The author/agent ratio

How agents spend their working day is a bit confusing for many authors. There is the impression that we read all day long, when in fact the reading we do is on the weekends and evenings. What we do during the week involved managing submissions for new work and managing relationships between editors, and clients who have deals in place including contract negotiation.

The reality is that our days are busy, time sensitive, and based on priority. (For more on what we do see this post on agent skills and the typical day of an agent.) You are one client to an agent with many clients that have varying needs. In many authors’ minds the ratio is 1:1 and you are always on your agents’ agenda. In reality, we manage many clients and it’s unrealistic to assume that.

However, we’ll always be there when you need us (see priority above), we’ll always be there to manage issues and problems that come up, but our other clients might be having issues that need problem solving as well so we do a balancing act of all this, plus doing deals. 

Tags: agent skills, author agent relationship, manage expectations, project management

When material is requested, get it in the agent’s hands!

If/when your work is requested by an agent it’s in your best interest to get it to them ASAP.

If you take a long time to get your work to an agent (I’m talking 1 to 2 weeks) it says that:

a) You haven’t edited your work and you queried too soon

b) You haven’t finished your work and you’re finishing it now

c) You aren’t taking this process seriously and aren’t checking your query emails

Tags: queries, submissions, writing

Creativity is about thinking in more than one way

Perhaps the whole time you’ve been writing your manuscript you’ve thought this is the best way to write it (i.e. POV, tone, genre, character age, setting). It’s natural to plan for the outcome in the framework you’ve predetermined, however what happens when a little voice in your head (or a big voice namely your agent or editor) suggests that maybe the POV should be centered around another character, that the target market should be YA not adult, or that the setting should move counties or countries.

When you are trying to reason and ‘solve’ this issue you think so hard about what’s the best way to communicate the story you’ve set out to tell. The voice you are trying answer might have been there all along.

This is why books take so long to write. Just when you think you’ve finished a new angle might be introduced that would better suit the project. What would happen if THE PARIS WIFE had been told from Hemingway’s perspective?–Well I suppose it wouldn’t have been called THE PARIS WIFE and it certainly wouldn’t have been such an interesting book.

Tags: creativity, objectivity, writing process

Q: An agent says they’re looking for commercial fiction and they pass on my ms. What’s the deal?

Agents say they are open to certain genres, but we pass on the majority of content that comes in. So what are we really looking for? Honestly, we don’t know why we fail to connect with work. It could very well be the quality of writing as it often is, but sometimes it’s more elusive than that: we don’t love it. Here are some of the behind the scenes answers for why we fail to connect:

• You might have caught us at a bad time. We’re human. We’ll sign a contemporary YA one week, and pass on one the next week. We are driven by emotional connection and we might be missing that *feeling* that we’re looking for.
• Our interests are more complex than genre labels. We, like everyone, have interests that intersect in a variety of ways. I like everything from irish history, to light women’s fiction, to pop science, to commercial literary fiction, to gritty YA, to romantic YA, to whatever falls on my desk or ereader that moves me.

Tags: agent interests, fiction, non fiction

Writing a Memoir? The 5 key facts that you need to know for commercial success

WRITING THE MEMOIR: From Truth to Art by Judith Barrington

Everyone has a story to tell, but does that mean it’s a book? I get many queries for personal memoirs, but I am the most selective about memoirs because the puzzle pieces falling into place have to be so much tighter. This is because of the success of memoirs in the 2000s: the market was flooded with everything from mis-mem (misery memoirs) to business. Now health memoirs have reached saturation. Editors are still open to memoirs, but they have to have terrific writing and a personal story that will inspire, intrigue, and entice consumers to purchase.

So how do you know if your memoir is right for commercial publishing? These five factors:

• An interesting story to tell *that the mass market would want to know about*
• Excellent writing (or celebrity status)
• Actual plotting, pace and characters that readers can invest in and care about their outcome — I know it’s true, but it has to read like a novel.
• Stories of redemption, loss, love, unbelievable happenings, that tie into current events, the underdog, cultural/political conflicts, humour, sports–you’ll notice that family sagas aren’t on this list and it’s because family saga isn’t a sales point on its own, it has to be tied into another hook.
• Did I say

Tags: commercial non fiction, memoir, personal memoirs, writing the memoir

Competition. It’s tough. Are you prepared?

The competition to get published is greater than ever before.

Us in the trenches will let you know that the expectations are very high, editors are on the lookout for specific books, and querying with something good won’t cut it; you need to go on submission with things that are great.

Yes, agents can help you get your novel into tip top shape, but when we get your manuscript and start reading we don’t know if this is the best you’ve got or whether we can push you. Getting back in touch and suggesting revisions takes time, and we don’t have a lot of it. So never, ever, send out something that is ‘good’.

Tags: competition, publishing, query, writing

Agents and authors have more in common than you might think…

I know you writers think that agents have a pretty great gig. And we do! We do it because we love finding emerging writers and developing their career while sharing their work with the world. However, there are parts of our job that not all writers are aware of and I share some here:

• We get rejected too! We manage the careers for multiple clients and if you think getting passes from editors for your book is tough think about us: we love all our clients’ books and get passes for the majority of them until we find a home.
• If you think writing a query letter is difficult, we write pitch letters for all our clients’ projects. We do our research, tailor them to each editor, carefully proofread and re-read to make sure we nailed the hook, and send them out with nerves just like you do as writers.
• Like non fiction writers sending proposals to agents, agents write proposals for our clients to send to editors. Now it varies how much we assist in this process, but often I’ve written 85% of client proposals to get them up to industry standards. If you think all that research is tough, we do the exact same thing: overview, author bio, your market, a marketing plan, comparative titles, and sample material.

Tags: agent skills, agenting, clients, editing, marketing, publishing industry