UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Author Zone - Readers Welcome!
>
Agents?
date
newest »
newest »
I know a manuscript reader for one of the top ten publishers. Should I give up I.t. and become an agent?
No. You should become a SAP consultant.
Patti (Stir Crazy) wrote: "I just read this interesting blog post from Lexi.http://networkedblogs.com/xUeYA
So what do the rest of you authors reckon?"
I loved the blog and the comments re the 15% & the lost sheep. :-o)
Not so long ago I was offered a publishing contract for my novel. I read the contract and realised I needed some help, so I contact nine agents in Australia and five in the UK, and of those who replied, (not all did) none of them wanted to know. I thought they’d bite my hand off, considering that all the ‘selling’ was finished. Ended up sending my own thoughts on the contract back to the publisher – he’s gone very quiet. :-o)
I think agents are in a very tricky position now. More work, fewer deals.
My agent hasn't done anything for me. All my success is down to my hard work not his. :-)
M wrote: "My agent hasn't done anything for me. All my success is down to my hard work not his. :-)"Sounds like agent is the job for me..... does your agent get to buy you dinner ....
You could buy me dinner any day of the week, Simon! lol
Simon is an excellent dinner buyer, Mel.
http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk...I set down my experience of signing contracts with various literary agents over a 10 year period in that post there.
Later, when I found people commenting that it was "very very scary" reading, I scratched my head, thought about it, and had to agree.
But when living through it you just have to consider it "normal".
John it is both scary... and normal.
People tell you you'rter talented, that they love your work, but there's usually a 'but'.
It's very wearing, very demoralising.
Hi Linda,Well...it took me 21 years to get offered a contract with a London literary agent (my first agent had been based in Edinburgh). When I did get the phone call from London in 2010, it turned out 2 agents at that agency in West London had wanted to represent the book. The agent considered my book a "certainty to sell" he said. Then he showed the book to the film consultant who had discovered Slumdog Millionaire as an unpublished manuscript, and she told us she thought my book was the best she had read in the last 4 years. Last year, around April things reached a kind of "peak", with the film consultant calling me on the phone for (I counted) a total of 13 hours over a few weeks, discussing the story of the novel etc and what we would do with it...one call lasted 4 hours. It seemed inconceivable (to me) that all this faith and activity could be directed at my novel (which was my 5th novel and the result of 21 years solid work) unless it was actually going to amount to something...
And then...it all amounted to nothing by the end of last year!
So on Christmas Day last I uploaded it to Kindle, then I came here and things got a lot better fast, I found readers, which I am very grateful for.
Oh John. Thomas Ford would make such a great film. Is that the book you're talking about?As a reader, I'm grateful I found your book!
Thanks Patti! I'm grateful you found it too. Yes, it's The Survival of Thomas Ford I had all that interest in...my 5th novel...
The film interest is still there, my agent asked me to write a new synopsis of the book for film producers a few weeks ago...but I've also been working on my next ebook to put out quite soon, a 225 page collection of 9 stories, called STORM DAMAGE...and on my 6th novel (which will go to the agent to be sent round London publishers for a while again I think)...
So I'm sort of working in both worlds now, with the agent and for myself with epub...and the good side of this is that after I put out STORM DAMAGE very soon...I then have 4 other novels just about ready to put out exclusively for Kindle...
So I really should stop telling the "sad agent stories" soon, because Kindle and the readers here like you, have changed the picture completely!
But, I suppose it's only last year all that excitement happened, then when it came to nothing it was a bit of a blow, so I'm probably still working it out of my system.
Oh how familiar a tale that is, John! Which is why I also opted for self publishing (having already selfpublished a series of crossword books). I'd had a series of big name agents over the years, a few 'close shaves' but no deal. I even had Pan Macmillan keen on one of my children's story (illustrated) which I'd sent direct to them - they asked me to write a second one as a matching pair for a new series they were doing. They said they liked it. And then, ultimately, all went quiet. The editor had left, and they went with a few big name children's writers instead. Hey ho.I actually enjoy self publishing, even though I don't have the marketing skills of the big publishing houses, though, as a mid-list author, I know they wouldn't have lavished their marketing attention on me anyway.
I got an agent for my first novel from my first approach letter. I was about 23 and I assumed it really was that easy and that I was that good.The agent - based at the Sheil Land Agency - was unable to sell the book. Transworld then took an interest in my second (I kept all the letters we exchanged and still look at them sometimes to remind me how close I came) but it came to nothing.
I am now 35 and far more humble but just as ambitious.
Oh boy. After many years of trying to get an agent, I struck gold 10 years ago with a fairly big agency in London. I was invited down for meetings, was invited to a writer's party, and thought this was it. I was even offered a weekend in Wales with a dedicated reader to iron through any problems in the mss.A year later, my agent left the agency under a cloud and that was that. Lucky I didn't order the Jag.
Slightly off-topic. I also write television scripts; my co-writer and I were offered a contract at YTV for our crime drama. We were wined and dined, again invited to parties as though we were with the 'in crowd', and then ITV shut the drama department down. Boo hoo.
But then a ray of light. The ex-Head of Drama at YTV had connections with a production company who were delighted by the scripts and offered us a contract. A year later, the BBC were about to sign on the dotted line when for some unknown reason, they pulled out. Same with Sky, same with Channel 4.
Our contract with the production company (now three years old) ends this month, so I'm busy mailing it out again.
Don't know why I feel so disheartened really, at least we have lots of reality TV to fall back on.
I'm glad I put DISW and DIFM on Kindle, and will put out a couple more, but I'm still hoping my agent can place my latest couple of books because that way I get the best of both worlds.The story is the same for a lot of poeple, it seems to me; near misses, rave rejecttions and twists of fate.
If it weren't for Kindle I would be very despondent by now, partly because oif the time this takes.
http://networkedblogs.com/xUeYA
So what do the rest of you authors reckon?