This one’s about agents

Ted from Stock­ton, CA, asks, “Is it impor­tant to have an agent if you want to be a writer? If so, how do you get an agent?”

If you seek to make a career as a writer it would help a great deal to have an agent. As pub­lish­ing works today, agents func­tion as a fil­ter, sort­ing out qual­i­ty writ­ing from writ­ing that lacks qual­i­ty, and aim­ing that work at a rel­e­vant pub­lish­er, edi­tor, and then nego­ti­at­ing a con­tract. It is not that pub­lish­ers total­ly ignore what used to be called the “slush pile,” (unso­licit­ed man­u­scripts) but it can take a very long time to be noticed.

In oth­er words, hav­ing an agent saves you enor­mous time and effort. If you are inter­est­ed in pro­fes­sion­al writ­ing, spend your time get­ting an agent first. That said, I know of writ­ers who only use a lawyer to han­dle con­tracts. They are, how­ev­er, a minority.

Agents can func­tion in many ways. How you struc­ture that rela­tion­ship is part of the process of get­ting an agent. An agent can func­tion as an edi­to­r­i­al advi­sor, a career man­ag­er, a crit­ic, an advice giv­er, a lit­er­ary friend, a mar­ket­ing guide, and/or some­one who can send your work to the right edi­tor. Beyond all else they need to be some­one you like, can talk to, and whose advice you are will­ing to follow.

Just how you sort all that out depends on you, your needs and wants, and your prospec­tive agent.

Keep in mind that you are your agent’s source of income, inso­far as he/she takes a per­cent­age of what you earn from pub­lish­ing. They will be inter­est­ed in your body of work, not just one work.

When I began as a pro­fes­sion­al writer I found an agent in the clas­sic way: a pro­fes­sion­al writer of the day rec­om­mend­ed me to an agent. What fol­lowed was a degree of net-work­ing that even­tu­al­ly brought me to a good agent. It took a cou­ple of years.

New agents come along. They may be list­ed in Pub­lish­ers Week­ly or Writer’s Digest. A new agent will have greater use for you and your work than some­one who rep­re­sents a large num­ber of writ­ers. But an estab­lished agent has more clout with pub­lish­ers. If you find an agent, inter­view her/his clients to see the kind of rela­tion­ships that exist.

Like every­thing else in the world of writ­ing, luck helps.