1) Do you have a literary agent? If not, what – if any – experiences have you had with literary agents?
I am and have always been unagented. My second novel (a thriller titled kiDNApped) was released in March of this year from small press Chalet Publishers. I have had a handful of close encounters with so-called “dream agents” based in NYC, those who represent the icons of my genre, but so far I have yet to go all the way with any of them. “It’s great but I’ve already got something like it,” stands out for me (which is odd when you’re querying a story about a whale with a webcam that broadcasts a murder at sea), but when I sold Wired Kingdom myself directly to another small press for an advance, I stopped seeking agents for that book. Perhaps I could have landed one with a deal in hand, but I was too busy promoting to also continue seeking out agents. For the second book I queried two or three that I really admired, had some bites, some discourse, but again I came to a deal with a small press before too long and decided to go that route while engaging in promotional activities rather than waiting an indefinite period of time for something that may or may not materialize.
With each new book comes new opportunities, decisions and most important of all, new readers! I try not to peg myself onto any one track, for example, I’ve heard writers say they’ll only be happy if they get an agent, or they’ll never have a need for an agent; they’re only interested in the big 6 publishers, or it’s self-publishing 99 cent Kindle books or die. I try to keep as many options open as possible and work to obtain the best deal for each new novel I write.
2) What’s the upside to not working with an agent?
One obvious upside to not having an agent is you’re not giving up 15% of your proceeds. Another plus is that, if you are good at negotiations and have some semblance of business sense, it allows you more direct control over your own fate. There’s no middleman. You know exactly what’s happening with your books all the time, because you’re the only one doing anything. This makes it easy to keep track of and coordinate. Finally, I have heard it said that having a bad agent is significantly worse that having no agent, and while I have no personal experience with this, I would bet that it’s true. If the agent isn’t going to get back to you, or you’re not sure what it is they’ve done for you lately, or worse—they’re acting badly on your behalf–then what’s the point?
3) Are there any downsides to not having literary representation?
There are indeed downsides to being unagented. For one thing, as I mentioned above in the upsides: you’re the only one doing anything on your behalf. Okay, maybe you have a publisher and they do some things, but without an agent, the only person really trying to place your work is you. And you know if you’re not working! At least with an agent you can say, “Oh, she’s probably working on that right now…” and feel better about playing Halo 6. Not so the unagented. It’s all you. Also, let’s face it, 15% of nothing is still nothing. 15% of small potatoes is still French fries. One large deal and that agent paid for herself many times over. Allies are a good thing. And, on a practical note, not having an agent means that you’re taking on extra publishing business work. When you’re wondering where that accounting statement is, guess who’s got to harangue the publisher? You guessed it. You. The same people who gave your book life, you now have to pester and harass until they give you the info you need to be able to sleep at night. If you have an agent, I imagine it would be like having a publisher-chasing pitbull always at your side. Grrrrrr, where’s the second half advance check for this? What’s the deadline on your decision for that?
4) What advice do you have for authors seeking representation?
My advice is to have a plan, to understand how literary agents fit into that plan, and then to follow the plan. Today there are more options than ever for publishing your work, and a writer should ask one’s self, Do I only want to be published if it’s through the agent-to-big-6 route, or after a certain point would I be willing to try small press or self-publishing? Conversely, for you JA Konraths out there, am I only interested in being the next 99 cent Kindle gazillionaire or would I entertain a “legacy” deal even if its number of “figures” could be counted on one hand? Identify for yourself what that point is, yet at the same time avoid publishing just because you can, to “see how it does.”
Also, if you absolutely want an agent no matter what, then query widely, as the saying goes. I hear many unpublished writers talk about how they spent hours upon hours carefully “researching” agents when, let’s face it, the odds are decent that sooner or later you’ll need to query them all, anyway. Beyond determining that they handle your genre and are currently accepting queries, there’s not much to know. You don’t need to know what their favorite color is. Maybe send queries in waves of 5-10, with not all your top choices up front, to allow for revisions of the query over time based on feedback. But be prepared to get to them all. When they offer you representation, that’s the time to run-don’t-walk to The Agent Rater and research the heck out of them!
5) Tell us about your latest book and what it was like to work on it without an agent?
kiDNApped is a thriller about a geneticist with a solution for global warming who goes missing at sea. The story features the protagonist from my first book, Wired Kingdom, FBI Special Agent Tara Shores, although it’s a standalone novel, not a sequel. I decided in the interest of keeping the momentum going from the first book that I could place this novel with a small press and have it be published quickly after my debut, to keep my name out there, as opposed to undergoing a full-fledged agent search which would delay the release significantly. I did query 2 or 3 agents for it. Basically, because of the myriad contacts I’d built up during the previous book’s promotion, it increased my publishing options for the second book.
Only one thing is for certain: if and when I am ready to sign with an agent, I’ll be stopping back at The Agent Rater. Thanks for reading!
1) Do you have a literary agent? If not, what – if any – experiences have you had with literary agents?