CAn I ask a person to be my agent

sharonsharon said:

Not dangerous- THis person is one of top people at random house- i dont want to say what department he is in. Their spouse saw my book and gave it to him. I know he is really there and a professional. HE asked for my permission to work on it- and if i did not know his partner, i would not have allowed it- but it is all on the up and up. He did not ask to be my agent. He is not asking for money-I know these people. they are the head of a department- not a secretary. I Was asking about the agent thing as i was thinking about it- they did not ask but wanted to work on it a bit.

Click to expand...

I think it's fine to have him work on it, but I wouldn't ask him to be your agent. You're better off finding someone who is already established in that capacity. Maybe this person at Random House could recommend someone. I'm assuming he deals with agents all the time, so he must have a pretty good idea what agent might be a good fit for you and your work.

I don't find this odd: maybe SharonSharon's book is extremely good (high concept, sequel-worthy, new angle etc etc) and just needs a bit of work to get it right. It's obviously not crap or the RH person would not be wasting their time.

I still don't understand what's going on.

You say this person has "created bestsellers." Is he an editor? If so, he should not be your agent, and cannot be your agent. Is he a book packager? If so, he should not be your agent, and cannot be your agent. Is he someone who used to be in editorial, and is now in some kind of higher-up administrative role? If so...you get the drill.

Someone who is affiliated with one publishing house cannot be the agent for a manuscript. Full stop. An agent's function is to send manuscripts to different publishing houses and obtain the best deal for their clients; it should be apparent why someone who works for Random House isn't in a position to do that.

If he is going to be your editor, he is getting paid for that work by Random House. If he is not going to be your editor, he still shouldn't be paid for introducing your work to the colleague who will be your editor.

It would be inappropriate for you to offer to pay this person to represent your work, and a huge breach of ethics for him to accept. If you do get an offer from Random House, then approaching agents to help you negotiate your contract would be the right thing to do.

Best of luck to you with the project.

sharonsharon said:

So, no need to warn me --if i did not know them i would be concerned as well. But nice to have my back covered by you guys- thank you for all the info and also concern.

Click to expand...

Maybe you don't need the warning, but inexperienced writers reading need to hear them even if they weren't the one asking the question. Writers here see a lot of people fall for scams, so this board tends to err on the side of making it clear when something needs a closer look.

I'm with IceCreamEmpress. But I'll go a step farther and point out that the OP's writing is full of grammatical errors - so I am doubly confused.

OP, please just query agents. Tell them what is going on. But just keep querying. If it's good it will get picked up, either through your RH contact or someone else.

quicklime said:

But he likely can't be your agent, and almost certainly SHOULD not.....

Click to expand...

There, fixed that for you.

An employee of a publisher CANNOT also be an agent. Period. Full stop. Massive conflict of interest. And the head of a department? No way, not happening, and it would probably offend him if you asked. That's just not how it works.

The most he will do is pitch your book to the acquisitions committee at Random House. If that turns into a publishing offer, you can approach a few of your top-choice agents to see if they're interested in taking you on since you have a contract in hand.

But you really shouldn't ask anyone who works for a publisher to be your agent. You seek amongst reputable agents for an agent.

sharonsharon said:

it is not randomly asking- he read it but feels he needs to polish it up before showing it- makes sense as his job is to sell books and he has created successes for them.

Click to expand...

Okay, you continue to tell us nothing about this person's job, so we're just going to have to guess, I suppose.

If someone in publicity or marketing at Random House is helping you with your book, that's great, but GET AN AGENT. This person cannot be your agent. Full stop.

Please pay attention to this.

sharonsharon said:

The first agent who loved it told me to send it to publishers-

Click to expand...

This doesn't make sense to me. If the agent loved it, he/she would've signed you on as a client so he/she could send it to publishers and get a commission.

Random House or not, it now sounds like someone is editing rewriting/doctoring your book for you after which time you will try and land an agent. Am I correct?

sharonsharon said:

lord knows how long it will take to see the rewrite, but will tell you all if it worked out.

Click to expand...

I've read through most of these posts, and I still don't get this--the editor is doing the rewrites, not making suggestions for you to rewrite it. This just doesn't sound right.

sharonsharon, please don't take this the wrong way, but you really don't sound like you know enough about publishing to be submitting something.

Are you saying that Icecream Empress is correct about this person being in marketing or book packaging? Because those are two wildly different things, and neither of them would be a "top" person at a publisher.

but if they accept it then I will get an agent and I am sure then a frigging agent will accept me as a client

Click to expand...

You can't count on this. If you've got a deal on the table, then MAYBE an agent will take you on, but not always. The agent still has to love your work AND believe there's something for them to do.

Your writing, as shown here in this thread in and others you've participated in, isn't publication standard. Marketing people DON'T rewrite books for authors. They just don't. And they certainly don't work on books that aren't under contract to their publishing house. It could be a conflict of interest if the book they're working on competes with another title. (FWIW, the belief that an agent can't legally take on another client because of an agreement with an existing one is flawed, too.)

You're very eager, and right now you're floating on a lot of euphoric assumptions. Please make sure this person isn't someone feeding off your enthusiasm to revolutionize writing.

No matter what happens, please come back and let us know what happened. There are soooooo many red flags on what you've told us.

How about instead of us guessing we just ask the questions:

What department is he head of? Since you said he would be seeking advice from editors, I assume not the editorial department.

Is he in fact editing your work for you or is he going to read it, offer you editorial suggestions, and then have you make the changes?

And please please please don't think in our asking these questions we think anything negative of you. We are slightly concerned and want to help. But it's hard to know exactly what is going on without specifics. For example, your explanation how he got your manuscript was very helpful in determining he legitimately works for Random House. Now we don't have to worry about that.

For the record, I know that everyone here would be thrilled to learn that this was all legit and above board and a true opportunity for you. No one wants this to turn out bad, nor to try to warp your mind or something to think a sincerely good situation isn't one. We just want to make 100% sure that this situation is what we hope it is. That's all.

Sharon - I appreciate how you feel about people saying what they are saying about your posts, but please don't be offended. Have a read of all the other posts in this thread, none read like yours. This isn't a typical forum, where people take shortcuts with their posting. You might find it laughable to write to a certain standard in a forum, but for us here, as writers, we actually take the time to articulate our thoughts in our posts as we would for most other media. The reason? We're claiming to be authors, so maybe we ought to try to write to a certain standard. Also? Mistakes like this can happen. People judged you based on your previous posts and how you phrased your thoughts. I for one thought English wasn't your first language and worried that you had misunderstood some of what had been promised to you.

Again, in other forums, sure write how you want. But do have a look how everyone here presents themselves. Sure, we're not exactly formal, but we do try to write "properly", and not internet speak. And one tends to accept that there is a received norm in certain situations to which you adjust. For example, I won't swear in front of my grandparents, but I will with my friends. It's gauging a situation and understanding it. Please don't be offended.

sharon,

you're getting very close to losing folks who are trying to help you....


you get pettish and defensive when people ask you for more information, if pressed beyond the initial evasiveness, so ciya was working off of all she had--you can't blame her for that, or at a minimum, you shouldn't, because I can assure you publishers will also use whatever you give them instead of chasing you for more.

We're trying to help. For reasons that elude me, you're trying to make that harder for us, instead of easier.

Toothpaste said:

S People judged you based on your previous posts and how you phrased your thoughts. I for one thought English wasn't your first language and worried that you had misunderstood some of what had been promised to you.

Click to expand...

This.

My assumption wasn't ESL, but rather than the person posting was about 16 and over-eager at the prospect of promises she might not fully understand.

No offense was intended, but it doesn't pay to sugar coat things when the person being spoken to doesn't seem to be listening or answering direct questions. People here want to help.

sharonsharon said:

I find it to be rude. As i said, I have a debilitating chronic illness and what you may find important (Like making my thread posts appear to be harvard material) means very little to me. I am very thankful for the advice about the agent. That being said,
for someone to make assumptions about me or my street smarts or publishing business smarts is laughable. Just goes to show perhaps you should not judge a book by it's cover. Once again, I know this person. They are who they say they are, and have made books into bestsellers. I know their spouse quite well, and they see the potential. The rest is in G-ds hands.

Click to expand...

if you're going to dismiss those you seek help from, perhaps you're going about this the wrong way. You have my sympathies for your condition, but that doesn't change anything of what I said, nor does it change the fact you still haven't really answered toothpaste's questions. When you come seeking help, there is some expectation you meet folks halfway.