Talk about literary agents — good agents, bad agents — is making it’s annual rounds on twitter, and I’m not big on making long threads, so here we are.

If you’re interested in this topic, I did a post a couple years back about what your agent does for you. It’s not updated, but it holds up pretty well. You can find that here.

This is an emotional topic for most people, so please take this for what it is: One man’s opinion. It’s fine if you disagree. Hopefully at least some part of it is useful.

Let’s start with this: No agent is perfect. That’s okay. No client is perfect, either. Except you, I mean. Of course you’re perfect. But those other authors? Don’t get me started. If you are looking for an agent who nobody has ever said anything bad about, you’re going to be searching for a long time.

And that works the other way, too. All those glowing reviews from current clients? No agent is as perfect as their happy clients say they are. They’re human. They have good moments and they have bad, and that’s just fine. And almost every agent has a good relationship with some of their clients. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have clients.

And that’s the key point to all of this. An agent-client relationship is exactly that: A relationship. Some relationships work, some don’t. And as is the case when a relationship doesn’t work, there’s usually some measure of responsibility on both sides. When you hear an author’s side of that story, try to remember that it’s one side. You won’t hear the agent’s side of it, because they’re professionally not able to share it. I’m not suggesting that you don’t listen to authors who have bad things to say about agents — you should. But like with anything, understand the source.

Are there bad agents? Yes. Are there bad clients? Also yes. But in the vast majority of not great experiences, I think you’ll find that there are two decent people who don’t work well together.

So how do you navigate this world where you have imperfect information? Here are some steps that I recommend.

1. Know what you want in an agent. This is harder than it sounds. If your concept of this is ‘I want a great agent with great sales’ and that’s all you know, then you’re entering the process from a point of ignorance. If you don’t know your own style, it’s hard to decide if an agent fits your style or not.

Consider this: an ex-client says an agent is bad because they could never get them on the phone (this is a bit far-fetched, but I’m making a point). For that client, that’s a problem. For me? My agent and I regularly decide that we don’t need a call, and hey, let’s just email. And we’re both really happy with that. So for me? No call, no problem. And the fact that my agent is willing to adjust to how I like to communicate? Bonus.

Some things to know about yourself as you go into the agent search:

Do you want an editorial agent or one who is going to take your work and send it to editors as is?

How do you like to communicate? Do you like the phone? Text? Email? Whatever other crazy things you kids are doing? And how important is this to you?

How needy are you? This is a hard one, but try to be honest with yourself. Are you someone who needs a lot of emotional support from an agent, or are you looking for a straight business relationship? (I’d suggest that you find your support networks outside of your agent, but there are agents who are better and worse at different aspects of this, and clients who have different expectations than mine).

How responsive do you expect your agent to be?

What thing is really going to bother you? I don’t care how small it is, because we all have things, rational or not, that drive us up a wall. Knowing yours helps you avoid an agent that does that thing, whatever it is.

Do you want an agent that’s really active on social media?

Do you write in one genre or many? One age category or multiple?

Is it important to you that the agent have experience dealing with a particular kind of client (be that a race, orientation, or anything else that is important to you).

Do you want an agent who is very vocal about their opinions on social issues?

Are you really aggressive and pushy, or are you more willing to sit back and take things as they come?

Let me be clear that there are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. My point is this: knowing what you want is the only way to find a relationship that fits for you. Will you know all of these things about an agent before you sign? Maybe not. But knowing yourself at least helps you look for the right things.

2. Know your goals and how an agent helps you reach them (or doesn’t)

This one is also about you. Are you seeing a trend here? If you know your own goals, you’ll better know if an agent can help you reach them.

Again, be honest: What are your goals? Do you want to be published with the Big 5, or are you going to be happy as long as your book is print, regardless of where?

Here’s how I approached that when I queried PLANETSIDE: I didn’t really think it was a Big 5 book (I was incorrect, as it turns out). But I wanted to know that I took my best shot at it. I wanted to make sure that my book got in front of those editors and I got a chance.

Just one example. You have your own goals. Think about them, and know what they are.

So what can an agent do to help you reach those goals? The easy, visible one, is to look and see if they have sales to those presses. Pretty basic. But not all inclusive, because newer agents might not have a huge sales history. What you really want to know is can the agent get your book in front of the editors that you want to see it.

Do they have the skills to negotiate a contract, protect your rights, and get you as much as they can? Looking at deal sizes is not necessarily a good measure of this. A lot of times, the size of a deal is out of the agent’s hands. We got offered a $7500 advance for PLANETSIDE, and there was no competing offer, so we didn’t have much leverage. No agent on earth is turning that into a six figure deal. But I’ve already talked about what my agent *did* get me in that post I linked above about what an agent does for you.

Are you really interested in getting published in other countries? Does that agency have a foreign rights department? Want to be on audio? Look at the agents clients…do they have audio deals for their books? Whatever your goals, look at whether the agent can help you get there or not.

3. What information do you want to know?

Different agents have different policies about sharing information with their clients. What am I talking about?

Some agents share their exact submission list with the author, some don’t. You might wonder why some don’t. The argument I’ve heard is that they don’t share it so that the author doesn’t stalk the editors or do something they shouldn’t. For me, that would fall into the category above of ‘things that really bother me.’ Because to me, that’s an agent treating me like a child. (With that said, part of knowing yourself is knowing if you’re the kind of person who would do this, and if you are, making sure your agent *doesn’t* share that information. But I feel pretty strongly that that choice should be yours, not the agent’s).

Some agents share individual editor rejections with the author, some don’t. Same reasons as above. (Again — maybe this doesn’t matter to you, because maybe you don’t even want this).

Some agents let you see (or, in my case, approve) the query letter that goes out to editors with your book. Some don’t.

There are probably more things that go in this category, but I can’t think of them right now. You probably can sense that I’m of the opinion that the author should get to know everything. As it turns out, the agency that reps me also believes that, which makes it a good fit. But the important thing, as always, is to know if this matters to you or not.

4. When you get a chance to ask questions about an agent, be specific.

This will happen at two points in the process. First, when you’re building your list, and second, when you’ve got an offer and you’re deciding whether or not to sign with a particular agent. I’ll address them separately.

When you’re building your query list:

At this point, you’ve only got access to limited information, and you’re mostly looking for agents to rule out, not agents to rule in. But you’re still going to hear things. But most of those things are going to be general information. That doesn’t mean there’s not truth behind those things, but it only goes so far.

For example, say you hear that ex-client B of agent C says that agent C is horrible. That’s not bad info, but it’s not particularly useful unless you know why B is saying it. MOST agents have ex-clients. They’re pretty much all ex-clients for a reason. That reason may or may not be something that matters to you. (That’s why you need to know what’s important to you).

Another example: Agent D is problematic. That’s scary when you hear that one. But it’s also not too useful without the why. Is it, problematic because they had a questionable tweet, or problematic because there are photos of them at a nazis-R-us rally? Probably somewhere in the middle. So what do you do with that? Depends. You don’t ignore it, that’s for sure. How much does that thing matter to you? How many people are saying it? Is it a single instance, or a trend? Here’s what I would suggest — don’t over think it. If it bothers you, move on to another agent. If you’re not sure, make a note and deal with it in more depth if you get an offer.

Which leads me to the second portion: Once you get an offer. This is where it gets more important, because now you have a decision to make that will affect your career and your life.

At this point, you gain access to a lot more information. First, you’re going to talk to the agent on the phone. That’s your chance to ask questions. Remember all of those things we decided we needed to know about ourselves up above? Now you get to ask the agent about them. Although mostly you won’t have to. Agents have done this before, and they are going to tell you most of that stuff about themselves without you having to ask. But have your questions ready for whatever they don’t cover.

Do remember this: When an agent is making an offer, they are in sales mode. They’re going to tell you why you want to sign with them, and they’re going to accentuate the positive. Because of course they are. So if there’s something negative on your mind that you want them to address, you’ll probably have to bring it up. Which is hard. After all, you’re nervous, and you’re excited, and you don’t want to blow it. But you’re better off figuring it out earlier rather than later.

Agent Jim McCarthy made a great post about what to ask agents before you sign. You can read that here.

Second, you’re going to want to talk to clients. The agent should offer that during your call, but if they don’t, be prepared to ask them to put you in contact with a couple clients. I usually recommend one client for whom they’ve sold a book and one for whom they haven’t, but that’s a matter of preference. If an agent won’t let you contact clients, that’s a pretty significant red flag for me. I guess an agent may say that they don’t want to bother their clients…but of all the authors I know, a large percentage are happy to do this kind of thing, so the worst case is that the agent is hiding something, but the best case is that the agent probably doesn’t understand their authors. I’m not saying it should be an auto-no for you if the agent doesn’t help you contact clients. But I am saying that that reticence should make you want to talk to clients even more.

So how do you do that if the agent doesn’t help? Ask authors. Ask authors you are friendly with if they know anybody repped by that agent. Find a list of the agent’s clients and reach out to them directly (a lot of authors have contact pages on their websites). In all instances when doing this, be polite. After all, you’re asking for a favor. Respect if the author says no.

Once you are in contact with the author, ask specific questions to answer the things that matter to you. If you ask if their agent is good, most of them will say yes. If you ask specifics, most of them will answer the question that you ask. So ask about communication style. Ask about responsiveness. Ask about how they edit, if they respect your voice, how much information they share. Craft your questions to get the answers that help you figure out whether the agent is a fit for you or not.

5. Recognize that relationships are two way streets.

With everything I mentioned above, you may have come to the conclusion that not every agent is going to tick off every single box that you’ve got. At that point, you’ve got to figure out where you’re willing to give and where you’re not. What are your dealbreakers, and what are your nice to haves?

And then there’s this: just because the agent is a certain way with a certain client, that doesn’t mean they’ll be that way with you. Agents work for you. A lot of them are willing to adjust to what you need…if they know what that is. Get used to working on your relationship. Get used to telling your agent what you need. I’ll give you an example from my own life:

I need to know what’s happening with my manuscript. When I send it to my agent, I know that she has other clients, so I don’t expect it back with notes this week. What I do have to know is when to expect it. If not, it just gets in my head that maybe it sucks, and why isn’t it back, and oh my God she hates it and she hates me and I suck as a writer and, and, and…So my agent gives me a date when she’s going to get it back to me, and then I’m fine and I don’t think about it. If it’s going to be six weeks, that’s cool. If I know that, I can work on something else. One time she missed that date, but she sent me a note a week out explaining why, and that it would be an extra week, and that was also fine. These things happen. I just need to know.

Somebody else might read this and think “Holy crap! Six weeks? That’s unacceptable!”

And if that’s your reaction, that’s fine. For me? I absolutely don’t care. Doesn’t matter. I’ve got more books to write, and I probably need a break from that one anyway, and, oh, by the way, I already planned for my agent to have my book for a time and I’ve scheduled other things into that block (This year, I turned my book into my agent the day that we first received Pitch Wars subs. It wouldn’t matter if she took 2 days or 2 months at that point…I wasn’t going to work on the book). (BTW, my editor also does this same thing with me — he tells me when to expect edits. I really appreciate it).

I should mention here that I didn’t know this about myself — or I hadn’t thought it through — before I signed with my agent. It’s something we figured out together by talking about it after I signed.

For that to work, we had to communicate. If I hadn’t told my agent what I needed — a pretty simple thing, really — she wouldn’t have known and I’d have sat there getting worked up for no reason. Whose fault would that be? Probably a little bit on both of us, but mostly on me. Now if I told her what I needed and she didn’t do it? Then maybe it’s a little on me for having that need, but mostly it’s on her. Once she knows what I need, it’s incumbent on her to communicate if she can’t meet it.

6. Have realistic expectations.

Not defending agents here — there are some who do a poor job. But it helps to have realistic expectations. You’re not always going to be the first priority of your agent. That would be impossible. They have other clients, after all, and sometimes those clients need to be first. If you send in your draft for a book that you are hoping to go on sub with and three other clients also send books in the same week, and two of them are on deadline to publishers, you’re probably not going to be first. Your agent might not tell you that because they don’t want you to think you’re somehow lesser (You’re not — I personally would appreciate knowing).

Your agent can’t make the submission process go faster. It’s slow. They hate it as much as you do.

Sometimes books don’t sell. That’s not on the agent. (Though what happens if you don’t sell is a great question to ask before you sign).

Debut contracts aren’t usually very big. Sorry if that’s the first time you’re hearing that. Those big deals that you see for debuts? Those are the 1%. And I’m talking the 1% of books that sell, which are already the 1% of books that get written in the first place. If you get a million dollar contract, I suggest you ignore everything I’ve said in this post, as we live in different worlds.

Your agent might have a day job that isn’t agenting. This just in…that small debut contract? Your agent gets 15% of that. That means up front, for my initial two book deal for $7500 a book, when the first half came in on signing (Half of each book, so $7500 total) my agent received $1125. That’s not a lot. That’s all she made for working for me from when I signed in March of 2016 through the beginning of 2018. In 2019, I made $15,000, so she made 15% of that. In 2020, I made a little over 60K. So you can see how long these things take.

At this point, I feel like I’m rambling. I have a lot more to say, but I’m not doing it effectively. This post is not all inclusive, and some of these things are debatable. Hang in there. You’ll figure it out.

Tags: Debut, Debut Authors, Debut Science Fiction