Agents

The Case for Pursuing a Traditional Publishing Deal Without an Agent

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From Jane Friedman:

Securing the services of a literary agent has long been the gold standard for authors pursuing a long and successful career in publishing.

It’s easy to understand why. At the turn of the twentieth century, the so-called “author’s representative” emerged as the figure who would help authors cut a better deal with publishers. Most publishers were unhappy about this since agents who skillfully leveraged their clients’ hot properties forced publishers to shell out more money on better terms.

By mid-century, the agenting game was well established. Legendary agents like Sterling Lord (Jack Kerouac and Doris Kearns Goodwin were among his clients) and Robert Gottlieb (Toni Morrison, Robert Caro) impressed writers with their ability to champion talent, nurture genius, and land lucrative publishing deals. Needless to say, authors couldn’t accomplish half so much on their own behalf. The gatekeepers had won—and were here to stay.

Fast forward to today. Agents still function as gatekeepers, especially to the Big Five publishers and many top-tier smaller publishers, such as Tin House (whose open-reading periods are limited to a few days a year). Breakout debuts by authors like Jessica George (represented by David Higham) and stratospheric careers like Bonnie Garmus’ (repped by Curtis Brown) would not be possible without agents in the mix.

But, dear authors, securing an agent is not the only path to getting happily published (outside of self-publishing).

One big reason to consider other strategies (especially with a first book) is that the agenting business model is showing serious signs of wear-and-tear. Many agents readily admit the industry is in flux.

According to the latest member survey by the Association of American Literary Agents, an overwhelming majority of agents report feeling burned out and are working too much uncompensated overtime. And no wonder, as roughly a fifth of them receive 100 or more queries per week. Many also feel underpaid, given that roughly two-thirds depend in part or entirely on commissions—and making a sale can take months, if not years. (Do you imagine this is an elite group? Roughly 30 percent of American agents earn less than $50,000 annually.)

There’s no need to put all your editorial eggs into this one (turbulent) basket.

Scores of traditional small presses operating professionally and ethically in North America (and the UK, Australia, and elsewhere) are open to reviewing manuscripts year-round or seasonally without charging a fee.

Before getting into nuts and bolts on this, let me anticipate some objections that I know are out there, because the lure of agent-magic is strong:

But going directly to a publisher is less prestigious than going with an agent!

Even if that were objectively true, by the time your book is out in the world, readers have no idea how it got there and aren’t thinking about who reps you. The means justify the ends.

But an agent will fight for a better contract, or a bigger advance, than I’d get by negotiating with the publisher myself!

There may be some truth to this, but the tradeoffs are worth considering. For one thing: you’re getting published! A small advance, or no advance, may be offset by your efforts to successfully market your book when it comes out. Secondly, consider spending a few hundred dollars for an attorney to review your contract. The Authors Guild does this for free, and some states (such as Maryland) offer pro bono legal services to artists.

But a small press can’t market my book effectively!

It’s true that the Big Five publishers have bigger marketing budgets for ads and other forms of publicity. But will they put any of that money behind your book? And even big-name authors are increasingly expected to help market their own books and participate on social media.

The best small presses will submit reviews to the same outlets as the Big Five, from Kirkus to Publishers Weekly, and will engage in guerrilla marketing techniques to get you noticed. The gap in marketing efforts is not as wide as you think—and you’ll be expected to self-market with any publisher.

Link to the rest at Jane Friedman

PG says 99 out of 100 small presses have most of the drawbacks of large publishers with even more downside risk.

A large publisher will generally offer to pay a respectable advance. Most small publishers can’t afford those kind of up-front expenditures.

A small press, by definition, doesn’t sell very many books. A small press has to really fight to get one of its titles selected by a major reviewer with lots of readers.

Yet, the terms of a typical small press publishing contract almost always follows New York publisher patterns of demanding everything without a binding commitment to generate a respectable number of sales.

None of the small presses PG has examined vary from large publisher results of an occasional blockbuster, but mostly books that get launched, then flame out.

Time for the Query Critique. First I’ll present the query without comment, then I’ll offer my thoughts and a redline.

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From Nathan Bransford:

Now then. Time for the Query Critique. First I’ll present the query without comment, then I’ll offer my thoughts and a redline. If you choose to offer your own thoughts, please be polite. We aim to be positive and helpful.

Random numbers were generated, and thanks to Dan, whose query is below.

December 19, 2023

Ms. XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX Literary Agency

Dear Ms.XXX,

I hope this letter finds you well. I see that you are registered for the upcoming Thrillerfest 2024, and I would like to introduce my novel, ONCE A DETECTIVE…, and express my interest in securing your representation.

ONCE A DETECTIVE… is a work of commercial fiction in the private detective genre. In present time, Detective Dan Burnett, with 30 years of experience with the NYPD, fails his physical and chooses retirement over desk duty. At fifty-five, he’s too young to do nothing, so he becomes a private investigator and learns the ropes from a P.I. with a similar history. Divorced, his one source of true happiness is his college-aged daughter. After assisting his new partner with some ongoing cases, he lands a case of his own: a beautiful woman whose brother was murdered. After two years, the NYPD had given up on the case, so it’s now up to him to find the murderer. The suspects are Las Vegas casinos, where the brother owed a million dollars, and his second wife, who inherited millions upon his death. He doggedly works the case using his life-long skills with the help of a former colleague, the NYPD detective originally assigned to the case. Tracking a mob hitman leads him on a chase across the country, searching for the truth and ultimately finding it.

Inspired by my favorite novels by Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, and others, I have woven a story of mystery, suspense, and romance.

I have recently retired from a life as a real estate developer and ocean sailor, and I finally have the time to pursue my longtime passion for writing and storytelling. To promote my work, I am in the process of creating an author’s web page that will link to social media.

Following is the first chapter for your review. I am happy to provide the complete 61,000-word manuscript at your request, and am also open to discussing revisions to align with your publishing vision.

Thank you for considering ONCE A DETECTIVE… I look forward to the opportunity to discuss this project with you further. Feel free to contact me by phone or e-mail to arrange a meeting or provide feedback.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX

As with so many queries, this one could benefit from more vivid details. The plot here feels extremely standard (retired detective becomes PI and investigates murder). That’s not necessarily an issue, provided the details, style, and setting feel fresh.

. . . .

Here’s a pretty simple formula you can use to stick the landing:

[PROTAGONIST(s)] must [DO X AND/OR Y AND/OR Z] in order to [GOAL/REWARDS] / or else [CONSEQUENCES].

Not every final line needs to follow this precise formula. Maybe in some plots you want to spell out the rewards a bit more, others to clearly articulate the consequences. But if you utilize this formula, you’ll quickly give the agent a sense of what’s ultimately at stake for the protagonist as the novel heads toward the climax.

. . . .

Here’s my redline:

December 19, 2023

Ms. XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX Literary Agency [This is almost assuredly an email, not a business letter]

Dear Ms.XXX,

I hope this letter finds you well. I see that you are registered for the upcoming Thrillerfest 2024, and. I would like to introduce my commercial fiction novel, ONCE A DETECTIVE…, and express my interest in securing your representation.

ONCE A DETECTIVE… is a work of commercial fiction in the private detective genre. In present time, After 30 years with the NYPD, Detective Dan Burnett, with 30 years of experience with the NYPD, fails his physical and chooses retirement over desk duty. At fifty-five and divorced, with a college-aged daughter as his one true source of happiness, he’s too young to do nothing, so he becomes a private investigator and learns the ropes from a P.I. with a similar history. [Missed opportunity to portray the other P.I. more vividly] Divorced, his one source of true happiness is his college-aged daughter.

¶After assisting his new partner with some ongoing cases, he lands a case of his own: a beautiful woman whose brother was murdered two years ago [Be more vivid/specific about both the woman and the brother]. After two years, tThe NYPD hads given up on the case, so it’s now up to him to find the murderer. The suspects are Las Vegas casinos, where tThe brother owed a million dollars to Las Vegas casinos, and his second wife, who inherited millions upon his death. HeDan doggedly works the case using his life-long skills with the help of a former colleague, the NYPD detective originally assigned to the case. Tracking a mob hitman leads him on a chase across the country, searching for the truth and ultimately finding it. [Very flat final line. Consider something more like “Dan must do [X AND Y] in order to [GOAL/REWARDS] or else [CONSEQUENCES].]

ONCE A DETECTIVE… is complete at 61,000 words and will appeal to readers of Inspired by my favorite novels by Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, and others, I have woven a story of mystery, suspense, and romance. [Consider more current comp titles]

I have recently retired from a life as a real estate developer and ocean sailor, and I finally have the time to pursue my longtime passion for writing and storytelling. To promote my work, I am in the process of creating an author’s web page that will link to social media. [This isn’t going to inspire an agent’s confidence that you are at the baseline competency for technology usage as an author]

Following is the first chapter for your review. I am happy to provide the complete 61,000 word manuscript at your request, and am also open to discussing revisions to align with your publishing vision. [Goes without saying] Thank you for considering ONCE A DETECTIVE… I look forward to the opportunity to discuss this project with you further. Feel free to contact me by phone or e-mail to arrange a meeting or provide feedback. [Goes without saying]

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX

Link to the rest at Nathan Bransford

Is Self-Publishing a Good Choice for Authors in 2024?

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Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris:

Talk about self-publishing has diminished in the last few years.  Most of the “Kindle Millionaires” that surged onto the scene a decade or so ago have evaporated from indie writing communities.

Some of them are, of course, busy writing their next bestseller. But a lot either got traditional publishing contracts, like Hugh Howey and Amanda Hocking (remember them?), or they moved on to more lucrative careers.

Writing about self-publishing isn’t wildly fashionable these days. Formerly prolific indie advocate Joe Konrath has only updated his blog, The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, once since 2019. D. D. Scott, of the Writers Guide to E-Publishing dropped the blog long ago

But the hottest phenom in publishing last year, Colleen Hoover, started as an indie author — and she still self-publishes some of her books. You can’t argue with her amazing success.

Why Self-Publishing is No Longer Big News
Here’s the thing: The Self-Publishing “Revolution” of the previous decade was tied directly to the “Ebook Revolution.” Indie publishing was sparked by the advent of the Kindle.

When Amazon launched the Kindle in the late ‘oughties, customers needed ebooks to read on it. And Amazon opened up a marketplace for self-publishing to flourish. Indie authors who sold their ebooks for under $5 became bestsellers when they competed against trad-pubbed ebooks priced at $10 and up.

And wise indie authors still price their books below the Big 5 prices. They can afford to, because there are no agents and publishers to skim off the bulk of the profits.

The fact self-publishing isn’t big news now is exactly because it’s so successful. It’s zooming along with no roadblocks, so there’s no news. Authors who take their indie careers seriously are making a lot of money self-publishing. They’re doing their own marketing and turning out books quickly for their growing fan bases.

They also write in genres that sell to voracious readers who generally buy ebooks, like Romance, mystery, thrillers, and sci-fi/fantasy.

These genres do well in subscription services like Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, Kobo Plus, Scribd, etc. Subscription services are growing fast, according to The New Publishing Standard. Kindle Unlimited paid out $575 million to self-publishers last year.

However, children’s, literary, upmarket fiction and “book-club” women’s fiction still tends to sell better in hard copy.

. . . .

I see that a lot of new writers who are planning to self-publish will immediately start talking about book signings and getting books into physical bookshops.

But that’s not where an indie should be putting their energy. Book signings can be fun, and a physical book launch party can be an important celebration for the author. Swag like bookmarks, mugs and T-shirts can be a blast to design and prepare.

But these things are about fun, not making big sales.

That’s because in-person events are not the way most indies sell their books. (With the exception of nonfiction self-help books. If you’re a motivational speaker, you can sell a lot of hard copy books at your speaking engagements.)

. . . .

Self-publishing does mean giving up some fantasies. Self-published authors rarely, if ever, are interviewed on NPR or reviewed in The New Yorker. Chances of being invited to participate in a TV talk show are minimal.  You probably won’t see your book in the window of your local Barnes and Noble, and you won’t be chosen for Reese’s or Oprah’s book clubs.

If these things are essential to your image of being a published author, either let them go, or keep slogging on that query-go-round and get yourself an agent and traditional publishing deal. Not a lot of traditionally published authors get national radio interviews or reviews in prestigious magazines either, but you’ll have a fighting chance.

. . . .

If you’re self-publishing, you’re going to be selling mostly ebooks, you are going to need to do most of your marketing online. Online marketing means establishing a major social media presence, as well as having an enticing website (and preferably, a blog. ) You’ll also want a strong email list of subscribers.

If you’re not interested in online marketing, self-publishing probably isn’t for you. The slow death of X-Twitter has made online marketing more difficult. If your demographic is over 40, Facebook can still help, but for most genres, you need to be on Instagram, and if you write Romance or YA, you definitely need Tiktok.

Link to the rest at Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris

The OP was generally right about the facts, but PG wonders if serious indie authors have the sort of “fantasies” the OP describes.

PG has known a great many indie authors, including more than a few who hired him to break out of their traditional publishing contracts with large New York publishers.

(Reminder: PG is retired, so he doesn’t this sort of thing any more. Please don’t ask.)

Typically, the authors who wanted to escape from traditional publishing contracts and the necessary New York literary agency 15% taken off the top wanted to self-publish so they could make more money and run their own shows.

They wanted to make more money because most traditionally published authors don’t make much money from their writing either. “Don’t give up your day job,” is advice a large number of traditionally-published authors hear from their agents.

As with any endeavor, some of PG’s now former clients did very well financially, adding a zero, sometimes two zeroes, to their previous annual writing incomes. Others didn’t have the knack of running their own business and didn’t do so well.

Everybody who escaped from their publishers and agents did share one benefit that was important to them.

They were the boss now.

They ran their own business the way they thought best. They could write what they wanted to write their books in the way they wanted to write them without explaining or justifying their choices to anybody else.

One more simple fact is that traditionally published authors whose last name isn’t Obama or another with similar public awareness also have to do social media marketing. And lots of other chores and homework assigned to most traditionally published authors by somebody at their publisher or their agent.

Who Needs a Literary Agent Anyway? Do They Deserve That Percentage?

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From Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris:

As last September ended, a report from the Association of American Literary Agents painted a bleak picture of the American literary agent — working long hours and struggling to pay the bills, worrying for their future.

Among the members of the author community who had ever received a rejection slip from an agent, reactions ran the gamut of emoticon abbreviations, from LOL to RAOTFL to LMAO.*

These people get paid to read books! What are they whining about?

And who needs an agent anyway? One rejected the sample chapters of my interplanetary erotica fantasy, Fifty Shades of Venus, without even reading it, despite me sending a great query letter. I even used the spell-checker! But they emailed back the same day to tell me they only repped children’s books. These people just cannot move with the times!

So the next time, I sent the full 400,000 word manuscript, even though they only asked for the first two chapters. I figured it would save them time later, and helpfully told them that the action doesn’t really start until chapter 38, so they might want to start there. Rejected again. What do agents know anyway?

. . . .

Yeah, we’ve all been there. Most authors only see agents from the rejection slip end. It’s no wonder we don’t like them. And believe me, I accumulated a suitcase full of rejection slips back when I was querying.

Along the road, my books attracted the attention of two agents. One New York agent, having found my self-published book in the best-seller charts in three countries, made vague promises of movie deals and the like. And then they lost interest.

The other agent, a fellow Brit, was really excited, and had the manuscript being read by top commissioning editors at big publishing houses. A gazillion-digit publishing deal seemed to be just an email away. And then nothing.

That was disappointing, of course. But it didn’t turn me off agents. Because years previously I had worked in a London literary agency for a week as part of a journalism deal. My editor was sending me on week-long “job challenges”, most of which were not fun in any way. An abattoir… An undertakers… A fish factory… A sausage factory…

And just when I was ready to quit the magazine and strangle the editor, a literary agency. In London!

I was ecstatic! Every journalist wants to be a book writer, of course. This was my chance to spend a week drinking coffee, reading future bestsellers, mixing with big-name author over expensive lunches, and casually bringing into the conversation the two books I’d got sitting in a drawer at home that less reputable agents had foolishly turned down.

Maybe I could be a literary agent myself? No qualifications needed. Just stick an advert in the paper (yes, this was back in 1999), wait for the unpublished books to arrive in the post, call a publisher with the good news, and collect the commission. Money for old rope! My dream job had arrived!

. . . .

By the end of my first day all my illusions had been shot to pieces. Not a single famous author passed through the doors with a lunch invite at the Savoy. Lunch was a sandwich and a coffee from the greasy spoon café next door. In fact, famous authors never seemed to get mentioned at all.

Watching the daily delivery of unsolicited manuscripts was a revelation. At least 200 over the course of the week (this before email submissions and before self-publishing), and each one was dutifully opened and scanned for potential.

Sometimes the query letter was enough to warrant a rejection slip. As a writer myself, I was initially appalled. A rejection without even looking at the manuscript? A manuscript some poor soul had spent months, maybe years, slaving over, rewriting, revising, honing to perfection? Then I read the query letters and realised the standard of English on just one page was often more than enough to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

This in the early days of home PCs and MS Word, when many wannabe authors were still typing manuscripts through worn-out ribbons and with gallons of correction fluid.

Then came the first chapter reads. So many authors would send the full MS despite clear instructions to only send the initial chapters, but every package was unwrapped and glanced over. One of the agents has a memo framed above her desk: “Think JK, Every Day.” This was the year Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published, and the legend of the agents and publishers who had sneered and told JK Rowling not to give up the day job was discussed in hushed tones in every corner of every agency and publishing house around the world.

. . . .

But despite every package being opened, and every query letter scrutinised, many author careers stalled at this point. Some manuscripts showed no promise, some were simply derivative, some just came in at the wrong time. Agents had to judge what would be hot in the market years down the road. The speed the publishing industry operates at makes the South American three-toed sloth look like an Olympic sprinter.

And then there was the actual reading of the manuscripts – not finely polished books with pretty covers, fine type-setting and all the typos edited out by Spell-Check, but raw paper and faded double-spaced ink drowning in correction fluid on dog-eared pages that had spent days in the postal system in a flimsy envelope.

Then would come the redrafting and the re-redrafting and the re-re-re-drafting for those that cleared the first hurdle, the agent. All while trying not to upset the prospective future bestselling author that still had a lot to learn. This was happening over weeks or months — having to read and re-read the same manuscript.

And the agent all the time was losing the will to live as the wannabe author insisted their work was already perfect and the agents didn’t deserve the commission that at this point was far from guaranteed. And all the time trying to explain to said author that being repped was no guarantee of a publisher agreeing to actually publish. Let alone handing out the mega-advances newbie authors fantasise about.

This was happening in between the existing client representation, fighting for better deals, trying to find foreign rights (and nowadays audio and translation rights – not so common back in the nineties). Plus the agony of having to tell a one-time bestselling author that the market had moved on. Their latest book would not earn out the advance, and that their next book would not find a publisher.

Link to the rest at Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris