How may I become an Agent?

You can submit your manuscript to publishers who accept unagented work. If it passes muster, you would do what agents do and negotiate your contract. You aren't acting as an agent though; you're simply an unrepresented author.

What you can't do is put out a shingle as an agent representing your own work (only) and expect to get the privileges that real agents get. If that were possible, EVERYONE would do it!

The "secret" to being an agent is contacts. If you don't have any, then even if you were a real agent, you'd be pretty useless. If an editor doesn't recognize an "agent's" name, they check them out -- they don't just roll out the red carpet. Figuring out that you're just pretending to be an agent in order to get a shortcut in for your manuscript will get doors slammed in your face.

rainsmom said:

The "secret" to being an agent is contacts. If you don't have any, then even if you were a real agent, you'd be pretty useless. If an editor doesn't recognize an "agent's" name, they check them out -- they don't just roll out the red carpet. Figuring out that you're just pretending to be an agent in order to get a shortcut in for your manuscript will get doors slammed in your face.

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This! Megan Records from Kensington tweeted about this a few months ago and she wasn't happy when an author did it. I'm pretty sure that author won't be publishing through her any time soon.

What's becoming an agent? Clean fingernails.

Kirk Fraser said:

While I read some agents are highly qualified with years as high profile editors, I read it is also possible for an inexperienced individual to become an agent to represent one's own work. So what are the mechanics of representing a book to a publisher?

Thank you,
Kirk Fraser

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Becoming an agent is one thing, and representing your own work to publishers is another. Certain publishers accept submissions from authors, and by all means, you should go on and do that if you'd like. But you really shouldn't pretend to be an agent. If you want to become an agent, you can either get a job at a literary agency, or start your own literary agency. If you start your own literary agency, you need to go through all the logistics that starting your own business entails. You also need to (or should) be certified by the Association of Author Representative - the accepted certifying body in this field (http://aaronline.org/)

Anyway, I think it's a bad idea to pose as an agent, because publishers sort of know all the regular players. I remember when my agent was subbing my book to publishers, the responses that she got were really personal (along the lines of, "Hey, it was really great seeing you last week... thanks for sending me this manuscript.") So, I don't think it'll do you any good to pretend to be an agent. Just sub as an author, or get an agent. Good luck!

It's also worth noting that many reputable agents who are also writers do not represent their own work. They have agents, too.

Offhand, I can't think of any agents who represent their own work.

A literary agent whom you would want representing your work is one who has successfully made sales to commercial presses. To successfully make sales, the literary agent needs to have contacts with editors in the genre and name recognition. Editors buy from agents they know and trust. Agents can become AAR members when they have successfully reached a certain threshhold of sales within a set time period.

To become a literary agent, as others have noted, the usual procedure is to work your way, literally from the ground up, at an established agency.

And pretending to be an agent while shopping a book already published by PA isn't going to end well.

Kirk Fraser said:

While I read some agents are highly qualified with years as high profile editors, I read it is also possible for an inexperienced individual to become an agent to represent one's own work. So what are the mechanics of representing a book to a publisher?

Thank you,
Kirk Fraser

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You become an agent the same way you become a writer. You hang out a shingle that says, "Agent."

It is possible for an agent to represent her own work, but the "inexperienced" part will kill you. You won't have a clue how to represent your own work.

Nor is it necessary. You don't need to call yourself an agent in order to represent your own work. Quite a few writers out there represent their own work, and do so very profitably. But you still need to know what you're doing, and how to do it properly.

Kirk Fraser said:

So what are the mechanics of representing a book to a publisher?

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Oops, just realised I didn't answer this question.

For a literary agent, the mechanics would be something like a quick "Hey, I just picked up this awesome book that would be right up your alley. It's about blahblahblah. Want to take a look?" conversation over lunch between an agent and editor.

For an unagented author submitting to a publisher that takes unagented submissions, the mechanics would be:
1. Obtain the publisher's submission guidelines.
2. Follow them exactly.
3. Wait for response.

For an unagented author submitting to a publisher that does not take unagented submissions but does take unagented queries, the mechanics would be:
1. Obtain the publisher's submission guidelines for queries.
2. Follow them exactly.
3. Wait for response.

For an unagented author submitting to a publisher that does not take unagented submissions at all, the mechanics would be:
1. Don't.

Unimportant said:

Offhand, I can't think of any agents who represent their own work.

A literary agent whom you would want representing your work is one who has successfully made sales to commercial presses. To successfully make sales, the literary agent needs to have contacts with editors in the genre and name recognition. Editors buy from agents they know and trust. Agents can become AAR members when they have successfully reached a certain threshhold of sales within a set time period.

To become a literary agent, as others have noted, the usual procedure is to work your way, literally from the ground up, at an established agency.

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Editors prefer buying from agents they know and trust, but the way you get to know an editor and make him trust you is by sending him quality manuscripts. There is no such thing as an agent who began life as someone editors know and trust. Just as every new writer is unpublished, every new agent has sold no manuscripts.

And since an agent needs quite a few sales to join AAR, then obviously agents who aren't members of AAR sell a bunch of books, else they would never qualify to be a member.

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

Editors simply do not care about an agent's background, as long as it doesn't involve felonies. Send any editor top quality manuscripts on a consistent basis, and you'll instantly become the most loved and trusted agent out there.

Jamesaritchie said:

Editors prefer buying from agents they know and trust, but the way you get to know an editor and make him trust you is by sending him quality manuscripts. There is no such thing as an agent who began life as someone editors know and trust. Just as every new writer is unpublished, every new agent has sold no manuscripts.

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I don't really have hard data to back this up, but it is my impression that most agents who have their own agencies started either working as editors at major publishing companies, or working as agents at major literary agencies. In that sense, once they reach the point where they are on their own, they already have relationships in the industry, and a great deal of trust too.

A novice agent with no sales working at Writer's House or Trident has a lot more cred with publishers than a novice agent with no sales working on his own... because affiliation with an established literary agency gives them additional credibility in the industry.

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

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You really can't make statements like that unless you can back them up with proper stats. As I research agents, I see that a good majority of them do have prior experience working at established literary agencies or publishing houses.

Jamesaritchie said:

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

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A fair few failed agents and scammers started that way, too. IMO, starting off by representing one's own book, the print and e-rights to which are already under exclusive contract elsewhere, would result in a spectacularly short-lived career as a literary agent.

I am so not reading this.

Anyone who fell for someone playing Agent: The Role-Playing Game and spent a long, horrendous time getting their career out from under that landfill, raise their hands.



Kirk: Do NOT try to do this. It is WRONG. It is a career-killer. DON'T. Just DON'T.

Jamesaritchie said:

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

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Very large number? Really? Where did this very large number come from? By making a statement of fact like that, I'm sure you have a list of names that make up this very large number.

Kirk...

Pretending to be an agent ain't going to change the facts about your current book. Let's look at the two main facts...

1...PublishAmerica owns the rights to your book for seven years. You cannot sell something you do not own, even by pretending to be an agent.

2...The book is poorly edited and that is another hurdle to selling it. Even if you buy your rights back from PA, any publisher looking at it is going to turn it down because of the amount of time it will take to edit.

Give it a rest dude...

Jamesaritchie said:

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

Editors simply do not care about an agent's background, as long as it doesn't involve felonies. Send any editor top quality manuscripts on a consistent basis, and you'll instantly become the most loved and trusted agent out there.

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Um, no. Just no, no, no.

A good agent needs to (a) understand what makes a marketable manuscript, and (b) have the ability to place the manuscript in an editor's hands. Could you do this as an inexperienced individual? Eventually, maybe. But if you're not in a position where you can do BOTH of those things, then you've no business calling yourself a literary agent yet.

Jamesaritchie said:

Editors simply do not care about an agent's background, as long as it doesn't involve felonies. Send any editor top quality manuscripts on a consistent basis, and you'll instantly become the most loved and trusted agent out there.

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I agree with this statement in part, but... why would an editor care about felonies?

So, "how do I skip over the hard part and pretend to be a real agent so publishers will move my work to the head of the line and read it as though someone in the business likes it?"

What a fantastic idea. If only everybody— I mean somebody— had thought of it before! Because publishers are such a bunch of rubes they surely wouldn't check correspondence labeled "agent." They wouldn't wonder that they'd never heard of this person before. What a fabulous trick!

Sorry, but agents work years for free as interns reading crappy query letters and partials and dealing with agents and writers and dry cleaners and other psychopaths for the privilege of someday, maybe, reading something fantastic they can offer to publishers who trust them because they know they've spent their time in the trenches. They dream that someday they will find a writer who can do what James Joyce did to them the first time they read Ulysses, not understanding it up front, but at some visceral, bone-marrow level they knew this guy did things with words that made no sense but lit up the world.

Or Faulkner.

Or Hemingway, if they had a Y-chromosome and liked the Anglo-Saxon thing.

Write something fantastic. Write a kick-ass query letter. Send it to the right agent. Your work WILL be noticed when you can do those things. I 100% sure-damn-fire guarantee it, because it happened to me. I got that "you will be published for money" phone call. I went on book tour and went to the neat restaurants in San Francisco for free and staggered out drunk on wine I didn't pay for.

It can be done. But you'd better goddamn love writing. You'd better take the language seriously. You'd better learn the business. You'd better know the odds. Because not 1% of the books written get published, and when they do you might get paid less than that bottle of wine cost somebody else at the late, great Jaunty at Jack's on that warm October night.

Yeah, I'm drunk again. But I'm a Published Author, *snort*, and I can do this sort of thing.

L

kullervo said:

rubes

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I love this word.

Kirk.

Let me point out the problems with your latest plan.

You are not equipped to become an agent. Do you know editors who might be interested in your book? Do you know what they're looking for specifically? Do you have relationships with them all which will make them trust you and get them to read the books you submit? Do you have a good knowledge of the publishing process? Could you tell the difference between a good publishing contract and an exploitative, horrible one? (Obviously not, since you signed with PA.) That you have to ask for advice on the mechanics of agenting proves that you are not capable of doing the job. I've worked in publishing for over 25 years, I know how it all works, and I wouldn't even consider becoming an agent: you've got no experience, and no idea.

Even if you were equipped to become an agent you don't have a book you can sell. PublishAmerica owns the rights to your book and until they're reverted to you you cannot sell that book elsewhere. There is NO WAY ROUND THIS.

If and when those revert to you, you are unlikely to find a good publisher willing to consider it as most publishers are only interested in publishing first editions. Your book has already been published, so its first rights are gone because there can only be one first time for anything. There is NO WAY ROUND THIS.

And even if you could magic away the PA edition of your book, get your rights back, and suddenly know and understand all about agenting, your writing is nowhere near good enough for a trade publisher to want to publish it. There is NO WAY ROUND THIS.

Not only that, you've shown in other threads that you're not prepared to take advice and work to improve your writing which means that you'd be impossible for an editor to work with. If you did get a contract (which you won't), I can see it being cancelled because of your determination to be right and not listen to the advice that is given to you.

Sorry to be so harsh. But you're just not listening to anyone and you are setting yourself up for even more failure with your stubbornness and anger.

Jamesaritchie said:

And a very large number of the top agents out there didn't work themselves up from anywhere. They simply got up one morning, decided to be a literary agent, and started requesting manuscripts.

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Name three.

Heck, name one.

thothguard51 said:

Kirk...

Pretending to be an agent ain't going to change the facts about your current book. Let's look at the two main facts...

1...PublishAmerica owns the rights to your book for seven years. You cannot sell something you do not own, even by pretending to be an agent.

2...The book is poorly edited and that is another hurdle to selling it. Even if you buy your rights back from PA, any publisher looking at it is going to turn it down because of the amount of time it will take to edit.

Give it a rest dude...

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THIS