Literary Agent Basics
What is a literary agent?
A literary agent is a person who totally represents the author in everything they do. Once the author has written a book they need someone to find the right publisher for them, in order to exploit the rights derived from the copyright of the work. The book suddenly becomes another kind of thing which the author is responsible for, but essentially the book has its own life so a literary agent comes along and says, "I think we can sell this in film, or in France, Germany, America and Italy" and exploits the rights in that. Also, a literary agent is there to help an author with their career, to talk about their choices they make about the next novel, about where they're going in novels or non-fiction. There are two jobs a literary agent has. One is more social, which is understanding what is going on in the author's life, working out their career management, and the other is the work, how best to get this work out to the most amount of people in the best possible way.
How do I find a literary agent?
Finding a literary agent is probably the toughest part of the whole process, and it's probably got tougher since publishers have decided to close down their unsolicited manuscripts departments. If you were sitting in Bradford or Cornwall or wherever, and you have no connections to literary London or anything else, you might think it's a very closed shop and it's very difficult to break into. What I would do if I was one of those people and I didn't know a cousin who worked in somewhere, I would look on the web for news about new writing. I would also look at The Books I Love, which is a trade magazine which may seem very boring but at least you get a sense of who's who out there. Then I would target a few literary agents. I would find out who they represent. You can do that by going into a bookshop, opening one of these books, and sometimes there's an acknowledgement page where the author says thanks to their agent. If you liked the works of, for example, Treasure Chevalle, you might be someone who could spy on me. You have to do a little bit of research. We at Curtis Brown get 600 unsolicited manuscripts a month. We do welcome them but that is a lot of manuscripts, and many of them are 300 pages so we have to make a lot of quick decisions. To prevent yourself being on a pile, it's probably best not to write a Dear Sir/Madam letter, because that implies that you haven't done any research. It's best to target the literary agents that you think might be best for your work. Write to them personally. I wouldn't email directly because if you email directly, some literary agents feel that's an interruption in their day. You wouldn't interrupt someone on the train and ask them to buy your product. I think a letter is the perfect submission, with three chapters, a synopsis; a very concise, well written letter. To tell you the truth, I really look at the letter and if the letter has grammatical errors in it, or has jam on it or something, it just shows that it was dashed it off and I'm one of 25 literary agents they've sent it to. It won't be the top of my priority list.
What are the advantages of having an agent?
There are lots of advantages of having a literary agent. The publishing relationship with an author can be about the book, and not necessarily about the person. If you deliver a great book to a publisher, they'll love the book, but if you deliver a not so great book, they might then move on. You need somebody who's going to be on your side, who's a partner in your business. There's also the fact that, even if you were very savvy, you knew exactly who you wanted to publish your book, and, for some unknown reason, you knew the market rate of your novel, which does take years to understand, do you want to be spending a lot of your time on emails about publicity, Latvian rights, etc.? Do you want to want to be talking to film companies? You need a filter. The publishers need the literary agents as a filter as well. They need to know that a submission from Curtis Brown means it's going to be quality, so they had better to respond to it quickly. If you don't go through Curtis Brown, or another good agency, it may end up on their desk for six weeks, eight weeks. Once something is on your desk for six or eight weeks, it's a problem - it's an in tray problem rather than a dynamic submission. Literary agents spend a lot of time sending out the right projects so that the publishers trust us.
What are the disadvantages of having an agent?
I would imaging there are terrible disadvantages to having the wrong literary agent. If you have an agent who just wants you on their books because they need one more crime writer or one more romance writer, you're probably going to have a very unhappy time. I think there's probably nothing worse. It's like a bad marriage. There's nothing worse than a bad relationship with an agent. I would advise that, although its exciting to get a literary agent, you have to be quite cool-headed about it, and you have to look at that person and ask, "Am I in any way a priority for you? Will you answer my phone calls? Am I scared of you?" You shouldn't be scared of your business partner or a person who is your mentor. You should certainly have a respectful relationship, but the moment you feel that you can't call your literary agent because he or she is too busy, that's a bad relationship.
Do I need an agent to get a book deal?
Well, 99 percent of all books now are done through literary agents. I would say that you really do need an agent. That obviously makes it tougher for the new writer because they have to go through this filter first, when they may be thinking, 'Why don't I just go to publishers? Why are these people in the middle stopping me from being published?' But, there is a reason why agenting works. It works in New York, it works all over Europe, and it works in England, because publishers trust and need this process. They need literary agents to filter it through.
Can an agent guarantee me a book deal?
Having a literary agent will not guarantee anything. However, if you get the right agent, their hit rate is 60-75% of what they send out sells. I think that's as good as it gets. I say to the agents who work here that if they don't have many rejections through the year, they're not doing their job properly, because they've got to take risks. We're about finding new voices. Fundamentally, a literary agent has to start from the point of view that they passionately believe in this person's work. It's not throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. It's absolutely understanding that this has got to be published. If a publisher rejects you, just think that they're wrong and you're moving on.
Will an agent help me secure a better deal?
Absolutely, categorically, an agent will get you a better deal than being on your own. There's much evidence to prove that this is true. That's not to say that publishers are unscrupulous or will try to con you, and publishers contracts with authors are getting a bit better. However, there is no way that you will understand the complexities of high discount clauses, and what is going on in the marketplace, what is going on in bookshops that dictates publishers values on royalties and on advances. That's why an agent will get you a better contract and will obviously negotiate a higher advance.
Will an agent edit my work?
When I started agenting about ten years ago, it was very rare that agents ever edited manuscripts, whereas now I think it's the norm, and I certainly I find half my job is getting the manuscript into shape. If any work comes to me and it's sixty percent there, I have to get it to ninety percent, and the author then has to make the decision of whether trust me, or to do that work without any money with that hope of being published. I hope what they'll think is that if I'm willing to put in the work and they're willing to put the work in without any money, we will get some money in the end.
What is the slush pile?
The slush pile is a not very pleasant way of describing the unsolicited manuscripts that we receive through the reception at Curtis Brown. These are the 'Dear Sir/Madams' and the 'Dear Curtis Browns'. The slush pile is made up of the people who are sending in their manuscripts and their proposals hoping that they will be read by someone in the firm. We get about 600 a month of those, which is a very, very high amount, and I personally get five or six a day. To be able to judge five or six terrific novels a day is obviously impossible so I have to be highly subjective and very, very decisive. I'm sure I make wrong decisions sometimes but if the author showed care about knowing what kind of books I want or one of my colleagues wants then it helps them.
