Agent Process

You Have an Offer From a Publisher…

But You Don’t Have an Agent There are numerous situations in which you may find yourself unagented but having an offer from a publisher. A nice situation, to be sure! It may happen because you met an editor face-to-face at a conference, or through a referral. In any case, at this point the question will…
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AgentFail

Last week, my friend Wendy Lawton, an agent at Books & Such, wrote a series of posts that took a great deal of courage. She said a lot of things I’ve been trying to figure out how to say here on my own blog, but she did it first and said it better than I…
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How to Fire Your Agent

(Encore presentation of a previous post.)There comes a time in every agent’s life when one of their clients needs to move on. Yep. We all get fired by an author at some point. It isn’t pleasant, but it’s a reality in business. What are some reasons writers opt to terminate their agency relationship? I think…
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Reading for a Living

A Woman Reading by Claude Monet, 1872Everyone knows that agents and editors are reading practically all the time. We read queries and manuscripts of people hoping to secure representation, we read the manuscripts of our clients, and we read as many published books as possible – partly because we love reading, and partly because we…
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Behind the Scenes… "The Call"

Me: Hello, may I speak with New Author? New Author: Speaking. Me: Hi, this is Rachelle Gardner. How are you today? NA: I’m fine…wait…did you say Rachelle Gardner? Me: Yep. NA: This is Kelly, isn’t it. Ha ha, very funny, Kelly. Me: Um, no. It’s Rachelle. Would you rather speak with Kelly? NA: No! Uh-oh.…
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In Search of Specific Information

Lately I’ve been hearing complaints from writers that agents are not specific enough in telling writers what kinds of projects they’re looking for. On my post “Too Much Information?” I received several comments that echoed this opinion from A3Writer: Agents are sometimes a little closed-mouthed about what they are looking for. I love the agents…
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Differing Advice on Signing with an Agent

Yesterday we started our week of discussing mixed messages, so today I want to continue by addressing some contradictory advice on signing with an agent. With so many agents and others writing blogs, it’s natural that many of us are saying things in opposition to one another. As a writer, it must be hard for…
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What if My Agent Doesn’t Like My Next Book?

As if it’s not stressful enough getting an agent based on that first book, it seems everyone wonders the same thing. What if they love my first book but hate my second one? I’ve had a few of my authors ask me this about their publishers – the ones that signed them to multi-book deals.…
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A Splash of Cold Water

Some of you may have read the post from agent Kristin Nelson last week about agents fighting over writers. She wrote that every single time she offers a writer representation lately, she ends up competing with several other agents who want the same client. You can go read her post now: Hot Commodity In response…
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Does Your Agent Have to Love Your Book?

Lately I’ve gotten some remarks from people, both in blog comments and in response to pass letters, complaining that “agents are only looking for what they’re personally interested in.” And some have called into question whether that’s a legitimate way to do business. So is it true? Are we just looking for what we like?…
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It’s a Relationship

Last month I wrote a post on the Top Ten Query Mistakes. The first two points were all about personalizing your query to the agents. They were: #1. Not making me special, and #2. Not caring who I am. Now if you didn’t know me, those might seem like kind of narcisistic statements, and believe…
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Reasons for Submission Guidelines

As you know, almost all agents have Submission Guidelines posted on their websites and/or blogs. Agents who blog and Twitter always remind writers to follow guidelines, and some agents reject without responding if you don’t follow them. But why are the guidelines so important? Are we just picky and anal people, obsessed with power and…
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A Day in the Life

People are always telling me they’d like to hear about a typical day for an agent. But I have yet to experience a typical day. When you have a large number of clients, working on a wide variety of projects, which are all in various stages of writing or publication, the days provide endlessly changing…
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Saying No After I’ve Requested Your Manuscript

We spend a lot of time on these blogs discussing what makes an agent say “yes, I want to see more” or “no thanks” after reading a query. And last week I tried to give you some idea of the things I’m looking for in a manuscript, things that make me want to keep reading…
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