Why You Need an Agent

Blog | Getting an Agent (Why, When, If & How)
"

Read the post

By Sabine Berlin

The End. Two of the most satisfying words an author can write. Unfortunately, they are a big lie. You may be done with the daunting task of writing and editing—which really is a colossal step, so go ahead and give yourself permission to indulge in that piece of chocolate cake—and you may even have come up with a killer elevator pitch, but in truth, this is only the beginning.

Want to be traditionally published? You need an agent! Why? An agent does all the business stuff so that you can do what you want to: write!

An agent is your “Girl Friday.” Besides the fact that most sought-after publishers won’t review your manuscript without an agent repping you, maximizing your book’s sales and your income is pretty difficult without an agent—unless you have an extensive professional background in literary law, rights, and licensing; know everyone in New York; and have a decent wad of cash to hire pay-per-hour agencies to negotiate with foreign publishers or in sticky situations. But my guess is you’ll want your own personal agent for all of these mind-boggling and time-consuming tasks:

  • Edit: An agent can guide you through revision after revision (yes, this happens even after your book is perfect and you’ve found your agent) and make sure your book is a match for the publishers it will be sent to.
  • Find: Most agents personally know the editors (at publishers) to whom they are sending manuscripts. They know their likes and dislikes. They know what is selling (or not) and to whom. They can spot where trends seem to be going and guide you in which of your story ideas might be the most profitable at the moment. Plus they have the networking contacts to actually get your manuscript through a door and into the right hands.
  • Advise: Many literary agencies will have a person who specializes in literary contracts. Even most contracts lawyers are not well enough versed in literary contracts to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible—which can sometimes be the difference between profit in the thousands vs. millions—nor can they determine whether you’ll preserve future rights to your own work as technology redefines the industry.
  • Sell: A literary agency with experience and the right networks can profitably sell or protect your subsidiary rights: film, audio, foreign, book club, electronic, and every other right you can think of (and being able to skillfully negotiate these can create the difference between your becoming a full-time writer or slaving away at your 9 to 5 for years to come). If you get more than one contract offer, a skilled agent can even take your book to auction so publishers improve their offers in competition for your book.

Long story short, good agents* are worth their 15 percent.

Wooing an agent like that sounds daunting, doesn’t it? Don’t worry. We want to see your book out there almost as much as you do (after all, we’re always on the lookout for a good read), so check back in next week for the second part of this article where we’ll give you some great tips on finding your dream agent.

Do This Now

  1. Begin working on a query letter, which is what most agents request before they look at your actual book. (If the thought of writing one scares you to death, check this out.)
  2. Try to sum up your book in one sentence. You need this for when and if you pitch to an agent in person.
  3. Mark your calendar to come back next week and find out how to get that perfect agent for you.

*Make sure you are getting a good agent. Know that a real agent will never charge you money up front to represent you. They make a living from a percentage of your royalties only when they make you a deal. If you have fifteen minutes, check out this podcast with guest agent Sara Crowe as she explains even more about what having a good agent means. You can also check out this article about author scams and publishing companies to avoid from Reedsy. Also, the following sites are helpful in ensuring you won’t be prey to a shark: Writer Beware or Preditors & Editors. You’ll also want to make sure your agent is a member of the A.A.R. One last PS: If you are an LDS writer and hoping to publish in that niche market, you do not need an agent. In general, the publishers prefer to work directly with the author.

It’s your turn! What is the best thing your agent does for you? Got any helpful experiences or cautionary tales to share? We’d love to hear from you.

Awesome resources are at your fingertips.

8 Comments

  1. Debra Erfert

    I promised myself that I would never again submit to a publisher without the benefit of a good literary agent. Having to deal directly with contracts and editors had me teetering on the edge of sanity. I’ll be waiting anxiously for your next installment on “Why you need an Agent” since I’m in the process of querying a romantic mystery and not having much success.

    Reply
    • Angela

      Hi Debra. We’ll be getting that out soon. If the answers end up being more generalized and you need more help on the details of queries and that sort of thing, let us know and we’ll post accordingly!

      Reply
    • Sabine

      Querying is the hardest part (at least for me). Hope the tips help you! Best of luck in your search!

      Reply
  2. Tiffany

    Also looking forward to part 2. I haven’t gotten to the query letter yet, but scouring the internet, etc. for agents that *might* seem like they’d be into my work is overwhelming. Big sea, lots of fish.

    Reply
    • Sabine

      Hope part two works for you. Finding an agent is overwhelming! Congrats on having a book ready to query! You are already ahead of the curve.

      Reply
  3. Nicole Trionfo

    Um . . . I still hate querying. Even after agreeing with everything you said. Can you put some confetti banners up or something around your post so that I’ll maybe feel differently? 🙂

    Reply
    • Angela

      Well, if confetti was all we needed to stop the woes of thousands of query-hating writers, I would be all over it! I don’t know if part 2 of the article will help you, but we’ve also got a great article on writing that dang query, and coming up is an article on pitching to agents. I know, it’s all so non-threatening and fun…

      Reply
    • Sabine

      Sorry Nicole, but I can suggest chocolate when querying. That always makes things seem better :).

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Feeling overwhelmed or unsure about your book project?
Boost your confidence with our free author tools.
PHEW!
Boost your confidence with our free author tools.
Feeling overwhelmed or unsure about your book project?
PHEW!
https://eschlerediting.com/why-you-need-an-agent-part-1/
eschlerediting.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2022-05
403892
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:NDLPWRTKBZSLIALJJRD2JF4DRH4O3VOT
<urn:uuid:72a76969-aaf9-4f51-bf11-2ffc107cde59>
2022-01-18T07:24:50Z
144.202.52.29
text/html
sha1:TOZWE2IPQI5OOUBFSM67Z3XNARBKEHXJ
<urn:uuid:d6ec1015-475b-45b3-9cae-695e3aa02180>
https://eschlerediting.com/why-you-need-an-agent-part-1/
response
<urn:uuid:51694cf4-0012-4d01-9ea9-78fda9a4c39f>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-05
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2022
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-243
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.3-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/