Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work (3 page)
Read Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work Online
Authors: Chuck Sambuchino
For every agent who is active on Twitter and has a blog that features the publishing process, there is another who keeps to herself and likes to fly under the radar. On this note, openness to submissions will vary from rep to rep. If an agent already has a full client list or has difficulty managing the size of her slush pile, she’ll close herself off to submissions. Some agents take queries only from referrals or from individuals they met at a writers conference. In other words, they are not open markets to most writers, and you’ll likely not be querying them. A rule of thumb to remember is that if an agent’s submission info is hard or impossible to find, that’s a clear sign that she’s not actively seeking submissions or accepting queries. So cross her off your list, and seek out other, more available reps.
Note that agents are simply different kinds of people. If you read interviews with them and scour message boards and look at their social media, you will see if they’re serious or if they love cracking jokes. Each agent has a different working style and personality, all of which can be discovered partially or completely online by reading interviews she’s done or blog posts she’s written, or by attending one of her conference presentations.
Lastly, know that some agents aim for only the top publishers. So let’s say that you sign with an agent and she sends your novel to her ideal twelve editors at her ideal twelve publishing houses. Then, one by one, they all reject your manuscript. What now? Your agent informs you that she’s sorry the book did not find a home and you should start writing your next one. She explains that she wants her clients to get published only by the best houses with the best editors and the best marketing departments and distribution plans. As agent Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary explains, “Publishers’ advances and contract terms vary substantially, and many agents simply don’t think the return on their time investment is worth going to the smaller publishers.” On the flip side, more and more agents are slowly becoming comfortable with selling their clients’ books to e-book publishers, where print copies don’t exist.
Will you be comfortable with either of these approaches? If you and your agent disagree, it may cause a rift—and your relationship will suffer. So research your agents up front (see
chapter three
). And if you receive an offer of representation, be sure to ask all kinds of questions that will illuminate how your (prospective) agent works.
Standard, traditional literary agents make a commission off money made from any sales related to selling your book—from royalties to an advance to other subsidiary rights. The industry standard for the agent’s cut is 15 percent or less; anything more is not currently supported by the Association of Authors’ Representatives.
Once you sell some rights that go beyond the standard “English-language book rights”—such as film rights, foreign-language rights, or audio rights—the agent commission becomes bigger: typically 20 percent. This is because such sales of subsidiary rights usually involve a collaborative process with co-agents in different locations, and the agents’ cut must be larger, as it is now being split. For example, if you sell the film rights to your book, the agents’ take of 20 percent is split between your book agent and your new book-to-film agent, with each earning 10 percent.
The only time you should ever be paying an agent out of your own pocket is for her expenses—and “recoupable expenses” (such as overnight mailings) should be spelled out in your writer-agent contract. Note how the agent is not
making
money off you here, but simply being
reimbursed
. As long as reimbursement costs are reasonable and rare, they are considered fair and standard. The good news is that because of e-mail, PDFs, and other electronic communication, a lot of these costs are being minimized.
BEFORE YOU PITCH
If you’re a typical hot-blooded writer, you’re anxious to send your work out and see what the world thinks of it. At one point or another, we’ve all looked at a draft for the twentieth time and thought,
If I read this thing one more time, I’m going to claw my eyeballs out
. It’s at that moment that the writer throws his hands up in the air and starts querying.
But what writers must remember is that submitting work is the last and final step of their submission journey. First you have to completely finish the work. Then you have to go back and start your second draft—revising, rewriting, overhauling, cutting, adding, and more. The heart writes the first draft, but the head writes the second—and that means critical editing, where darlings will be killed. You should rewrite the manuscript once or several times to improve it and sand off the rough edges.
When you need a break, step away from the project. After you complete the first draft, take at least three weeks, if not longer, and do something else—perhaps analyze some other books you enjoy. When you come back to the manuscript with fresh eyes, you’ll see all kinds of problems you didn’t notice before. You can attack the work again to make it better. Repeat this process of revision and “stepping away” until you feel like you’ve taken it as far as you can. Then it’s time to have your work critiqued by someone else.
When writing a nonfiction book (anything except memoir), you do not have to finish the book before you pitch. In fact, the completed book will not be read by agents even if you send it to them.
Your key submission tool is a
nonfiction book proposal
, which explains everything about your book idea—the concept, its place in the market, the proposed design, a marketing plan, and more. Instead of a whole book, you need only three to four sample chapters from the book as well as a completed table of contents that projects the information and images you plan to include.
But before you submit that proposal, make sure your self-marketing abilities—commonly called your “writer platform”—are excellent, so you can get publishers excited about your work. (For more information about nonfiction book proposals and platform, see chapters eleven and twelve in this book.) But I stress again: Do not write the entire front-to-back text. All you need to submit is the proposal and a few chapters. Any other material likely won’t be read, so keep that in mind before composing it up front.
When is your work really
ready
? By that, I mean: When is your manuscript edited and polished to the point where you can confidently submit it to agents? I used to think that this question had no answer and that each project was so vastly different that it would be misleading to address the subject. But I was wrong.
The best answer I can give on the subject is this:
If you think your book has a problem, it does—and any book with a problem is not ready
. When I edit full-length manuscripts and then meet with writers personally to discuss my thoughts, a strange thing happens. When I address a concern in the book, the writer nods before I even finish the sentence. What this means is that he already knew about the problem and suspected it was a weak point in the story. I have simply confirmed that which he already knew.
Here are some typical concerns I run into.
- “This part where your main character gets beat up—it doesn’t seem believable that so many kids just took off school like that.”
- “If the main character is so stealthy, then why does he get caught by the dim-witted bad guys here?”
- “The story starts too slow. We need more action.”
- “It’s much too convenient that the gun just happens to appear right when the main character needs it.”
In my experience, writers often know many of their issues before anyone even tells them. Which brings me back to my main point: If you think your work has a problem, then it more than likely does—and any manuscript with a problem is not ready for agent eyes. Every major problem needs to be fixed before you submit to agents. Otherwise you’re just submitting a subpar work that will get rejected, and you’ll lose a precious chance with those agents who say no. “Writers only get to query an agent one time with a manuscript,” says agent Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary. “There are no second chances unless an agent gives specific feedback and asks to see the revision.”
When you can pass the book to beta readers or freelance editors and they point out only small issues and nitpicks—rather than major flaws—then and only then are you ready to travel to Querytown.
“If you like a work [from another author], try and understand why you like it. What are the elements that make it successful? Explore it. Don’t just read. Think about it.”
—Lorin Rees (Rees Literary Agency)
Beta Readers
I can say with absolute confidence and certainty that your work will improve a little or even a lot if you simply ask for other writers’ opinions. You need the eyes of other writers on your book. These fellow writers are
beta readers
: the core group of writing peers—often found in a local writing group or critique group—who will help you whip your work into shape. If such a critique group exists in your area (and one or many almost certainly do), it would behoove you to join immediately if possible.
It works like this: Beta readers will read your work, and in return you will read theirs. It’s a win-win situation. First of all, you’ll receive a variety of perspectives on how to improve your writing. Second, you gain insight by editing others’ work. When you critique novels (or other nonfiction narratives such as memoir), you are forced to change gears from writer to editor and start seeing flaws and weak points in others’ work. Then you can use that newly acquired editorial eye on your
own
work to trim and improve the writing.
When seeking beta readers, your goal is to find people who are intelligent, trustworthy, and honest. (Finding beta readers more accomplished and smarter than you is never a bad thing.) Naturally you do not have to incorporate every change a reader suggests; some ideas may legitimately be poor. But when you notice multiple beta readers making the same suggestion independent of one another, that’s a key sign that you need to fix a problem before submitting to agents.
Usually writers who do not have access to an excellent cadre of beta readers turn to freelance editors for help. Employing a skilled freelance developmental book editor is a near-guaranteed way to improve your work and get helpful feedback. But you must proceed with caution. Here are six quick pieces of advice to consider when hiring a professional independent editor for your work.
- GET A TEST EDIT.
Hiring a freelance book doctor costs money, and you don’t want to plunk down a large chunk of change before you’ve seen the kind of services an editor will provide. With a test edit, you send a select number of pages to the editor and have him review them. This will show you the kinds of notes and ideas the editor would make to the overall work in terms of content editing and proofreading. If you like what you see from this trial edit, then you can move forward with the entire work. - LOOK FOR REFERRALS AND SUCCESS STORIES.
These days, everyone lists “freelance editor” on their qualifications. So when you’re seeking out a freelance editor, seek not only an impressive bio and qualifications, but also referrals and success stories. Talk to writing peers who have used editors, and find out if they liked what they received in the exchange. And, of course, nothing succeeds like success—so look at what projects the editor has worked on that (1) got published by a traditional publisher, (2) secured literary agent representation, or (3) had notable success after being self-published. - BE UP FRONT ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT FROM THE EDIT.
Know if you want an edit that’s heavy on copyediting and proofreading, or an edit that will specifically analyze the pacing or tempo of your writing. Know if you want the editor to take a closer look at a section that’s bothering you. If you’re seeking a nonfiction book proposal edit, for instance, it might be helpful to know that you want the editor to focus on the weakest section, say, on your marketing plan and platform. If you don’t give specific instruction, the editor will take a broad approach to the work. - BEWARE OF ANYONE WHO CHARGES WAY TOO LITTLE OR WAY TOO MUCH.
If someone charges you $12,000 for an edit, that’s way too much. If an editor offers to do everything and anything to your 120,000-word novel for just $150, that’s another red flag. Freelance editing costs depend on the book’s length—and usually fall within the range of $400 to $4,000. - ALWAYS SPEAK OF YOUR NOVEL IN TERMS OF BOTH WORD COUNT AND PAGES.
The font you choose and the margins you use can drastically affect page count, so always speak in terms of the novel’s completed word count (e.g., 88,000 words). And if you’re wondering, standard novel pages should be in 12-point Times New Roman font with standard 1" margins on all four sides.
Sure, you’ll seek out other readers to get varying opinions on your work, but don’t forget the value of your own critical eye. One of the main reasons writers get rejected is that their work is simply good but not amazing. Perhaps you have a tendency to say, “At this point, I think my book is decently solid. If there are flaws, certainly an agent is willing to work with me on them.”
No. That’s not what agents do.
An agent’s job is to sell your work and guide your career—neither of which includes editing. It’s
your
job to make your work as close to spotless as you can before submitting. Sure, some agents may suggest changes and get their hands dirty with red ink and editorial suggestions. But plenty won’t—and those that do help you will only provide minimal edits. So don’t fall into this trap and get denied because you’ve submitted work that just wasn’t ready.
“Don’t send your book out until you can’t think of any way to improve it.”
—Paul Lucas (Janklow & Nesbit Associates)