Glen and Karen Bledsoe --> articles --> Submissions --> Do I need an agent?
Articles Index: Site Index: The three most frustrating words to new writers who
are researching submissions: "Agented submissions only."
Major publishing houses may want to see books submitted
by agents and no others. Agents, on the other hand,
prefer to deal with authors who already have a good
publishing record. How is the new writer to escape this
Catch-22? Fortunately, the answer to the question, "Do I need an
agent?" is "Not always." In the field of children's
literature, while agents are extremely useful, many
professional writers don't use agents at all. A lot
depends on what you write and what your goals are. What agents can do for you Agents can open doors that are otherwise closed to
you. Top-notch agents know editors at the major
publishing houses, know the product lines, and know
individual editors' preferences. If your work matches the
needs of one of these editors, the agent can submit your
work for you. Agent-submitted work is given greater
attention by editors because they know it has been
pre-screened. An agent may sell your work faster than you
can because the agent has a better idea of which editors
to approach with a particular manuscript. An agent also negotiates the sale, and can assure that
an author continues to profit from a work after the
initial sale is over. Agents deal not only with the sale
of initial rights to the first publication, but also to
reprints, foreign sales, translations, movie rights,
electronic rights, and many other rights to the work that
the author may not even be aware of. Some people complain about the 15% commission that
agents earn. If they only knew all the work that agents
do on their behalf, they'd wonder why the commission
isn't a lot higher! What agents cannot do for you Agents are very useful in many cases, but they are not
magicians. There are plenty of things that agents can't
do for you. Agents can't sell manuscripts that you've already
shopped around to every possible editor. If an editor has
seen it and rejected it, you can't expect an agent to
talk the same editor into buying it. Agents can't sell the unsellable. If your prose is
poor, if the plot is weak, if the topic is of interest to
practically no one, an agent can't sell it. In fact, a
good agent won't choose to represent any work that he or
she thinks can't be sold. Agents aren't editors. While agents may suggest
changes to the manuscript to help it become better and
more saleable, an agent's time is limited, so don't
expect a lot of service in this line. Your work should be
polished and gleaming before you submit it. Agents may
suggest finishing touches, but it's not their job to turn
poor prose into something worthwhile. If an agent that
you approach recommends a fee-based editor, be extremely
cautious: some disreputable agents get kick-backs from
equally disreputable "book doctors" in return for
recommendations. For more on this kind of scam, see our
article, How
not to get burned. Agents generally don't deal with magazine sales,
especially in the children's market where a story or
article may only pay $25 to $100. Fifteen percent of $100
won't buy your New York agent lunch. It's not worth the
agent's efforts. If you're writing for the magazine
market, you'll have to do all your submitting
yourself. If I want an agent, how do I get one? Finding an agent is similar to finding a publisher.
You have to research the agents that our out there, and
submit your work to those that will accept new clients.
Read their rules of submission and follow them to the
letter. Agents specializing in children's literature can
be found in the Children's Writer's Market, or in an
up-to-date market guide to agents. You can also meet
agents at writer's conferences and sometimes on writer's
bulletin boards (or at least you may meet writers who
have agents that they might introduce you to). Agents say
they get most of their new clients by referrals from
other writers or by meeting people at conferences, so
work on your networking skills. A good agent will never charge upfront "reading fees."
Agents make their money as a commission, usually between
10% and 20%, on the sale of the book and various rights.
They may charge incidental fees to cover postage and copy
costs, but never a fee for simply reading your
manuscript. You may come across fee-charging agents who
insist that their time is valuable, and the only way they
can make it in the competitive world of publishing is to
charge reading fees. Think about that for a moment: these
agents are telling you that they can't make a living by
selling book manuscripts to publishers. Is this an agent
you want working for you? Wouldn't you rather have an
agent who is good enough at his or her job to make a
living at it? For more about fee-charging agents, see our
article, How
not to get burned. The truth of the mater is, though, that it's easier
for a new writer to find a publisher than it is to find
an agent. For a while, you may have to sell your work
yourself. Should I post my work to those web sites where
agents can go look at it? No. Agents have slush piles as high and as wide as those
of publishing houses. Many already have as many clients
as they can handle. They have no need to cruise web sites
in search of new clients. The best agents in the
industry, when interviewed, almost always say that they
never use these websites. The agents you are most likely to meet on such
websites are 1) disreputable fee-charging agents or 2)
new, eager, but inexperienced agents who need clients.
Either one may do you more harm than good. Why? Read
on. When agents can hurt you Having a bad agent is worse than having no agent at
all. Editors already know who the bad agents are, and if
your name becomes associated with a bad agent, editors
may remember, and may take you far less seriously if you
approach them again later. What is a bad agent? First of all are the rip-off
artists that we discuss in another article (How
not to get burned). These agents take as much
money from you as they can talk you out of, and may or
may not submit your manuscript to publishers. Editors are
already well-acquainted with the scammers and don't
bother to even open the envelopes that they send -- if
indeed the scammers even bother to send your manuscript
out. Scam agents are a complete waste of time and
money. There are also agents who are sincere, eager, but
completely inexperienced. Unlike other professions, such
as doctors, laywers, and teachers, there is no agent
school that agents must attend before going into
business. Anyone who prints up a set of business cards
and submits manuscripts on another person's behalf can
call himself an agent. The problem is, if these
eager-beavers haven't worked for the publishing industry,
they don't know anyone. They don't know the editors
they're submitting to and the editors in turn don't know
them. Editors don't take novice, unknown agents any more
seriously than they take unagented authors, and the
agent's clients may be viewed as hopelessly naive. If you
want a good agent, find someone who had plenty of
experience in the publishing industry, preferably as an
editor, before becoming an agent. Finally, there are agents who do little more than you
could do for yourself. Like the eager-beavers, these are
often people who have little or no industry experience.
They may ask you to write your own query letter,
synopsis, and other sales material, then simply photocopy
it and send out a blanket submission to all the editors
on their list. Editors aren't amused by this practice,
nor do they take seriously an agent whose address is some
small town they've never heard of in some remote corner
of the U.S. An agent doesn't have to have a New York or
Hollywood address -- but it helps. All three of these agents become an even bigger
liability if by some chance they should happen to sell
your manuscript. Without industry experience, none of
them has sufficient knowledge to help you negotiate your
contract and deal with selling various rights. Becoming your own agent If you choose to sell your work yourself, you are
acting as your own agent. You must study the market well
and submit only to the publishing houses that publish
what you have to offer and that will accept submissions
or queries directly from authors (see our article,
"Researching
and choosing publishers.") While some major
houses only want agented submissions, there are still
lots of book markets open for unagented authors. Some
houses that won't accept manuscripts from anyone other
than an agent will accept queries from unagented authors,
so read their guidelines carefully. Once you've made your sale, study the contract well.
If there is a good deal of money involved, you may want
to contact an agent at that point and ask if he or she
will negotiate the sale for you, which some agents will
do on a case-by-case basis. This is where it helps to
have some author friends who can recommend an agent for
you. You can also consult a literary lawyer who can help
you understand the contract, or find a good book on
understanding book contracts. As noted above, one area that is still wide open to
the unagented author is the magazine market. While the
children's magazine market is shrinking, it is still an
open market for the unpublished and unagented, and there
is still a need for "little" pieces, such as fillers,
puzzles, crafts, and party ideas that can help a new
writer make those all-important first sales. They pay
very little, but they do help build a resume. Magazine
contracts are usually straightforward, though you may
want to negotiate if you want to keep some rights to your
work. Once you have a few sales under your belt and know the
names of good agents to approach, you can begin your
quest for representation if you so choose. Recommended books: 2006
Children's Writer's and Illustrator's
Market 2006
Guide to Literary
Agents Agents,
Editors and You: The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book
Published Making
the Perfect Pitch
Writer's Digest Books, 2005
The definitive market guide for children's writers. Includes
articles on writing, highlight articles on writers, editors,
and agents, and of course a complete listing of books,
magazines, and other markets.
Kathryn S. Brogan (Editor), Robert Lee Brewer (Editor),
Joanna Masterson (Editor)
If you are looking for an agent, here is a good place to
start.
Michelle Howry
Writer's Digest Books, 2002
An inside look at the publishing industry, and what roles
agents and editors play.
Katherine Sands
Kalmbach Publishing, 2004
If you're trying to sell your work directly to editors, this
little guide will help you with your sales
pitch.
Glen and Karen Bledsoe --> articles --> Submissions --> Do I need an agent?
