The Word Cloud

I've been browsing through all the agents out there in the hope of finding representation, when something dawned on me.

Seeing as I've never had an agent, I'm not entirely certain of the procedure regarding them. Is it like car insurance were every year you need to look for a new provider in the hopes of getting a better deal? (in other words when you have a new novel do you need to find an agent again?) Or once you have your agent are you set for life? (in that you can keep writing books and your agent will try and get them published for you)

Now I know it's not a binding thing and that you can seek another agent for your second novel if you so wished, but after you have convinced them to represent you on the basis of your first novel, do you then have to repeat the same procedure with your next one?

I know I have probably went the long way about asking the question, but as many of you know I do like a ramble (Nothing wrong with the scenic route - you get to the same place and see some nice sights along the way!)

Anyone have any advice?

Generally speaking, an agent is reckoning to take you on for the long term - one element of the conversation you have when they like your book enough to want to represent it is for them to find out about your next projects. If your agent wants to represent your YA Fantasy, and your next project is a heavyweight trade non-fiction biography of Charles 1, they may not be interested - or they may if they're well dug into both markets. And in a bigger agency they may have a colleague who is. (Assuming you want that - you may prefer to look elsewhere)

But assuming you're going to go on writing roughly the same sort of book, they should want to go on representing you. In an industry where everyone else moves around, and your publishers' interests aren't always aligned to yours, an agent is the nearest thing you'll have to a friend. Indeed, most authors I know - including me - feel that the single biggest professional disaster they could have would be for their agent to fall under a bus.

Having said that, an important part of that conversation is for you to ask: "What will you do if this novel doesn't, in the end, sell?"

Some may be honest and say, "Look, I really like this but I don't know if I can sell it - let's give it a go, and no hard feelings if it doesn't work". Others don't take you on at all unless they're prepared to keep on and on and on, working on the novel, working on the trade, till they make a match; my agent took two years to sell a funny little novel about a dog, and a curious incident, and the nighttime. And even if finally it doesn't work, if they're sufficiently committed to you as a writer, then they'll just get stuck into the next book, which of course you'll have written by then. Some agents try the big eight, and throw in the towel, having lost confidence that it'll ever sell for an amount which means their commission will keep them in paperclips: others will tackle the smaller and indie publishers, know that the individual attention a book can get there is worth a lot, and perhaps hope to build on that to a level of sales where a big boy will be interested, and start rationing paperclips meanwhile.

There isn't really a better deal to be had, IYSWIM, in that agency commission is pretty standard across the trade. It's much more about whether they think they can sell the work (it can be the best book in the world, but if it won't sell, they can't take it on), whther they see the work the way you do, whether they just love it to bits, so that their enthusiasm transmits to editors, which it must because editors' enthusiasm needs to force the book throught Sales & Marketing at the acquisitions meeting, in competition with all the other editors' enthusiasm for other books...

And it does matter that you're right for each other - some are brisk and businesslike, some are nurturing and up for long gossips. Some are shit-hot dealmakers, some are wonderful editors, a rare few are both, most are doing their best, and if they don't do their best they don't eat, after all - in the end they're hunter-gamblers. All should know that one of their jobs is to know very dull stuff (13-number ISBNs, e-book contracts, international copyright) so that we don't have to.

When writers and agents part company - and they do, and there will be provisions in the contract for that - it's usually either because the writer wants to write something they don't represent, or because the agent has said, "Look, ducky, I just don't think I can sell your writing any more." Though they're not always that honest - more inclined just to go quiet on you. There are authors who are serial agent-movers, usually because no agent is ever good enough and dedicated enough for them... aka them being impossible to work with.

An agent goes on earning commission on any contracts they negotiated, though, even if you move on, which may not be ideal since they're unlikely to have them at the forefront of their mind when you're not around any more. Usually they and the new agent come to some agreement about the new agent taking over looking after the old books, and the commission being split between them.

Harry Bingham's Getting Published book has an excellent section on things to ask an agent who's showing interest.

Wot Emma says. Agents are marvellous (I've only ever heard of one truly duff agent, who was only duff because they took on so many clients that they couldn't keep up with the workload) and, as Emma says, they more than justify their commission.