The Four Horsemen

So You’ve Been Offered Representation...

Or you’re about to start querying and want to be prepared (smert), or you’ve scrolled past this on Tumblr and want to save it for that hopefully-not-to-distant day (I believe in you)…

Being offered representation is exciting. It’s a really amazing moment in your career and you should be really proud of yourself for getting there. But it doesn’t mean the querying process is over. You’re about to enter into a longterm relationship that will shape your entire literary career. It’s time to ask a whole lot of questions.

Every offer comes with “The Call.” The Call is when you and the offering agent have a discussion to see if you’d be a good fit for each other, and while it may seem like a formality, because YOU’VE BEEN OFFERED REPRESENTATION (!!!!) there’s a lot of information that may come out in this conversation that could have a big impact on whether or not you chose to accept representation.

At the point of offer, you should know that you and the agent likes the genres you write in. You may have seen some of their tweets on social media, or read articles on their blog, or heard authors you admire talking about how amazing it’s been working with them.

Here are the things you should talk about during The Call:

Your Manuscript

Just because an agent loved your manuscript, doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily want them to work on it with you. They may have a very different vision for your work than you have.

When I was querying, the first agent who offered me representation wanted to remove the scene I considered the emotional crux of the novel. The thing I’d felt all previous scenes were leading towards. As we talked, I discovered that the book she wanted to work on wasn’t the book I wanted to write. I considered her offer for a while but ultimately, I realized she wasn’t the right agent for my book, and probably not the right agent for me.

After that experience, I asked other offering agents what they liked about the book, and in our conversations, tried to explain to them what my vision was, and found that there were agents whose views were more aligned with my own.

So what does it matter if your visions are different? Why is this more important than being represented?

When you know you and an agent have the same vision for you project, you’ll be able to trust that their editorial advice will help turn your manuscript into a better version of the story you want to tell. Nothing feels worse than making changes to your manuscript that makes it feel like something that isn’t yours, or you can’t feel proud of.

More than that, your agent will be submitting your manuscript to editors. This means, that they’ll be deciding which editors are going to be able to buy this project, and how they’ll be pitching it to those editors. If they’re misrepresenting the story you’re trying to tell, it may affect your chances of being connected with an editor who has the same vision of your book as you have.

Don’t pursue representation and publication with an eye for getting it done no matter what. Make sure you get your story published, not somebody else’s idea of what your story should be.

Possible questions to ask about your manuscript:

What drew you to the project?

Was there a specific point, while reading the project, when you decided you were definitely going to offer representation?

Are there any scenes that you felt strongly about?

What was your favorite scene?

What is your vision for this project?

How would you pitch this book to publishers?

Do you feel the project is ready for submission?

In broad terms, what would you recommend for the revision of this manuscript?*

*Many agents feel as though an ‘edit letter’ with specific revision instructions, is something they should only give out once an author has signed with them, as it is a privilege of a working relationship with them. This is normal, and acceptable; however, agents should be willing to speak more generally about how they’d like to see the manuscript revised.

Your Career Beyond This Project

Agent/author relationships should last beyond a single manuscript. Although your future projects may not be a priority right now, one day they will be, and you’ll want to make sure Future You won’t have to choose between their agent and their career goals.

Before you have your Call, think about your dreams for your career as an author. What do you want your “brand” to be? What genres do you want to be published in? How many castles do you want to own? (Please don’t consider this. Any agent who promises you castles is a Bad Agent.)

Know what you want for your future, and make sure this is an agent who will be able to get you there.

Possible questions to ask about your career beyond this project:

Do you represent the other genres I write in?

My next idea for a project is x. Is this a project that you’d be willing to work with me on?

I want to write in multiple genres/categories, how would you recommend I manage that?

These are my goals: [list goals]. Do you think you’ll be able to help me achieve them?

This is my vision for my career: [describe vision]. Do you think you’ll be able to help me achieve this? If not, why?

The Agent

The call is also a good time to ask about the agent’s background. There are “shmagents” out there, so what you want to know is: how much experience they have in the publishing industry and what sort of projects they’ve actually sold. Everyone is new at some point in the game, so not having a lot of industry experienced doesn’t mean they’re a “schmagent,” but is something you might want to take into consideration nevertheless.

It’s normal for an agent to be getting into a new genre, or to have recently been promoted to assistant/associate to “agent,” but if that’s the case, you may want to figure out whether or not they are knowledgable in the genre, or if they have a good, experienced team backing them up as they start out their career.

A major red flag would be: not having been an agent long, not having had any other jobs in the industry, and not having sold any books to any major publishers.

Possible questions to ask about the agent’s background:

How long have you been in the industry?

How long have you been an agent?

Have you held any other positions in the publishing industry?

How many clients do you currently have? Are you looking to expand your list much more?

Can you tell me about some books you’ve sold recently? What genres were they in? What publishers did you sell them to?

Would you be willing to connect me with some of your authors?

The Agency

Being a literary agent usually isn’t a one-man act. Many literary agents work in agencies, where they work not only with other experienced literary agents, but often have agents solely dedicated to subsidiary rights such as foreign, film, and audio rights.

The agency the agent works for actually matters a great deal when it comes to selling your project. Will this agent be the one selling the rights of your projects to the UK or France? Is there another agent at the agency whose job this is? Will they sell those rights to the publisher instead? This is the sort of thing that depends on the agency, not the agent. And if you care about it, it’s something you should consider.

If the agent has struck out on their own, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a “schmagent,” but you should be sure to ask them about their reasons for doing so, and their previous experience in the publishing industry.

Possible questions to ask about the agency:

How does your agency handle sub rights?

How large is the agency?

Do you every work with other agents on certain projects/rights?

What is the agency agreement like?

Possible questions to ask about a one-man literary agency:

Why did you chose to strike out on your own?

What experience prepared you for this?

How do you handle sub rights?

Do you ever need the support of other agents, and, if so, where do you get it from?

Your Working Relationship

Finally, you should consider the sort of relationship that you want with an agent and the sort of working relationship that would be most productive and helpful to you as a writer. Knowing what you think you might want or need, have a conversation with the agent about the sort of working relationship they’re comfortable with/accustomed to:

How many editors do you usually pitch to in the first round of submissions?

Do you do tiered submissions? What are those tiers?

When do you shelve a book?

How hands-on are you when not on submission?

Will you be available to talk through new ideas with?

How closely do you prefer to work with an author while they’re preparing a manuscript?

Do you prefer to talk by email/phone/etc.

Once that’s finished…

You can’t know for sure, by one conversation, whether someone will be a good long-term partner for you, but hopefully these lists of considerations will help you decide whether the agent offering representation to you is offering the type of representation you need.

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olympereeeeeeeeeeeeeemtblr

4 years ago