So there has been some talk in cyber space about
the quality of certain agents/agencies out there. Some writers are completely
oblivious, some think those agents are scam artists. Truth is: most of the
agents you see out there helping writers, doing interviews on known blogs and participating
in contests, are honest, sincere agents.
BUT that doesn't necessarily mean you want them to be
your agent. (but please don't belittle someone who is a client of an agent you don't deam "worthy")
How do you know? How do I
know that Ray Lewis (This is a football player NOT an actual agent, non of the names in this post are real agents)
is a successful agent? How do I know he's not a complete scammer? Or a nice
person who doesn't know the first thing about agenting? (Because sorry guys,
but that last one? EXSISTS. Don't assume because you see someone around being
very nice, maybe even smart, means they know what they're doing. They might
not)
What bothers me, and this is the real reason I'm
writing this post, is that I haven't seen a lot of proof that writers do real,
in depth research on agents. I've read posts recently, even, that say things
like-
"How do
you find agents? Simple, agent query and query tracker!"
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stop. HAULT, even.
Technically, the line above isn't "wrong", you
can "find" agents using those sites but it's the implications that are bad here. Most writers will read that
and think, "Okay, I'll go on
agentqeury, find an agent that is listed as representing my genre, then
SEND." *Click*
Please, don't do that.
Here is the honest truth about query tracker and agent
query-- any person who calls themselves an agent, can be listed on query
tracker and agent query. They don't have to have EVER actually sold a novel
before. They don't have to have a degree. They don't have to have ever worked
in publishing before. Now, I'm sure these sites try not to list just anyone.
I'm sure they TRY to weed out some of the scammers. But they didn't create
those sites so that they judge whether an agent is good enough. There are other
sites for that. Sites that could save your lives (Okay, I admit, slight
exaggeration).
So, yes, you can use Agentquery and QueryTracker (And
other sites that list agents) to find agents to send to. But please, don't stop
there. That is only part of the process. You then have to research that agent.
Research.
That sounds hard right?
It takes a little time, sure. But even if you only do
one thing it will help you stay away from potential bad-agents. Here is my
little secret weapon.
AbsoluteWrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22
That beautiful link above will send you to the AW
forums. But not just any part of those forums, but the Bewares, Reccomendations
and Background Checks section. What does this mean, you ask? Well, this amazing
site has played host to thousands of writers asking basic questions about
agencies (and publishers) out there. There are over 200 pages of links (20 or
so to a page) to threads about agencies and publishing companies. The good is
listed with the bad, nearly every agency out there has a post at Absolute
Write.
First, here is a list of "Things to look out for" (outside of specific "Issues")
I know some writers don't know what constitutes a good
agent, so let's take a step back. Not all agents are members of the AAR (they have strict guidelines). And
some don't have huge issues that you'll find to be glaringly obvious. There are
some agents out there that simply don't have the proper experience to be an
agent. So how do you know?
1. An agent should have experience. In one of the examples I give below Pacman Jones is a
college professor who has never worked in publishing before. I wouldn't send to
this agent. Why? Because even IF he has a pretty good understanding of how
publishing works he 1. Probably doesn't have any contacts in the industry.
Editors at big houses will push him off to the side and read from agent he/she
trusts. 2. He won't know what those editors are looking for. How in the world
is a college professor supposed to know what is right for the market? What
publishing houses are buying? He won't. 3. He probably doesn't know how to
negotiate a contract. The LAST thing you want is someone who pushes you to sign
something that not only do YOU not understand but HE doesn't understand it
either. Contracts are SCARY things that you DO NOT want to mess with. You want
and agent who you can trust!
2. New agents are okay, as long as they are at an established
agency-. This goes with #1. If Pacman
jones is a brand new agent that went from teaching college to agenting BUT he's
working with Tim Tebow, who has been in the industry for 25 years and has a
GREAT reputation. NO WORRIES. Send it! Tim Tebow will teach Pacman Jones
everything he needs to know about (that sounds very odd lol) the publishing
world. He will know what editors to send to and because he has that name on his
side, even though he's new, editors will respect him. It's nice to want
SPECTACULAR agent who sells 7 figure deals every year, but there is nothing
wrong with a new agent (as long as they are at an established, successful agency).
Sometimes their enthusiasm will be better than being at the bottom of
SPECTACULAR agents pile of amazing clients (yes, it does happen often that clients
of agent with other clients who are super-stars will get forgotten)
3. An agent should SELL BOOKS. Please, this is very important. Sometimes there are
agents out there that look great in every way. They're SO NICE. They help
people, they talk about the industry. They're website is awesome. But they
haven't sold a book to a good publisher in 2 years. Ouch. Not good. This is one
reason why it's a very good idea to get a publishers Marketplace subscription
(it costs money) so you know if an agent is actively selling in your
genre.
4. Be aware of agents who only sell to publishers who
take unagented submissions. - There
are a lot of small press publishers that don't need an agent to submit to them.
If there is an agent who is selling a few books but they're all to publishers
who you could have sent to, without the agent, are they really helping you all
that much? Mind you, there is nothing wrong with an agent selling to small
press publishers, really, there isn't. (Most agents sell to Small, medium and
large publishing house. This is a good thing. And) yes, having an agent, even
with small presses can get you a better contract, sometimes an advance, and
might get the offer faster. But remember, you're still paying them 20%, so
sometimes, if the agent can ONLY get offers from the little guys, (and I mean
ONLY. If they sell books to both small, medium and larger publishing companies,
this warning doesn't even apply.) than you might have been better off going at
it alone. Another mind you, an agent who only sells to small press companies is
NOT a bad agent. Just go into it knowing that most likely, you won't be getting
a deal with Random House. You might not even see your book in stores with this
agent. Just know what you're getting into.
5. A new agency may take a little while to sell
something, that's OKAY. If an agent
has been working for an established agency for years, has sold many books to
good publishers, sometimes they will want to branch off and start their own
agency. Sometimes editors of publishing companies will decided to start their
own agency (chances are they will have enough knowledge and skills to be okay
even without agent specific experience). This happens a lot, and it's perfectly
fine. And it's okay to take into consideration that it takes a little while to
establish themselves and start making sales. Usually, it's safe to give a new
agency 6 months to a year, to start making decent sales. It will be a slow
start. If the agent is experienced enough, they will get up on their feet soon,
and it's okay to take a chance on them even from the beginning.
6. The agent who founds a new agency should have
significant experience as an agent AND SALES before starting the new agency. Sometimes, there are shiney New Agencies that look
fun, you might even know the agents from twitter and blogs etc. But if they
only worked at their first agency for 2 months, they probably don't have the
experience to run a whole agency by themselves. I'm a big fan of new agents,
but I'm a fan of new agents at good agencies (with people who have been through
it all to give advice if they need it) Let's face it, it takes a while to
really learn how to do any career. There are a lot of variables. And I'd be
willing to bet, that agenting is 10x worse than any normal career. It's not
something you can become a pro at in 6 months. Sure, you can be good in 6
months, but can you be successful and truly knowledgeable enough to run your
own company, without help, in just a few months? These kinds of agencies scare
me. Even with the agents running them are great people. My suggestion is to
keep them on your radar, pay attention, watch how they do things. Keep a look
out for good sales etc. and after a while they might be okay to approach, but
these aren't that much different from the college professor who decided to
become an agent except they look a lot better on the outside.
Be careful. But most of all be knowledgeable.
So you find Ray Lewis (remember, made up agent who
doesn't actually exsist) on twitter and you think, hmm I wonder if she's a good
agent (yes, I know Ray's not actually a she. Go with it) So you clickity click
click, go to the link above click "search" and type in her name (threads are named for the agency not individual agents)
and up pops an entire forum about her agency. You'll read, ""Agency blah
blah" is great! Ray is a member of AAR" and you read a few people raving about how she's
they're dream agent and she represented "Famous Author Jim Bean".
YES! Great agent to add to your list. (Note: you can also type in (Agent name)
or (Agency name) followed by
"Absolute Write" to
google and the link to the forum will usually come up)
Then you find
Pacman Jones (again football player not agent.) and learn he was a college
professor who started his own agency. He's never worked in publishing before
and he's never sold a book.-- This might be an agent you watch for a little
while and see if he does okay (if in a 6months to a year, he starts selling
some books to decent publishers maybe give him a shot. In this case, keep a
look out at Pre-ed.com for contractual issues. This agent might not know a good
contract from a bad one (Which is one reason why you might consider skipping
them in general, that's up to you.))
Then you look up Orlando Scandrick (also a football
player, not an agent.) and you search him on AW, and find—wait! He used to be
an okay agent but he's currently being sued by 3 of his clients for not paying
them the royalties he owes them. Oooh, maybe you keep him off your list.
Now, there are a lot of things that can be on these
forums. Some of them there have three posts that say, "Yep, good
agent." Then people talk about submitting to them and how long it took
etc. Others will have some small issues that are resolved a few pages in (make
sure you read far enough to know). Some will have big issues that are never
resolved. Truth is- shit happens. If you read about something small that
happened 6 years ago, well, look into it enough to learn if it's enough to stop
you from sending.
Sometimes, it'll be up to you. Things are changing in
the agenting world, some agents have side businesses that some think are
"conflicts of interest", you should decide if it bothers you. Some (good)
agents are helping their clients to self-publish, you should decide if that's
okay with you. People on AW will often question these practices--I'm a firm
believer that things SHOULD be questioned. Not harshly, just honestly "How
does this work?" "By doing this, aren’t you putting your authors at
risk?" Often agents will hop on and answer these questions sincerely. But
then there are some agents get very testy about it. "How dare you question
ME!!" (seriously it happens, I've seen it). Those are agents I'll often skip
over when making my query list. A lot of times it's the agents reaction to
those things, not the issues themselves, that make me not query an agent.
There are also other ways to research agents,
Pred-ed.com is one example. They list agents by name and say if they are
recommended, if they've been known to make sales (they should!) or if they are
agents that currently have issues (aka, you should stay away from). Most of the
time, if they have a problem listed on P&E that will be in the Absolute
Write forums.
Pictures are from Freedigitalphotos.net
And disclaimer- the names of the agents are no indication about how I feel about the players. In fact, in order (of the ones I used) my favorites would be- Pacman Jones (I'm a Bengals fan) Orlando Scandrick (My Hubby's a Dallas fan) Tim Tebow (no reason) and Ray Lewis (NOT a Ravens fan, which is why he's last ;-)
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