It’s hugely exciting – and only too easy to forget that you are entering into a professional partnership where it’s worth asking a few questions of your own before you sign on the dotted line.

Commission: all agents will charge commission (it’s how they make their living) but it should be in line with industry standards – around 15%.  They will charge a little more on foreign deals and rights, but this is the standard.

What part of your work is being signed up with the agent? If you have written a novel but also write articles for your local paper, for example, then it’s important to make it clear that you don’t require help for those articles. In general, future writing would be covered by your agreement.

Does your work need editing before submission? You’ll want to give an honest reply on this.  Most work could do with a bit of a polish and your agent should know what needs improving.

What time table is your agent working to? How long before they envisage getting responses? Where do they see your work selling? How often do you need meetings or contact with them? For all these areas, make sure your expectations and theirs tally.

And most of all, enjoy! This should be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Best wishes,
Cressida
(editorial consultant)

Bookmark this content:

Hotshot literary agent: “If you don’t get my name right, make spelling mistakes and fail to follow the submission guidelines on my website, I won’t look at your work. I’m not interested. You’re wasting my time.”

Brilliant new writer: “Agents are totally stuck-up. They’re fixated on rules and don’t know what they’re talking about. When they don’t bother to look at [my] work, they’re missing out on an undiscovered work of genius.”

The thing is, it’s a competitive business and so you rarely see literary agents who cut authors some slack, who just kick back and say, you know what, I’m not that bothered if you make a mistake. That’s why a recent post from Jessica, a literary agent at Bookends LLC, seems so amazing. It’s exactly what you DON’T expect to see from someone in the publishing industry and actually it rather lifted my day.

Says Jessica: “It doesn’t really bother me when people say ‘fiction novel’ in queries. Sure, I know it’s wrong, but I think it’s because I see it so often that, frankly, it really just doesn’t bother me that much.”

It might be that everyone makes mistakes and some of them are not deal-breakers. Some things just don’t matter that much. I’m not especially fussed when people get my name wrong. Clare/Claire – it’s not going to ruin my day.

Anyway, it got me thinking – everyone must have things they know they get wrong, but just can’t seem to help.

And are there certain things which you think should bother you, but you just can’t seem to get worked up about?

Best wishes,

Claire
(Publisher)

You can follow Claire Fogg on Twitter »

Bookmark this content:

After you have rewritten – how do you send your work out again? And indeed should you?

Well it depends a bit on what sort of rejection you got the first time. If you had a note that said something like ‘terrific, but there are too many wolves in it’ and you’ve rewritten it with fewer wolves, then definitely send it back to that agent. Mention how helpful you found their advice in your covering letter, and thank them (in advance) for looking at your work again.

If you had a standard rejection letter, just resubmit as if it were a new submission. (I am assuming the rewrite took some time – I would allow a minimum of three months between submissions, or you may get noticed – and not in a good way.)

Of course, if the rejection says the agent does not represent fiction, and you’ve written a novel, don’t resend it. Check with the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook to make sure you are fulfilling the agent’s criteria.

Good luck with your new submission!

Cressida
(Editorial Consultant)

Cressida Downing will be joining Jo Herbert, Editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, to co-host Submitting Your Manuscript – a new two-part evening masterclass for writers, focusing on the all-important covering letter and synopsis. Places are strictly limited and early booking is recommended. Read the course outline here »

Bookmark this content:

Quite often you’ll hear a literary agent saying they are swamped by manuscripts or drowning under their slush pile, but it’s not often they attempt to put a number on what they actually look through.

Are they really drowning, or just dipping their toe into the pool?

For this agent, Kate Epstein, the founder and president of the Epstein Literary Agency, it came in at 1,000 manuscripts in a four-month period, which is 250 a month, or about 8 a day. And this was just for her YA submissions.

That’s quite a lot, especially when you factor in the many other things that an agent spends their time doing, from building relationships with publishers, to tracking trends in publishing, negotiating rights, getting to grips with contracts, checking payments and, yes, blogging and even Tweeting – these all eat up valuable time.

The following are Kate’s exact words from the Galley Cat interview: “in almost four months I’ve probably reviewed more than 1,000 submissions and made two offers of representation”.

So if you’ve ever wondered what your odds were on getting an agent, they are perhaps 2 in 1,000 or roughly 500:1 against. But don’t be disheartened. This needn’t be as downbeat as it might sound. The advice we give here on this website, in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and at our events for writers is all aimed at helping you to shorten those odds.

And for every simple improvement you make to your submission and your submission strategy (I say this, as there’s the bigger picture to consider here, such as pinpointing agents who are a good match for your manuscript), you are improving your chances of gaining representation.

Keep at it and you could be transforming your lot from rank outsider to odds-on favourite.

Good luck!
Claire
(Publisher)

Follow Claire Fogg on Twitter »

Literary agent Kate Epstein Tweets advice and commentary for writers as EpsteinLiterary

Bookmark this content:

This is what he’s testing:

“…whether or not queries adequately reflect an underlying work’s quality. Can someone really make an assessment of a book project based on a query?”

Check it out over on his blog.

And if you want to get your query over to him, be speedy – it’s open for just a day – but you can follow the progress of his ’sort-of scientific experiment’ all week.

You’ll find his Twitter updates here.

Best wishes,
Claire
(Publisher)

Bookmark this content:

• “Reading books with covers is a luxury to be savoured” (KatApel)
  
• “Getting early rave reviews from your students for one of your clients’ books” (SMozer)
• “Sometimes having too much on my plate to participate in fun Twitter conversations.” (Chris Richman)
• “Always feeling like I’m not doing enough, letting someone down, or not reading fast enough.” (thatwemightfly)
• “Juggling, all day, everyday. Knowing that there are plenty of folks just dying to critique your juggling technique” (bradfordlit)
  

The above are all Tweets on the subject ‘what it means to be an agent’ – a thread which was started today by Jason Allen Ashlock, an agent at Movable Type Literary Group.

You can follow the thread here on Twitter, and it has been reported on the Galley Cat blog.

What do you think of the Tweets? Do you think agents have their work cut out for them simply keeping on top of the submissions pile, or do you think they are rude and barely do your manuscripts justice? Would you swap your lot as a writer for that of an agent?

Claire
(Publisher)

Bookmark this content:

Once I get through the hyperbole and overblown salesmanship of most covering letters, it is all about my relationship to the prose.

In the case of fiction (which it usually is) I am looking for a voice. Simple as that.

I am not so concerned about plot or setting to begin with – I just want to feel that I am setting off on a journey with a writer who just for one moment or two can grab me, make me forget I am reading a book and who might just might change my perception of the world around me.

A great writer can accomplish all that and more in a paragraph. Think of the opening of Catcher in the Rye or Great Expectations and you are totally drawn in as a reader. If a writer’s prose is bland, derivative or just plain clumsy, then I won’t read beyond the first page. If I get beyond that then I want narrative. Big time.

In a world where we are bombarded with micro-messages, greatest hits and tweet-sized chunks, I am convinced that all we yearn for is to be taken back to those bedtimes when we were nicely tucked up and having a wonderful story being read to us. ‘In the beginning there was a Princess who lived in a castle in the middle of an enchanted forest…’.

So basically if you want me to keep reading your work (and maybe even take it on) I want the simple conditions to be met:

1. spell my name right
2. check my website and see that I actually am looking for your kind of writing
3. write me a letter that makes you sound great but not so arrogant that working with you will be a nightmare
4. be the creator of sparkling life-changing prose, and
5. take me on a wonderful journey somewhere with your narrative.

Get it? Got it? Good. Now back to the enchanted wood and the Princess…

Yours,
Grumpy Old Agent*

*Grumpy Old Agent is Simon Trewin, a literary agent at United Agents. He tweets as simontrewin.

Bookmark this content:

Let’s start with the science bit – every day by email, post, carrier pigeon and osmosis I receive 10 unsolicited approaches from unrepresented writers out in the big wide literary firmament.

These come from all genres. There’s fiction (from coming-of-age to fin-de-siècle), non-fiction (from ‘My 38 Years As a Bank Manager’ to ‘Mucus – the bodily secretion that changed the world’), poetry (from love poetry to stalker poetry), cookery books and academic texts to verse drama – usually about earwigs taking over the world for some reason.

On one level I sit there excited about the wealth of creativity and on another I sit there silently screaming and wondering where the STOP button is!

The truth is that there are more writers than readers and almost all of this material will never be published in the conventional manner. But like a theatre critic sitting there as the lights go down night after night, one is always hoping that, as an agent, this is going to be your J. K. Rowling Moment. If only it were something that happened so much more often…

As one of the quality filters in the system, I am often asked how I sort the wheat from the chaff and the good from the evil.

The answer is that it really isn’t rocket science and that you, dear reader, could soon pick it up.

I start by reading the covering letter – if someone misspells my name that is never a good start and if they tell me that they have tried every agent in town and are now trying me, then that can, on a bad day, be a deal breaker. And if someone tells me they have analysed the bestseller list and created the ‘perfect bestseller’ in lab conditions, then I will most certainly run down the street screaming.

Funnily enough, screaming is not conducive to my taking on a new client.

Yours,
Grumpy Old Agent*

*Grumpy Old Agent is Simon Trewin, a literary agent at United Agents. He tweets as simontrewin.

Bookmark this content:

This story of violence on a council estate is narrated by a 12-year-old boy, and in an interview on Radio 4 yesterday, Kelman said he felt this was such an interesting age, on the cusp of adulthood, but with the naivety of childhood still.

Publishers do look for something outside of the ordinary, and this has obviously captured their imaginations. I look forward to reading it when it comes out.

In the meantime, good luck to the rest of you!

Cressida Downing
(editorial consultant)

Bookmark this content:

The short answers are ‘lots’ and ‘yes’. Read on!

An agent sends your manuscript out to see who would like to bid on it for publication. They’re effective because they have more knowledge of the editors and publishers than most. An agent knows who is on the look out for the next big historical novel, whose lists are full, who is looking for a new crime writer, and can target their submissions accordingly.

It’s a two-way street, as publishers will know what genres the agents are likely to be submitting, which ones specialise in crime, which ones are more literary etc.

Once an agent has matched your work to the right publisher (which doesn’t always mean going for the biggest advance, sometimes a publicity commitment is worth more than upfront cash), they are the professional whose job it is to negotiate the best contract for you. Unless you’re confident about tackling aspects such as high volume discounts, territorial rights, and the tricky area of electronic rights, these are all best left to someone who fully understands them.

A good literary agent will be the buffer between the publisher and yourself, negotiating, say, an extended deadline, better dates for a book tour, or fighting for improved deals as needed.

A strong agent/author relationship can be incredibly beneficial for a writer as it means having someone who’s always ‘on your side’, who is enthusiastic about your writing, and whose desire for the best deal is for both your benefits.

Cressida

(editorial consultant)

Bookmark this content: