Being Honest With An Agent

Be honest.
This could be the start of a long business relationship. Would you want less than total honesty from your business partner.

waylander said:

Be honest.

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Always the best idea. There are ways to phrase things so that you can be honest about the problems and why you terminated the relationship without "badmouthing".

You are a writer, after all.

Carmy said:

Does it pay?

I've just fired an agent because we weren't getting anywhere. It could be that my writing stinks, it could be the way the agent submitted to publishers, or it could be that the agent did no submitting. The latter is probable because I could never get a detailed list of where submissions were made just "mass mailout" by email.

I've just contacted two other agents. One asked for details of previous representation but I included the information in both queries. I was careful not to badmouth the fired agent. Should I have told them? Was I being too honest? Would they be worried that I'd badmouth them if they took a chance and accepted me as a client and then failed to sell anything?

I'm sure agents know a lot about other agents and agencies. If the one I had was considered a 'bad' agent would they know? How would it affect the way they deal with my query?

I'm wondering if I should have kept my mouth shut.

What would you do?

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Having hired and fired my share of agents, I could probably be of help to you, but I don't understand your situation as written.
Are you submitting the same book to new agents that the previous agent failed to sell? Usually an agent will want to know where that manuscript has been.
If this is a new book, I'm not sure I see the need to mention your previous agent at all. You just say, here's my project, I'm looking for an agent. If it comes up (usually at a very advanced point), you can just say, he wasn't right for my stuff or it was a bad match, etc.

I've "fired" two agents. In both cases I was upfront and honest and have never said one bad word about a previous agent.

It pays to be both honest and circumspect. Tell them that you and your last agent parted ways because the relationship didn't work out and tell them who the agent was. That's all I would say. If they want more details, they will ask.

I think you did good. Be honest, and don't badmouth. If a new agent takes you on for the same project, they'll have to know where it's been submitted. Which means you may need to contact the old agent and pin him (or her?) down on exactly where he submitted the thing, if he submitted it at all.

If your new agent finds out after the fact that the old agent already sent it to Editor Bob, that's a good way to piss off new agent. Be up front, but stay professional.

Did your agent simply send the pitch by email, or the entire MS?? Either way, it's not the norm, and it doesn't sound like a very good way to go about things. Agents establish relationships with editors, then pitch in person or over the phone, then send a hard copy of the MS by mail or messenger. And they don't do "mass" anything; they target the best editors for your book, and work from there. Did you check this agent at P & E? Did you pay this agent anything up front?

Carmy said:

With the exception of one publisher, I have no idea where she submitted my novels. I tried several times to pin her down, but the answer she always gave was that she'd done "mass mailouts by email" which made me uneasy. It also means I have no information to give to a new agent who takes me on.

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This is a totally unprofessional method, and one that would not be employed by a competent agent. Very likely, many of these emails would have been deleted as spam (like agents, many editors prefer paper).

Speculating further, it's possible that these mass emails included pitches for multiple manuscripts--this is something that less-than-competent agents often do to save themselves time and postage--which would immediately identify the email as coming from an unprofessional agent and would result in more deletions. Also, if this agent doesn't know how to submit, she also may not know how to identify appropriate publishers, and the emails may well have been badly targeted, which would be yet another reason to ignore them.

Especially since you haven't heard anything about rejections, I think you can assume with reasonable certainty that your ms. has not been seriously read or considered as a result of your agent's submissions. This is what a new agent would be concerned about. You don't re-submit a ms. to an imprint that has already rejected it, and enough rejections can seriously reduce a manuscript's sales prospects, making it unattractive for a new agent.

I agree that you need to come clean. Say that you were previously represented, but that you and your agent have parted ways. If a new agent asks where your ms. was read, say that your old agent wasn't able to get you any readings, and that's why you terminated the relationship.

- Victoria