Agent talk
Recently, myself and several author friends have found it necessary to change agents. I can happily say that my close friend Donna Grant and I both signed with new agents last week that we are both super excited about. How we ended up at the same place– feeling the need to make a change at the same time — is amazing to me, but it sure helped having her to go through it with. From the process, I can say I learned a lot.
It's interesting to me that what becomes important as you become published verses what is important after you are unpublished really changes. When you are new you aren't complicated, you have no previous history or sell through numbers. You write one thing and one thing only — whatever gets you that agent. And you take that agent — without a lot of questions.
It's far more complicated for a published author and I'll explain why. First, let me start with the things I've learn I don't want in an agent and I suggest most authors don't want for themselves:
–Someone who signs you because you represent money but doesn't love your work. I highly recommend you shop with a new proposal and you find out the agent you sign with loves it like you do. And don't stay with an agent out of fear of being without an agent if they don't love your work. It makes YEARS go by and your career gets in a rut.
–Someone who doesn't want you to write the genres you want to write — and just says no instead of helping you find a way to reach that goal — be it a pen name or whatever. If you want to write cross genre have a proposal ready in each area. No you aren't going to shop them all now, but you need to know the agent likes your voice enough in those genres to shop you in them. If they don't — later you will have a problem. I had THREE proposal ready, all in different genres.
–Someone who doesn't treat your money like its their money even though it is! They get paid when you get paid. But if your small checks — until they get bigger –seem unimportant and move slow — that's a problem. It means they aren't likely to be devoted to making them bigger.
–Someone who doesn't understand why money is important. They can't ask you to treat this as a business and then not understand why profit isn't important to you but they sure like their money. We have to make a living too. Someone who helps you figure out the best way to do that and CARES counts. If that means they make you a commodity to make money themselves — PLEASE do!
Things I found to be important outside of the above:
–You connect with the agent and they connect with you and your work. That doesn't mean they need to be your best bud. It means you connect on your career and on business. Nice is always, well, nice, but its not a requirement for me. I want sharp and hungry, not nice.
–Someone who is actively selling in your genres. This is so key. Just because they say they want to sell in your area does not mean they can, or know how to help you do it. Look at the track record.
–If you are published in mass market or trade — ask how they will deal with Borders returns and your next advance. That will effect sell through and I be used to lower advances. You need to know how the agent feels about this and your past numbers in general. Here is a short definition of sell through here.
–How does the agent feel your career has gone so far and where do they think it should go and by when? Does that match your goals. And how will they help you do this?
–How do they handle foreign rights? Giving away foreign rights to a publisher isn't as advantageous as having an aggressive agency selling them.
–What is the agents history and feelings about your main publisher?
–This one is big — don't just look at who the agent represents now. How many of those authors did they actually sell? Or did someone else sell them and they got them later? You want an agent with a good track record of SELLING. Not just taking other peoples clients.
–If people left the agent –why? Ask the authors who left. Then take the information and realize that everyone gains and looses clients from/to other agencies. What are the reasons and how do they fit/not fit what you need.
–How fast did the agent respond to your query? If it was slow do past authors say they have bad communication? Sometimes queries just get pushed down the long list of emails. Sometimes its a sign. And how excited does the agent really seem about you?
–I've noticed that some well established agents get big named authors and they get regular big checks. They don't need to do the work to develop authors anymore and they don't want to. Others STAY HUNGRY. I remember DH asking me how UFC Randy Couture kicked so many younger guys butts and guys younger than him were already too old. I said — Randy still WANTS IT. Age rarely kills someone in their field of expertise, its desire being lost that kills them. I learned in business –surround yourself with people who know more than you and you will shine. Make sure the agent not only knows more than you, but is still HUNGRY to apply that knowledge. If they are young and eager, that's great too. Just make sure the knowledge is there supporting them. Hungry is hungry. It counts in a big way.
–Is the agent an editing agent and do you want that? If you don't you need to steer clear. If you do — great. But ASK. Don't find out later.
–How do they handle submissions? Ask. You think it doesn't matter until it does.
Well — I think that is a load of information. I hope it helps at least one person:)
All I can say is YAY! My agent search is over and I am SO thrilled with where I landed. And YAY for Donna. She is super excited about her new agent as well and I am excited for her.
And thanks to Donna — who held me together like glue through the process:)
