they did. Yay!

That was not worth 15 per cent of my proceeds on this book. In fact, that interaction was rewarding and helped cement my relationship with my publisher.

Of course, that’s just one example and maybe I have the world’s only reasonable publisher, and so on and so forth. Still, for me, I’ll say if you have some basic professional skills (and I assume if you’ve secured a publisher on your own, you do) and if you have some basic writing skills (and I assume, if you’ve written a book, you do), I think you can actually talk to your publisher directly about issues of concern and you don’t need to pay an agent to do that for you.

The other part of this is the assumption that every agent is a good negotiator and every agent is professional and, while I very much believe Ms. Gardner and many others like her, are, not every agent is. You want to be very, very careful who represents you. Only you own your image, but somebody working on your behalf can ruin it for you.

Here are a couple of thoughts I have if you have already managed to get your work published yourself but you feel you might like some help:

A) Ask an agent if he will lower his fee for this particular project. Unlike unplaced projects where the agent is taking a chance, if you have a deal lined up, the agent knows she will be getting a cut. In that case, I think it’s reasonable to suggest a 7.5 or 10 per cent fee, rather than the standard 15. Of course, if the agent represents future projects, which still need to be placed, you can negotiate a separate fee for those.

B) Hire somebody you trust and pay them for the work you need done. Figure out exactly what you need support with and hire an outside firm, family member, or somebody you find and interview, to do that work for you. Pay them fairly per task or by the hour. Then you know how much of their effort / attention you’re getting. An agent has many, many, many other clients and has many other things to worry about. This is why when Ms. Gardner says “An agented author is never alone on this publishing journey,” I have to respectfully disagree. Rachelle Gardner’s clients may never be alone, but I know several agented authors who find it easier to reach their publisher than their agent. If you want direct accountability, hiring somebody yourself may be the answer.

I could talk about this all day, but this post is already too long. If you have thoughts or questions, please share them in the comments!