7 Reasons Why You Need a Literary Agent

by Scott Matthews

Once you decide to publish your book traditionally, you will definitely need a literary agent. Irrespective of if you are approaching a large-sized publishing firm or a middle or small-sized firm. The literary agent acts as your business partner and helps you through the processes. It might be easier for you to find an agent to represent you if you write in just one genre, but if you do not have a specific genre you are focused on, it can be a little difficult. What is important is to get a literary agent that believes in your project and is ready to help you through it.

The roles of literary agents are changing in modern times. Some agents can now help online essay writer and authors self-publish their books when they are unable to get other publishing homes to publish their works. You can also get some of them to help you edit your manuscripts.

Before deciding to work with an agent, you should take your time to interview them the same way they are going to be interviewing you. You have to create a mutual understanding between yourselves as you would probably be working with them for a while. You should also agree on the price beforehand. Ideally, your agent should get 15% of whatever you make. So, it is important that you find someone whom you can work well with and fit in with your personality. You should also ensure that the agent you are going to be working with is a registered member of the AAR (Association of Author’s Representative) which is the association for all literary agents.

As an author providing professional writing service, it is impossible to deny the fact that you need a literary agent. If you are still not convinced about this, here are 7 reasons why you need a literary agent:

1. Literary Agents Link You To The Right Publishers 

Because these agents are already in this business for a while, they have a wide network and the contacts that you would ordinarily not have access to on your own just as a writer. So, based on the genre you write in, agents have a pretty good idea of which publishers would be more interested in taking up your work. They understand the nuances of each publisher, what they like and what they do not like. They also know the type of projects that the publishers would be interested in. so, they know the right ones for you.

With this knowledge, they pitch your work to those that are more likely to accept and publish them. This way, you are less likely to face rejections as you do not have to submit your work to hundreds of publishers.

1. They Help With The Right Pitches

These agents are like marketers. They help to market your writings to the publishers through appropriate pitches. This is something you might be able to do by yourself, only if you can connect with the right publishers. These agents already have the publishing contacts that you need, if they already have trust with the publishers it will be easier to pitch your work to them and you will get a response much faster than if you had to send proposals to different publishing homes by yourselves. You will not just get a faster response, there is a strong possibility of you getting a positive response as well. This, in itself, will save you a lot of time and stress.

1. Agents Can Negotiate Better Than You Can

Except you are looking to write a book and not try to make money from it, you will need an agent to help you with negotiations. Publishing contracts is one area that is constantly changing and it is the job of the agent to monitor the trends and try to work out the best deal for their clients (you). Contracts are usually changing with new issues, apps, and digital apps constantly on how the industry works. If there is one assignment help that literary agents can help you with, it is negotiating a good contract for you. The numerous clauses might make it difficult to keep up, right to audit, noncompetition clause, option clauses, etc. but it is their job to be up to speed with happenings and negotiate the best for you. You are also likely to get a better deal financially with an agent that without one.

1. They Help With Developing Your Book Proposal

Because of the level of experience that these agents already have in the industry, they know what should and should not be in a book proposal. So, they can help you to develop your book proposals to meet up with the industry standards. In this way, they act as consultants telling what you need to know and how you can modify your book proposal to convince and attract the right publishers.

1. They Help You Plan Your Career

If you are working with a good agent, then you have a business partner who can help you plan your writing career and take you up to the pinnacle of success that you desire to be at. Apart from offering your dissertation help, developing your book proposals, helping you speak to publishers and negotiating a good contract for you, they also work on you personally.

If you do not know what next to write about or how you can build a business or brand from writing, or you do not even know how to build a long-term career in writing, a good agent can help you out. They can offer you the right advice and guidance that you need especially if the agent is one who has been in the industry for a while and has worked with other authors. So, they have the knowledge and experience that you need. They’ll also give you advice on the books you should publish traditionally and those you should self-publish.

1. They Act As Your Advocate

In every human relationship, there is a possibility that you would have issues to rectify or trash out due to a misunderstanding. Should this happen after you have got a contract and you are already working with an editor from a publishing house, it becomes the duty of your agent to stand in as your advocator or negotiator till the issue is resolved. They ensure that you are not alone in solving such issues. Since they are your representatives, they stand in for you if something like this happens.

1. They Do The Odd Jobs If And When It Is Necessary

Agents take up a lot of roles for the authors just to ensure that they become successful and their books become a hit. So, they do take up some odd roles when they have to. Some agents in the past have had to take up the role of beta readers for the clients, some have helped in brainstorming for new ideas for a book. Some agents have also had to seek permission to get contributions to their clients. They also help with networking and match mixing their authors with people that they should meet and get to know that might help them in their career.

Getting an agent might not be an easy task though, at least, if you want the one that is best for you. There are some traits that you have to look out for in an agent when choosing the best one for you:

●      Check the track record for their sales: if you want to make enough profit from your book, then you should look for an agent with a track record of many successful sales. This is usually one of the few ways to determine a good literary agent. They make good money for their client.

●      Check their communication skills: it is not just you as a writer who has to be able to communicate in your books. You must have an agent that is also good at communicating. It would be hard to convince a publisher of your work if your agent is bad at communicating. So, they must inspire confidence.

●      Check how much enthusiasm they have: if your agent does not believe in you and your work, trust me, no one else will. You must get an agent that has a level of enthusiasm towards you and is confident in your ability to deliver the goods. Once, they are proud to represent you, they will go to any length to publish and publicize your work.

Conclusion

While it is possible for you as a writer to work on your own, self-publish your book or even reach out to publishing houses by yourself without a middle man. The truth is, you will be able to do much more with an agent. Working with an agent will give you more time to work on yourself and your work while your agent relates to the other things. 

Author’s bio

Scott Matthews is a digital marketer and essay writer at write my thesis.  He also has a blog where he drops his best essay writing works. He loves to travel, meet new people and make new friends. He loves to read and when he is not writing, he is usually behind a pile of books that he reads.   

The Saturday Slash

Don't be afraid to ask for help with the most critical first step of your writing journey - the query.

I’ve been blogging since 2011 and have critiqued over 200 queries here on the blog using my Hatchet of Death. This is how I edit myself, it is how I edit others. If you think you want to play with me and my hatchet, shoot me an email.

If the Saturday Slash has been helpful to you in the past, or if you’d like for me to take a look at your query please consider making a donation, if you are able.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I also offer editing services.

Māyaspace programmer Kal Jibrān tolerates boring errands in a meaningless job only to keep his best friend Jan in intensive care and away from the hands of the Jumpala corporation. The paraplegic CEO Are Jan and the CEO the same person? Unclear. presses him to rent out the comatose body like a Jumpee I don't kmow what this means but Kal keeps finding excuses. A clue to Jan’s revival exists in a Mahābhārata simulation and playing out every scenario needs time. I don't know what this means, either. You're making a lot of presumptions about known world building elements that an agent picking up this query won't have.

High Priest Yūdi Manu is running for President of Greater India and powerful corporations like Jumpala and Māyastudio support him. The High Priest heads the Manu Foundation, an organisation of monks established to restore equality to all humans in the era of augmented superpowers. Like what? And who has them? How is this connected to Jan and Kal? Cultural unification is the first step and Māyastudio assists by programming a standard Manu version of the Mahābhārata I don't know what this means for the whole of South-East Asia. If Yūdi wins the election, his trained monks could take their pogrom against the mechanically augmented Yakṣas to an extreme, forced lobotomy. I don't know what Yaksas are, or how any of this ties to the first paragraph.

A million rupees might buy Jan a few months but Kal needs to work hard missing "for?" the money. He is even willing to deal Purple I don't know what this means and meets his first customer, a rich heiress and a freelance Jumpee, Crystal Barron. If Jumpees overdose on Purple, they turn into schizophrenic Pretas, destitutes anyone can jump into. Again, lots of world building goes into this sentence, and I don't know what most of these words mean, which makes it incomprehensible. Their only hope is the Yakṣa leader Yāḷi who could whisk them away to Pāṭāla, a secret hospice. Too many character names for a query. Indulging Crystal by jumping into her, Kal is stuck in an unfortunate incident, where a mob of monks lynches a Jumpee and seizes two Yakṣas. He takes the easy way out and enlists as a monk. Why would this be the easy way? Again, so many world building elements need to be assumed in order for this query to make any sense. With his programming skills, he exposes an attempt to rescue the Yakṣas. The reward of a billion rupees for Yāḷi’s capture could be the answer to Kal’s problems.

When the attempt is successful and the Yakṣas escape, Yūdi turns against Kal. The High Priest even coaxes a bounty out of Māyastudio, making Kal the most wanted man in Greater India. With Crystal’s help, he takes refuge in Pāṭāla, but Kal’s heart sinks when he discovers the secret of Yāḷi’s death, a fact hidden from the outside world to keep Preta hopes alive.

An attempt to free Jan goes awry and Kal is trapped inside a paraplegic body. Adding to his woes, Yūdi and his allies locate Pāṭāla and lay siege. The Pretas and the Yakṣas face imminent capture and a life of bonded slavery. In an audacious plan, Kal sacrifices his eyes and limbs to become a Yakṣa. He assumes Yāḷi’s role and hacks into a billion Māyaspaces. Kal ensures that Yūdi becomes the president of Greater India, but contingent on establishing three Jump laws that protect the Pretas.

The last two paragraphs solidify what I suspected - this reads like a synopsis, not a query. You are outlining the story while also not explaining any of your world-building terms, which isn't what a query is supposed to do. You need to boil this down to the imperatives - who is the main character? What do they want? What is the conflict that is preventing them from getting that? Anything else is trimming. Queries should be about 300 words. You're near 450 before I even get to your title, word count, and bio.

2074: MAYA BAZAAR is an adult science fiction novel with series potential. Written in multiple points of view, Snowcrash meets the Mahabharata in a 108,000-word cyberpunk dystopia The word count is bloated. You'll need to get under 100k as a debut that will appeal to the fans of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and Richard Morgan.

I co-founded India's premier AI consulting firm and teach at the National University of Singapore. Exposure to data science helps me with imagining technologies that could power the world in 2074.

Your bio is good and shows that you know what you are talking about - unfortunately, no one else does. You're clearly qualified to write the book, however b/c of the complete immersion drop into the world, an agent isn't going to understand what's going on in this query, and likely won't read far enough to get to this bio. Think of the query like a movie trailer - you want to intrigue the audience, not summarize the story.

Debut Author Rachel Harrison on Letting Go Of Some Control

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well. 

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Rachel Harrison, author of The Return.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

I vaguely remember coming up with the concept. I write really early in the morning so a lot of what I come up with is in a pre-caffeinated haze. I love to write about relationships, especially friendships. My relationships with my friends are very important to me, I love my friends, but our dynamics can be complicated sometimes. I wanted to explore that in my writing. More specifically, The Return is about what happens when your friends change, and the fear of losing them. I think the origin of this book was really a mix of personal experience and a vision for a more feminine, kitschy version of The Overlook hotel from The Shining. 

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I created a detailed outline for The Return. I went to college for screenwriting, and sometimes my screenwriting background is a disadvantage when writing prose, other times it’s an advantage. When it came to plotting out The Return, it was definitely an advantage, because I felt I was able to have a clear vision of the arc of the story, what beats it should hit. Doesn’t always work that way! I got lucky with this book. 

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

100%! I’m a teensy bit of control freak, so it was a hard lesson for me to learn, but I think as a writer you need to follow your gut and allow yourself some flexibility. Sometimes your characters chime in, and sometimes what clicks in an outline doesn’t align with how things are progressing in your prose and you have to adjust. Change can be good – though, being a teensy, tiny, itty-bitty bit of a control freak, I’m reluctant to admit it!

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I usually have ideas come to me pretty often (*knocks on wood*). For me, the challenge comes with executing the ideas well. Because of my screenwriting background, I was basically trained to think of very high-concept ideas that could be summed up in a log line. But sometimes those high-concept ideas don’t work on paper. I try not to get too attached to my ideas. I casually date my ideas, then decide if we should commit or break up. 

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I typically only have one idea at a time. I fancy myself a monogamist. I’m really running with this relationship metaphor. In the spirit of full transparency, I have to admit that I have, on occasion, had mistresses. I’ve definitely been 20,000 words into a project and had a mistress idea. A new idea that tempts and distracts me. Then I have to make a judgement call. If I’m really obsessed with my mistress and she’s all I can think about, then I need to figure out if I should finish my current project or abandon it for my mistress.

I have 5 cats (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I have one cat, her name is Gatsby, and she keeps me company sometimes, but she can be very distracting. She is a brat and demands constant attention. I like silence when I write, and she does not abide! My husband has learned to leave me alone and stay quiet while I’m writing. He’s a good sport!