The writing, agent, publishing process question

The general framework is:

1) Complete your manuscript.

2) Edit and polish manuscript. Then prepare a fabulous query letter and synopsis.

3) Query multiple agents. You may receive requests for partials and/or fulls.

4) An agent may offer representation. If so, they may ask you to make edits to your manuscript.

5) If you agree to sign with the agent, the agent will proceed to send your manuscript to various publishers. I do not think that there is any written notice between the agent and writer (at this stage, at least).

6) A publisher may like the manuscript. They will inform the agent who will, in turn, inform you. The publisher may then offer to publish your book (with edits if necessary).

7) The agent works out the contract with the publisher. The publisher will (likely) offer an advance. An agent receives a portion of the advance.

8) The publisher collects royalties on the number of your books sold. When your advance has earned out, the publisher will send you cheques with the 'surplus' royalties (not the best term here).

That's basically what I gleamed from a year of research on AW.

Note: It varies with non fiction. The above framework is for fiction works only.

Mileage may vary, but here's what I know:

Does the agent shop the book with publishers, or send publishers queries?

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The agent could do any of that. A good agent, however, has connections, or knows editors who are looking for the kind of material he or she is representing, etc. The agent may also send the manuscripts around. I would venture a guess that an agent doesn't do queries, but they may have to, depending on the publishers they're approaching. An agent is the gatekeeper on the client side -- then he or she deals with the acquisition editors, the gatekeepers on the publishers' side.

Does the agent have you sign a contract and then give you an advance?

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Agents don't give advance. You do sign a contract for them to represent you and the contract would spell out the terms of the agreement, etc. The agent only gets paid if he or she sells your manuscript. You get advance from the publisher.

Do you get paid when the book is sold to a publisher, or when it is printed and do you receive a percentage of the total sales of the book (like a check once a month based on sales for the month). If so, do you normally get a certain percentage, 3%, 5%, or something like that?

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It depends on the contract. But usually you get an advance on delivery of your FINAL draft or during the galley phase... again, it depends on the contract but usually it is some kind of "final delivery" of finished manuscript. The amount of advance is determined by the contract.

An advance is an "advance payment" against future royalties. Meaning, if you get $5000, you have to "earn out" first (meaning, you have to earn enough royalties exceeding $5000) before you start getting your royalties checks. That's why it's called an "advance." You get to keep the advance, however, even if you don't earn out.

Royalties are based on a percentage of gross (but sometimes they're based on net). Say the book is $10 and your royalties is 10%, you get $1 for every book sold. That's the simple case. Royalties are negotiated and determined by the publisher and market, and they range from 5-6% to 15%. Some contracts have a sliding scale: 0-10000 copies, 8%, 10000-50000 copies, 10%, etc. etc. Again, it depends on the contract. That's when your agent is invaluable because he or she can negotiate the best terms for you.

1. You can submit to either agents or publishers directly. If you submit to publishers and agents simultaneously and end up getting an agent, then you've hurt your agent's chances of selling the book to a publisher that's already rejected you.

2. If you get an agent, you will probably sign a contract that will stipulate that they get 10 - 15% for domestic sales and 20 - 25% for foreign sales (if they're also your foreign sales agent). Contracts vary. The agent pays you nothing at this point. In fact, the agent never pays you (you pay them with a percentage of your income). The publisher gives them a check, they take their percentage and pass the rest on to you.

3. The agent will try to find a publisher, perhaps going to a single editor/publisher she thinks is a perfect fit, or maybe going wider and trying to create buzz and manufacturing an auction. It really depends on the manuscript and the agent.

4. If a publisher makes an an offer and you accept it and a contract is drawn up, you will get advance money via your agent within a month or six weeks or something like that. Usually, the advance won't be for the whole amount. A $20,000 advance might be broken into two steps where you get $10,000 on signing and another $10,000 on publication (twelve to eighteen months later). If it's a two-book deal, and it's $10,000 per book, you could get only $5,000 on signing, same on pub of first book, same on acceptance of second book, same on pub of second book (a two to four year process). What you probably won't get is the whole chunk at once.

5. The advance is set "against royalties," generally 10%-15% of retail price for hardcovers (depending on how many units are sold), and 7 1/2% - 10% for paperbacks. However, you don't start seeing royalties until your advance earns out. If you got a $20,000 advance for one book and your book retailed at $24.95 and you got 10% royalties (and no one like Costco dinged your royalties by taking an enormous discount), and if you didn't start earning a higher percentage before this, you would have to sell just over 8,000 books before you started earning additional money.

I think that's about the basics. If anybody sees an error, please correct!

Agents do send queries to publishers. They call them pitch letters, but they're essentially the same thing we send to agents, but with more personal connections mentioned and more bragging in them. (They're allowed to brag on us).

Kristin Nelson has posted her pitch letters for some of her published clients on her site:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/

(Look for "Agent Kristin's Submission Pitch Letters To Editors" on the right side about halfway down).

I know what you mean - the whole process of what to do with a finished manuscript was quite a mystery to me for a while. Amazing, this internet thing.

My agent made phone pitches to editors, then sent those who were interested the manuscript via e-mail. I believe she included a pitch letter in the e-mail as well. This will jog the editor's memory about what the heck this is and why she wants to look at it whenever she gets around to it.

She then sent me a list of which houses have it. She will forward the "passes" (what rejections are called at this stage) to me as they come. Hopefully good news will come by phone, eventually.

She gets 15% of whatever I get, which is standard for domestic sales.

I remain unaware of the meaning of this word "process".

caw

Ace! said:

So, if you get a $5000 advance, your agent gets $750? If you have sales of $500,000, and you get 10% ($50,000) the agent takes $7,500 out of the $50,000? Seems like it'd be hard to make money as an agent.

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Yes, and that's why they work so hard to get us increased sales, to get us foreign rights deals, etc. It's part of why they're so busy. I wonder sometimes how many clients it would take for their agent to make six figures.

It's in her best interest to help her clients make as much money as possible, so that she doesn't have to work for pennies on new client after new client. And it's in her best interest to take on new clients she feels have the best chance of becoming big earners.

This is why the attitude some writers have that agents are some kind of leeches is utterly ridiculous. They bust their butts, and the way the system works, they have every incentive to guide our careers so that we maximize our earning potential. When they take us on, they've made a big gamble on us, they've invested a lot of time, energy, and faith in us by the time we go out on sub.

Ace! said:

So, if you get a $5000 advance, your agent gets $750? If you have sales of $500,000, and you get 10% ($50,000) the agent takes $7,500 out of the $50,000? Seems like it'd be hard to make money as an agent.

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Yeah, but the agent doesn't just represent you. A good agent would have many clients.

That's how my talent agents work, too. If they depended on me to make a living, they would be dead by now. But I contributed to their revenue when they got me bookings. I am only one of their hundreds of clients, so I don't necessarily feel warm and cozy with my agents. It's a business relationship. They get me work - I get paid - they get a cut.