How to Vet a Literary Agent
What to ask your partner-in-principle before they are your partner-on-paper
As I outlined in the last post, the odds are stacked against you when it comes to pitching literary agents. We are continuously pulled in countless different directions with our existing clients, we are inundated with pitches of varying quality, and most of all we are fallible, inconsistent, and sometimes lack vision.
So when you actually get a favorable reply from a literary agent, it’s time to pop the champagne, right? (OK, I was structuring this to clearly lead to a “not quite yet” answer here, but the honest answer is—yes! Absolutely pop that champagne, or whatever go-to party beverage you have on hand! It’s always wonderful when someone else sees the value in what you are writing about, no matter what happens after that.)
Now that you’ve had a proper celebratory toast, let’s get this post back on the rails: I think it’s important to keep in mind that the author-agent relationship is ideally a long, close, and collaborative partnership. Before you jump into the book publishing journey together, you’ll want to make sure you jibe with this new partner. In my experience, this is a two-step dance: first you check, and then you chat.
Check
This step is easy enough: you’ll want to do some research about any literary agent who approaches you before you set up a conversation. If it’s an agent whom you haven’t come across in your own efforts to seek out agents (see the “Find ‘em” step of my last post), then you’ll want to do a general web search on them, along with checking out their profile on their agency’s web page. As I mentioned in my last post, you can also check out Publishers Marketplace for more granular detail on their book-deal history.
I suggest doing this research before a conversation because it will allow you to ask much more targeted questions when/if you set up a conversation. Which brings us to step two . . .
Chat
If they passed the check step, then it’s time to set up a meeting with the agent! In-person, over Zoom, on a phone call—that doesn’t matter nearly as much as what you talk about with them. Here are some great questions I’ve fielded in calls with authors:
How many clients do you represent?
Do you represent any similar clients to me (in background or subject)?
What does your proposal development process look like?
Can you share details on some of your recent book deals?
If you pitched them: Do you have any initial thoughts or reactions to my idea/proposal?
If they came to you: How did you come across my name? (This can be most useful for your own tilth research.)
If they came to you: Do you have any thoughts about what sort of book I should write?
Don’t hesitate to ask other questions, of course—this is your chance to learn as much as you can about the agent before actually working together! And don’t fear asking supposedly “stupid” questions—nearly every literary agent has experience working with first-time authors, and are quite accustomed to walking through the basics of book publishing. (This is particularly true in nonfiction, where many authors are not professional writers.)
If you’re feeling simpatico after all those questions, it’s time to get started in earnest! For many agents, this means signing an exclusive agency agreement with the author, and beginning to prepare the book proposal for submission to editors. Personally, I push the contract slightly down the line: after a good initial conversation with an author, I usually work with them on the first few steps of a proposal before we move to signing an actual agency agreement. That way we have a better sense for each other, and how we work, before we become legit contractual partners. But either way, you will need to review and sign a formal agency agreement at some point to be properly represented by a literary agent, so let’s do a brief rundown of what that looks like. . . .
What a literary agency agreement covers
Every agency has different boilerplate for their agency agreement, but here is a quick rundown of the most significant elements:
Exclusivity
The partnership is an exclusive arrangement—that is, for the books and rights covered in the agreement, your literary agent will be the only one representing you for those books and rights. This exclusivity, however, should not be for some fixed term—you should be able to exit the agreement at any time, usually with some sort of written notice, instead of being locked into an exclusive arrangement against your will for a long chunk of time.
Scope
The agreement should also define which work from the author will be represented by the agent. Often an agency agreement covers all future books that the author will write (unless of course the agreement is terminated at any point), but sometimes a literary agent might only represent the author’s nonfiction projects—and in some cases they might even just represent an author for their very next book, after which they would sign another agency agreement if they want to continue working together.
The scope of the agreement should also cover the specific subsidiary rights for which your literary agent will represent you—for example, your literary agent will usually handle multimedia rights, dramatic rights (film, TV, theater), and merchandising rights related to your books. In my experience, the scope of your agreement with a literary agency is an area open to negotiation—if you want to proceed one book at a time, or you want to have your merchandising or other subsidiary rights handled by someone else, your literary agent should be open to discussing any and all of that.
Commission (a.k.a. how your literary agent makes money)
The financial side of things in an agency agreement should be straightforward: your literary agent usually receives 15% of your domestic book income and 20% of your international book income. If an agent you are speaking to has a higher commission rate than that, they should have a compelling reason for it. (“I have an excellent network” or “I’ve worked on a lot of bestsellers” are not compelling reasons—“I build book projects for busy thought leaders by delivering the book idea and pairing them with an expert ghostwriter” MIGHT be an example of a compelling reason, but overall I suggest getting outside opinions on agents with higher commission rates if possible.)
This is also a good spot to mention Yog’s Law, formulated by author James D. Macdonald, which quite simply states “Money should flow toward the author.” You should not be asked to pay any fees TO your literary agent, for considering your proposal, for hiring a proofreader to polish the proposal, for pitching the project to editors, or for pretty much anything else. Usually, your literary agent will receive payments due to you from your publisher, they will then deduct their agency commission, and they will promptly (usually within ten business days) disburse the portion due to you to your bank account.
Further reading
Agency agreements of course cover more than these three elements. If you’re curious about the details, there is great specific advice over at The Authors Guild. (That link goes to agency agreements specifically, but I recommend checking out the Guild’s whole resource library if you have time—it’s phenomenal.)
I hope that’s all helpful, and that your check-and-chat two-step is a wonderful experience, no matter whom you’re speaking with!
From here, we’ll be jumping into the thrilling, depressing, nerve-wracking ride that is Getting a Book Deal. I imagine that will take at least a couple of posts—and while I’ll be writing from the perspective of an agent landing a deal, I’m hopeful there will be takeaways for any authors who will be going for it without an agent on board. See you in April (from my new digs)!
Very helpful, thank you!