Is It the Agent or the Book

If you have an agent who loves your book enough to represent you and if that agent has a decent track record, the reason your book hasn't sold is probably, not definitely, but probably the economy. I don't think it is possible to overstress just how bad it is out there right now.

That being said, I think it is quite possible that A B C D and F above could all be true statements at least some of the time. (re: E I don't think agents are the primary generators of book buzz)

lkp is right -- and and all of the above might be true. Agent A might not be as good at getting the big advances, but might turn around and do a kick-ass job with overseas sales. My agent likes to do some editing, while others are more hands off.

I don't know many good agents who would quit after three rejections, though. And like lkp said, the agent generally isn't the one generating buzz and publicity and reviews -- that's the publisher's job, if anyone's.

That said, if you've signed with an agent, I'm going to assume you did the research and know this is an agent with a good sales record and a clear ability to sell books to publishers. If it's been a while with no update, you might try asking your agent what the status of your project is.

popmuze said:

Given the same manuscript by the same writer with the same credentials, which of these statements is true and why.

A) Any half decent agent could get it sold.

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True. But not for many manuscripts.

B) One agent could get twice as much money as another.

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Possible. But you're talking very different kinds of agents, and not all that many have the clout to inflate an advance to that degree.

C) One agent could sell it in a week while another might never sell it.

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True. But possibly the second agent isn't very competent, which might result in an undistinguished track record, which hopefully would steer you away from querying him/her in the first place.

D) One agent will edit it to pieces while another will send it out virtually as is.

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True! This difference in styles can be frustrating.

E) After it's published, some agents will get it talked about all over New York, while another will let it die un-reviewed.

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False. Agents aren't responsible for post-publication publicity.

F) One agent will give up on the book after three rejections, while another will keep submitting for a year or more.

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True. But again, the first agent doesn't sound very competent, which likely would be reflected in his/her track record.

How do you know beforehand if you've got the agent who can sell your book? If the book isn't selling, how do you know if it's the book or the agent (or the economy).

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All you can do is research the best you can for the best fit between you, your book, and the agent, and try to resist the temptation to query third-tier agents when you get frustrated by rejections from top-tier agents.

If you wind up with a third-tier agent, the odds are higher that the answer to the second question is "the agent." But with a successful agent, you probably will never be able to find a satisfactory answer. There are so many factors to consider, and even the best agent may not do the best job for every client. That's a tough truth of the business.

- Victoria

Every situation is different, so I'm speaking generally here. For every "rule" there's an exception and someone who had the opposite experience.

Typically, once a book has been rejected by a house that's it. Acquisitions are often made by a group, so a no is a no to the whole staff. Editors of one house know the tastes of the other editors, and if they get something that isn't right for them, but might be for the editor across the hall, they'll give them the manuscript.

Agents don't appreciate a client telling them how to do their jobs. And in all fairness, unless you're out there networking and meeting editors, you don't know who likes what enough to tell the agent who's right or wrong for your book.

That said...

If you've parted with Agent A and all the legal stuff regarding the ms. is settled (check your contract on what happens when you part ways), you should be able to get a list of who they submitted your ms. to. You can give that letter to Agent B and they can tell you how to proceed. If Agent A really did do a terrible job and there are still plenty of editors out there who might be interested, Agent B can do their job and submit away.

There was just a discussion on another forum about authors requesting their agent submit to certain editors. It was a consensus from the agents about how much they disliked that, but phrasing it as a question and not a request or a demand was okay. For example: "I heard EditorBoB really does well with books like these, are they a good candidate for my book?"

It's a sad truth, but not every book an agent takes on sells, no matter how good the agent is. It's possible to have a well written, quality book that never finds a home. It stinks, but it happens. You also hear about books that agents loved and believed in and they spent years trying to sell it, and finally do. It's a weird business sometimes.

If this book isn't finding a home, write another. One book doesn't make you a writer, writing makes you a writer. Not every book is going to be a winner no matter who writes it. All we can do as writers is to write the best books we can and put them out there.

There are so many variables to the process, it really is all but impossible to come up with an exact answer, unless you have indisputable proof that your agent was incompetent (for instance, you discover that some or many of the publishers where she submitted the ms. were inappropriate for it).

Even if your agent knows 43 editors, 6 of whom would love the book, none of those six might be able to take it on--they might recently have bought a book with a similar premise or subject (this happened to me once--the editor liked my book better but felt he couldn't take it), or the marketing folks might not think it would sell enough, or someone higher up on the food chain might not love it as much. Having an enthusiastic agent in your corner is very, very important, but it's only one part of the puzzle.

If your agent is asking you to come up with submission ideas, s/he either isn't doing his/her job, or s/he has given up. Instead of scouring the library for names to give this agent, you might be better off approaching reputable independent publishers (in which your agent might not be interested, due to lower advances) on your own.

- Victoria