When you ask most querying writers what scares them most, they’ll probably tell you rejections. Not so for me. My biggest fear is signing with the wrong agent. Now, I’m not talking about the agent who doesn’t sell your manuscript. In today’s competitive market, having an agent doesn’t guarantee anything. But a bad agent can be the ultimate doom to the book you’ve so worked hard on.
Recently, one of my friends ended her relationship with her agent due to lack of communication. In her gut, she knew this person wasn’t right for her. Turns out, her gut knew what it was talking about. Last week the agent quit agenting, and her clients found out about it through Facebook. Classy.
What most people don’t know is that I recently got The Call. Now, before you skip to the end and congratulate me, please bear with me for a moment.
I spoke with the agent, and while I was flattered by her interest in my novel, I knew she wasn’t the right one for me. She was moving away from repping fiction, and was focusing on non-fiction (which she has an awesome sales record for). Because of that, she only wanted to rep Still.
It was a hard decision, because of factors I’m not going to mention, but my gut told me I was doing the right thing. Plus, I want to deal with some issues that other agents had talked about. While I know it’s a subjective industry, I wasn’t ready for Still to be out there yet. And I need to deal with those issues before signing with an agent (or querying again).
So how can you avoid signing with the wrong agent?
- Google the agent’s name and find out as much as you can about them. Yep, that’s right: Stalk them. This is your career we’re talking about.
- Look up their name in P&E (Preditors & Editors) to see if they have a bad rating.
- Check out writer forums such as Absolute Write, Querytracker, Verlakay’s blue boards (for kidlitwriters), and see what other writers (and sometimes clients) have to say about the agent.
- If you get The Call, ask to talk to the agent’s clients. Though that might not always help. My friend did that and look what happened.
- Know what you want in an agent. Maybe you’re fine if he only wants to rep the one book. Or maybe, like me, you know you want an agent for your career (but this doesn’t mean you can’t change agents at some point).
- Have questions ready for when you get The Call. Check out this list from Literary Rambles.
- Ask if you can have a list of the editors the agent is submitting to. The manuscript from one of the ex-agent’s clients was out on submission. Now the writer has no idea who the agent submitted to, which is going to be a problem if she wants to query other agents. No agent wants to rep a book that’s already been shopped around.
- If you want to see the rejections, let the agent know that before you agree to representation. Some agents don’t like to do that, and you’re left in the dark as to what’s going on with your submission. I’ve heard this complaint a number of times. Of course, if you don’t want to see the rejections, then you don’t have to worry about this.
- Listen to your gut.
Remember, just because the agent has a pulse, this doesn’t mean you have to accept the offer. Do what’s right for you. Your book and career will thank you for it.
Does anyone else have suggestions on to how to avoid signing with the wrong agent?
(Update: It turns out my friend’s ex-agent never submitted manuscripts from a number of her clients. This is why seeing the rejections and submission list is so important. If someone hadn’t phoned the president of the agency, the client never would have known. She would have written the book off. Now she has the option to query it again.)
60 comments:
I think listening to your gut after asking the questions and doing the research is the most important thing. Sounds like you made the right decision!
Stina, that must have been a very hard decision for you. However, if the agent only wanted to rep the one book and not your other works, then this was probably the right call. Congratulations on stirring up interest in your book, and congratulations on having the courage to stand by what you wanted!
wow, what a terrible situation! I only query agents I'm sure about- ones that I know come from upstanding agencies or that I've met or heard of through the blogosphere.
This is very helpful. Listening to your gut can be a hard thing to do. I'm learning how to listen. It's so hard to know.
Your decision must have been so difficult, but someone who only wants to rep one book definitely would raise a red flag in my mind. So hard. So sorry.
I'm not quite at this stage yet, and so scared, but with information like this, some of the nerves settle (a little).
Thanks.
I like CQG, I only query agents that I've heard good things about or I've stumbled across their blog and get a good feel for them.
You already know I'm proud of you for not going the easy route when you weren't sure it was the way you wanted to go.
So sorry to your friend and her situation. :o(
Just the thought that there are predatory agents out there is terrifying. Excellent advice, thanks, Stina!
Great advice Stina. You mentioned things that I never would have thought about. I'm proud of you for trusting your instincts. I don't know if I would have been able to do that!
Wow, good for you. It's really scary what's going on in the publishing world today. I'm glad you (and your friend) made the right decision.
Lots of interesting things to consider here, Stina. It must have been hard to decline representation for the one book. Do you think that even having a one-book contract, perhaps limited in time to sell, could have helped in any way to secure future representation with another agent? I'd have been tormented with that decision!
Lots of things to think about here! Just like this any job, there are going to be unethical agents out there. Good for your friend for going with her gut, and same with you too! Thanks for all the helpful links.
Good tips to keep in mind and I guess it's ok to just say no if that's what your gut is telling ya. :O)
That is such a difficult decision to make, but such an important one. Having the wrong agent is worse than having no agent. Great advice.
If you're having that level of interest, you're doing something right! And good on you for making the hard decision!
Great advice, here, Stina. An agent isn't a gift horse you don't look in the mouth, so to speak, it's a business partner. We should only partner with people we trust.
Thanks for all the wonderful links to help us do our homework before signing any contracts.
Great warning. Writers HAVE to do their research. Otherwise they'll get an agent for the moment but they'll have to start over again later, at some point. How agonizing!!
There are a couple of things here I hadn't considered, so thanks so much! It's easy to say, "I'll take any agent I can get!" but you're so right. Good for you for keeping Still to yourself until you're ready :)
That must have been a really hard decision, but good for you that you went with your gut. Although I also have the same question as Joanne... I guess there's no point wondering about it now, but it is a thought.
You say I shouldn't congratulate you... but still, I feel I should, because now you know your work generated professional interest, even if you decided not to go for it. And if your gut told you not to, then I think it was the right decision.
And omg, poor girl, your friend. I hope she finds another agent soon!
YES! I know you made the right decision, Stina. And I'm so proud of you--for going with your gut!!!!
This is absolutely stellar advice and I have no doubt that you did the right thing. I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. A friend of mine is facing that possibility in the near future too and my heart breaks for them. I have gone through parting with an agent myself. It is world changing. Choosing the right agent in the first place is so much more important than landing one! Bravo to you for being brave enough to know what you needed to do, and to do it!
Wow you are like my hero. You did probably THE hardest thing for a writer to do. That shows just how confidant and thoughtful you are. :D It's a great list you've provided and a very important topic for discussion. I've seen it happen to many writers at all stages, and it isn't always a bad agent either. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. It depends what you need and are looking for and what she offers. Bravo for putting this out there, and for being brave enough to say "no".
Great post, thanks Stina. I'm sure it's all been said, but three cheers for you!
Oy. Like the querying experience isn't hard enough. Then we get to worry about unethical agents that could kill our dream. Eek.
Good job for following your gut.
Great information. Thanks so much for giving us more insight!
Sometimes it's hard to make the right choice. I think you deserve chocolate :)
Excellent post, excellent advice! You AND your friend did the RIGHT thing by following your gut feelings. It isn't easy, and I admire you both.
Kudos and huge admiration to you, Stina. Excellent advice and information, too. Thanks so much for sharing this!
That had to be so hard. But bravo to you for realizing it wasn't right and not accepting their offer. Double chocolate kisses to you <3
Thank you for putting this kind of information out there. It's so important for us newbies to educate ourselves on how this writing world works. It's bloggers like you who help us avoid huge mistakes. Thank you!
Good for you for not rushing to sign when you knew it wasn't right. I can't imagine having to make that decision, but it was the right one. Thanks for posting this :)
Joanna & Lori, there were other factors in my decision, not just the one-book issue. But the post was already too long, and I didn't want to go into them here.
Trusting your instincts is so important when you're making a career decision like this. Kudos for going with your gut, but I'll admit to being curious: what drew you to this agent in the first place?
Kathrynjankowski, I didn't query her. I queried her associate. She loved the book but decided to leave agenting (she not the other agent mentioned, though). She passed the book to the senior agent. I spent the weekend, after receiving her email that she wanted to talk to me, researching her.
I'm about to dive back into querying - this is super helpful!
Sounds like you're getting close, Stina, and that you made a good decision. This is all great advice. Good communication with your agent is so essential--mine forwards me any rejections along with notes to provide me with some context for whatever the editor said. She lets me know her timetables for revisions, plans for submission, who has the ms, etc. She responds quickly to my emails, no matter how trivial. Her revision notes are constructive and encouraging. And--I suspected it would be this way because we had a great conversation about how things would be during The Call. You're absolutely right-it's better to have no agent than a bad one, for sure, and it's worth it to wait for one with whom you can have a career-long collaboration.
Wow, that is a scary story. Sounds like you made a good decision. Good luck!
Fantastic advice. Sometimes I don't think we pay enough attention to the "hairs standing up on the back of our necks." Bravo for you in not signing with someone as a knee jerk reaction. It would have kept you from the right agent!
Great post and very thorough! I definitely think you made the right decision. A hard one though, for sure!
Kudos to you for going with your gut. you made the right decision. I know how much courage it took to turn down that offer. I made the wrong decision in a similar situation and am still paying for it. Your decision is inspiring. I'm sure you'll find the right agent soon!
This is such a great topic! I'm still nowhere close to the querying stage, but it's never too early for advice.
Good luck with finding your dream agent!
:-)
Listening to your gut is always good advice as well as all of the rest. ;)
Definately do your research. I was lucky in that I was able to meet mine before signing with her. But even talking on the phone will bive you some sort of gut feeling. Yes, guts are a good thing to follow :-)
Ahhhh yes, Stina. And sometimes, even when said writer researches the agent in question and finds things questionable, yet goes with them anyway for the sake of their dreams hopefully coming true, it will ultimately bite them when the agent quits. On Facebook. Wow...
Thanks for posting this.
Great advice, Stina! I'm so glad your friend found out that agent never submitted her manuscript so now she can try again with a new agent - at least that part turned out well.
I lucked into a great agent but I'll be honest, I wasn't being as selective as I should have during the querying process. I was querying EVERYONE. It was only toward the end, once I felt my book was at its strongest, that I decided to query my "A list" agents and that's when I found Natalie. Look at their client list. Do they rep authors who are with MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSES? Or small and e-presses that don't even require an agent. And definitely ALWAYS check P&E. But in the end, it comes down to finding an agent who works in the genre you wish to focus. If you're like me and you tend to write a diverse array of books, make sure your agent can grow into those areas with you and isn't pigeonholing herself to one genre and that's all she'll rep.
Getting the call must be so exciting that you want to throw caution to the wind. This is a great precautionary post about making sure it's the right agent.
I am one of the writers who got involved with this particular agent. I did all of my research, spoke with other clients before signing, got the list of editors we'd "submitted to" and covered all of my bases... I thought. I still got shafted. But, in being proactive in trying to clean up the mess, I was able to not only uncover that I never went on submission at all, I developed new contacts for the future! :) Silver lining.
Onward and upward.
And yeah... FACEBOOK. *rolls eyes*
Excellent advice. It's a scary world out there - it's so helpful to have had others test the waters and give us warnings.
That's great and brave that you didn't sign with the agent that wasn't right for you. I like your idea of contacting other clients of the agent before making a decision. What a good idea.
Stina! Even though it wasn't the right agent, CONGRATULATIONS! You got one offer, so there are certainly going to be others coming your way. And that is excellent advice you're giving-- the wrong agent really is worse than no agent.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Wow, thanks for sharing this! Congrats on getting A Call even if it wasn't The Right Call. I'm sure the right one is coming soon! I'm going to bookmark this for when I'm ready to query. I would hate to be in a bad situation.
I'm so proud of you and elated at the same time. I think it is fantastic that you are following what you think is right and not just jumping the first train because it passes by on the tracks. I can only imagine how that must have been for you. This is very inspirational to all of us to know that you don't just have to go with the first one that calls.:D
This is so important! After so many rejections, we're tempted to just say yes to anybody who's interested. But it can lead to disaster. I once turned down an agent who made "the call" because she wanted me to change the ending--which would have changed the entire point of the book. I'm still glad I didn't change it.
Also, right now, a lot of successful indies are getting calls from agents--some are scammers, but others are high-powered big-guns in the industry. But not everybody is going to be happy with high-powered, shut-up-and-listen types. It has to be a good fit.
Thanks for this, and congrats on holding out for what's right for YOU.
Stina, I'm late to the conversation, but I wanted to add my pat on your back. Well done. That had to be so difficult, but you know in your heart you made the right move. Bravo.
This is such an interesting post. I don't often think about what would happen if the wrong agent called me. Mostly, I think about not squealing like a little girl when it does come. But this is great to keep in mind. Thanks, Stina!
Becca @ The Bookshelf Muse
Fantastic article. You are so wise to wait for the right agent. I've heard horror stories as well where writers haven't meshed well with their agent
Hey there - late to the convo, but this was too great a post NOT to comment on. Having recently left my agent (a good agent, but not the right one for me), I totally agree that it is important to follow your gut and do your homework in these matters.
Awesome info. I'm going to save this for future reference.
Congratulations for getting the call AND for being strong enough to reject it. You are absolutely correct about it needing to be right agent. I'm very impressed with you at the moment!
I think you made the right decision. I know I want an agent who not only believes in my current work, but my future work as well. Because I have a lot more than a single title rattling around in this head of mine.
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