Some people would advise you to find out ALL you can about an agent before you submit to them.
Meh.
But definitely do it before you sign.
And truthfully, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Personalities are hard to read second hand. If you’ve been to a conference and seen them or been on one of Verla’s chats with them, maybe you have a bit of an idea, but in my experience, what people say about themselves isn’t often representative of what it’s like to work with them.
I mean, who says, “I’m the type of agent who’s really jealous if you already have a relationship with an editor.” Or, “I say I’m going to submit a lot of your work, but what I mean is PRETEND to submit a lot of your work.”
Your best bet is to interview people who are WITH the agent and find out why they like him and why they think others have left him. ”
If they say_______, you say __________:
“They didn’t think he sent out enough manuscripts.” How many does he send out?
“They didn’t think he kept enough contact.” How often does he call/write?
“They thought she asked for too many revisions before submitting.” How much revision does she request?
“They never sold anything.” Why do you think that is?
Now, NONE of us ever do this until after the fact. But if it occurs to you and you can find someone willing to talk…you’ll never regret it.
If like the rest of us, you neglect to check personal references, (or don’t get them at all) look for REAL excitement about your work. And I don’t mean they SAY they’re really excited, but that you could tell the were excited, even if they were mute.
My friend signed with an agent that said she was excited, but it was more like being in a multi-level marketing group. Contracts keeping my friend from ever submitting alone. Lots of criticism with a smile. Lots of work protecting THEIR image from her mistakes. They weren’t excited about her work. They were really excited about building their own reputations.
My agent called, said he loved this piece and could he go ahead and submit it to Hyperion. He sold it in 48 hours. THAT’s excitement. And interestingly, he made no rules for me. All I needed to do was give permission. He wanted to sell THAT BOOK, right now, no strings.
Aside from excitement, here’s what else you need to know about your potential agent (and yourself):
- Are you a good-contracts-make-good-associates type or do you work on a handshake?
- Do you take control of the whole portfolio or just specific projects as they come?
- Do you throw it all against a wall or sell only one or two super special ones a year?
- How often do you contact? Blow by blows on submissions or just results?
- How will it be handled when you have a disagreement?
- Once the author-editor relationship is established, do conversations about future projects need to go through the agent, or can you just keep them posted?
- And if you do finally get around to interviewing people who are with this agent, finally, see if you can find out who has left this agent and why. It’s probably that the agent and writer didn’t match up on one of the issues mentioned above.
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