What do you look for in an agent?

For me, someone who can get you a sale, plain and simple. From my experience so far, which to be fair isn't extensive, I have found that I work more closely with my editor than my agent.

I'm actually on my second agent. The first, although he was very nice, and we got on well, his agency (which was basically him) couldn't really handle my needs, and didn't have the weight to pull in the sort of deal I wanted. My second agent is a big-hitter within a big agency, which means she gets listened to, and any scripts she sends out WILL get read, and probably quite promptly. However, I'm now a small fish in a big pond, and get very little of her direct attention, emails can sometimes go unanswered for days, and it takes an eternity for her to get round to reading revisions. But...those frustrating things aside, I know I'm repped by an agent who can sell, and sell very well. And that...has to be the primary qualifier.

From what I've heard, agents vary hugely in quality, and I think it's not going too far to say you're better of without one than getting in with a particularly bad one!

aruna said:

...Apart from the obvious: many sales, authors you've heard of, clean business practices.

In recent thres we've dicussed agents as marriage partners, frinds, and simply business partners. I look for a certain attitude, which I'll go into later. So, what do you want your agent to be? Friend, partner, employee, a shoulder to cry on, counsellor, what?

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All the things you look for, but also, to be blunt, an agent who always lets me have my own way. I want an agent who will give me options, who will give me opinions, but in the end, it's my writing, she works for me, and I make all the final decisions.

I don't want an agent who tells me this needs rewritten, or that needs to be a different kind of book, or I can't write this because the market doesn't want such things right now. I must have an agent who believes in me enough to let me make all these calls.

aruna said:

...Apart from the obvious: many sales, authors you've heard of, clean business practices.

In recent thres we've dicussed agents as marriage partners, frinds, and simply business partners. I look for a certain attitude, which I'll go into later. So, what do you want your agent to be? Friend, partner, employee, a shoulder to cry on, counsellor, what?

Click to expand...

Enthusiasm, first and foremost.

After that? Sales of similar books, a knowledge of the market you're trying to hit, all that good stuff.

Not a marriage partner; I already have one of those. However, I would like someone that's one part counselor, one part employee, one part friend, one part fan.

That's a lot of parts. *g*

I want a tough-as-nails negotiator that publishers fear and/or respect. I want him/her to have enough experience that the horrid "boilerplate" contracts have long given way to fought-for reasonable clauses so a bad one would never even be offered to me.

I don't need my hand held, so I don't care about that.

I want my agent to be on the ADVANCE pulse of the industry so s/he can call me and say (for example), "Hey! I heard at lunch today that Penguin will be starting a new line in 2008. I think I can get you in as a launch title. What can we offer them? Send me three or four thumbnail sketches." before I ever put fingers to keyboard.

Thankfully (gratefully, and happily) I found one just like this , and I'm keeping her!

I want what Cathy C wants. I don't need hand holding.

I want someone who has their finger on the pulse of the business...connections, where they can call up a publisher and talk to them personally. I had a bad experience with an agent that was not considered to be one by the rest of the industry, and trust me, getting the wrong agent is more trouble than it's worth.

Agents, agents

I have been repped by no less than 6 agents (not counting sub-agents in foreign markets) in the past 13 years, which may not be a record, but must be up there. This was not hire-and-fire; some left the business, some left the firm (and I decided not to go with them) and I have had more than one literary incarnation on either side of the Atlantic.

Anyway, my considered view on agents is that it is hard for a client to ever really know if he/she has the right one. When agents land you good deals you think they are wonderful; when they don't you think they are lousy (only much later do you blame yourself...). The fact is, you don't see an agent work: you only see the results. This means it is hard to judge how enthusiastic they really are about your work; how much they prioritize it, and how persuasive they are.

Of course, an agent who gives you great pointers on improving your books (or ideas on what to write) is giving you something extra. But few do that these days. Their response is valuable, but mostly no more valuable than any intelligent reader's. That said, there are some very experience ex-publishers /editors who are now agents, and they may have more to offer in this department.

All things considered, then, your first criteria should probably be the agent's current standing in the market. This waxes and wanes, but some agents generate more heat than others. They do this by introducing bestselling /prize-winning writers to the market, and doing it regularly. There is no database of agent track records that I know of: you need to roll up your sleeves and look for stories on the Internet. (Of course, before the Internet getting this info was very difficult unless you moved in London/New York literary circles.)

As a PS I would add that it is quite tough being an agent these days. They are all having to compete for a dwindling number of big-earning clients, while advances to the rank and file have been falling quite steeply (and their commissions with it). So they have loads of unhappy clients and a few big ones they must handle with kid gloves or else...

What Cathy C said. I want a warrior, a smaller outfit, and somebody who is agressive and not afraid to attend every writer's conference, event, pitch session, or organizational hoopala. He needs to be swift, attentive, and in love with my projects. I'd like him to be on a face-to-face terms with all of the major senior editors at the big houses. I want him to have tie-ins to movie studios.

So far I have all that. Now if we can just start selling some fiction!

Tri

aruna said:

...Apart from the obvious: many sales, authors you've heard of, clean business practices.

In recent thres we've dicussed agents as marriage partners, frinds, and simply business partners. I look for a certain attitude, which I'll go into later. So, what do you want your agent to be? Friend, partner, employee, a shoulder to cry on, counsellor, what?

Click to expand...

Thank you for authoring a very informative thread.