What literary agents do

Literary agents fulfill a crucial function in the publishing process. Here are the ins-and-outs on what literary agents do.

For context, I was a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. for eight years and I also had to find a literary agent for my own books as the author of a trilogy that was published by Penguin.

Behold! This is organized in the form of tracking one project from query to post-sale.

Also, you can check out my online classes on navigating the publishing process and working with literary agents, and/or read my guide to publishing a book!

The literary agent filter

Literary agents are the baleen to the publishing industry’s whale. The Brita to the publishing industry’s drinking water. The pan to the publishing industry’s gold. (I could go on)

Basically: agents serve as a filter. Because editors are so busy, it’s rare for publishers to consider unagented submissions and they instead rely on agents to filter through the tens of thousands of aspiring writers and present editors with only the very best projects.

This means that agents open the floodgates to submissions. Most agents receive between 5,000 and 20,000 or more submissions a year and choose only a few carefully selected projects to send to editors.

Agents may specialize in certain areas or they may be generalists, but all have to reject way way way more projects than they are able to take on.

For further reading:

• A day in the life of an agent
• Digging for mushrooms
• Why writers need to perfect their first thirty pages
• In praise of reading slush

Pre-submission editing

Because the marketplace is so difficult, many agents will work with clients or prospective clients on their manuscripts or proposals prior to submissions.

I was a hands-on agent and would often work with authors on revisions before offering representation so that we could both get a sense of how well we would work together.

A project has to really be perfect in order to attract an editor, and so it behooves agent and author to work together to get the project or proposal as perfect as possible ahead of time.

For further reading:

• How to work with a literary agent on edits

Submitting to editors

Submitting a project to editors is both art and science.

The science: a huge part of being an agent involves networking, knowing which editors like what type of books, networking, keeping imprints and mergers and layoffs and hires straight, networking, keeping up with industry news and gossip, networking, and networking.

The art: An agent will carefully select the best editors to consider a particular project, but at the end of the day an agent never quite knows who is going to respond the strongest to a particularly project.

Then agents will also pester the editors they submitted to at regular intervals until they get a response.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that every responsibility I’ve listed up until this point is done on spec – an agent has not yet gotten paid for any of this. Since agents only receive income if they’re able to sell a project, they could very well spend tens or a hundred or more hours on a project, send it to editors, and come up empty.

For further reading:

• I write queries too
• Spaghetti agents

Negotiating offers

Hooray! An offer comes in!

Now the agent will help the author decide what comes next. There are different types of offers with different territories and terms, and, of course, the dollar amount of the advance varies greatly. It’s an agent’s job to negotiate the terms of the offer upward, possibly conduct an auction if multiple houses are interested, and make sure the i’s are crossed and the t’s are dotted prior to the author accepting.

For further reading:

• How authors make money
• How a book gets published

Negotiating publishing contracts

Some agencies have in-house contracts specialists, some agencies have agents negotiate their contracts directly. All will negotiate an agreement that is far, far better than what an unagented author will achieve on their own.

For further reading:

• How authors make money
• The basics of publishing contracts
• Separate vs. joint accounting

Keeping track of the publication process

An agent will follow up on payments and badger publishers until said payments come in, keep track of key dates, discuss marketing plans with author and editor, serve as mediator between author and publisher in case any disputes arise, and generally keep on top of everything to make sure everything is proceeding as it should.

For further reading:

• What book editors do
• Book sales demystified

Subrights

In the offer stage the agent will also try to retain certain rights, such as film, audio, and translation, which can be sold directly. These rights can be quite lucrative, and if they’re sold directly the author doesn’t have to split the revenue with the publisher.

Some agencies work with subagents to place these rights. Some, like Curtis Brown, have in-house film and foreign rights departments.

For further reading:

• How authors make money

Career shaping

Even apart from the nuts and bolts tasks that go into making a book happen, an agent can help an author plan their career trajectory, whether that involves helping the author choose projects to pursue, thinking of new ideas for breaking them out to larger audiences, serving as a sounding board, brainstorming, keeping the author apprised of changes in the industry, and in general being an experienced ear and brain, helping the author navigate the business.

For further reading:

• Jeff Abbott on the importance of having an agent

The ultimate advocate

Ultimately: the agent is the author’s advocate. They help the author become more successful and work tirelessly to advance the author’s career.

For further reading:

• Trust and communication
• 8 ways to know you have a good agent

This is just a basic list, and there’s often more to it than this. It’s quite a catchall job, one that requires a long apprenticeship, time in the business, a strong work ethic, a good eye, and a passion for books.

For all of these tasks the agent receives income based only on commission — again, the agent is only paid if/when the author is paid. The standard commission is 15% for domestic book deals and 20% for foreign (split between the agent and subagent).

And in case you’re wondering if having an agent is worth it – here’s Jeff Abbott’s post (once again) on the reasons you need one.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes (NEW!), my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: Sir Walter Scott by Sir William Allan