Question about agents?

That way lies madness....

By the time you get to this forum, madness is nothing new to you...

Well, yes, it's madness on the level of 'how many angels can dance on the tip of a ball-point pen?' Because different agents have different statistics, and those are constantly shifting. Bigger agencies might not have a 50/50 sell rate, but they can take chances on many more manuscripts. Small boutique agencies may be choosier, but they can dedicate more time to finding the right publisher.

One agent who has my partial right now says she sells nearly every project she accepts. The other agent is new, but has great connections in my genre.

It all boils down to this: do you feel a particular agent has the connections, perseverance, and enthusiasm to give your baby the best shot it can possibly have? Don't sign with the first agent who asks, if you have any doubts.

It's been said on AW many time, in many forums: a bad agent is worse than no agent at all. Publishing slots are so rare now, that even great agents can have problems placing great books.

Filigree

Wait! There's a particular SPOT on AW where the mad people are supposed to go?

NOBODY TOLD ME!!

Filigree said:

It all boils down to this: do you feel a particular agent has the connections, perseverance, and enthusiasm to give your baby the best shot it can possibly have? Don't sign with the first agent who asks, if you have any doubts.

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What I wonder is (and I've seen this before): why would you even send a query and then a full ms to an agent from whom you don't intend to accept an offer? Sounds like a waste of time on both sides.

Some agents only sub to a limited number of editors, like 10 in the first round and 10 in the second (just as an example) and that's it. Others will keep subbing it until they run out of contacts to sub it to - sub it 'till it sells! Depends on the agent's strategy. Nothing wrong with either way.

There are no averages. I'd assume any agents who are doing well are going to sell a decent amount of their clients' work, otherwise they'd go out of business. "Decent" is open to interpretation. And not every project sells.

The better question to ask is, "what has this agent sold?" and then do your research. Find agents who have a good track record of selling the type of novel you write. Even an agent with a ton of sales could be a bad fit if they've never sold anything in your genre. An agent who has a lesser amount of sale but all in your genre with books like yours could be very successful with your work. It's about finding the right agent for you and then doing everything you can to make the book the best it can be. Everything else it out of your control.

Not every agent list their sales, but you can find a lot of information at Publisher's Marketplace. You have to subscribe to the service for the deals info, but it's not that much and you can cancel after a month or two.

Caro, good point. I would never even bother to query an agent who struck me as a bad match. It's a waste of time.

And the reasons don't have to be as simple as 'They're new and isolated, or they haven't sold anything in my genre.' I've pulled agent names from my list because industry scuttlebutt has told me they're chronically slow about contacting their writers, they're horrible at negotiating overseas rights, they have no clue about digital media, they're getting ready to retire anyway, their website displays an arrogant attitude toward querying writers, or if they have a habit of first-round submissions to publishers I don't like. And twice now, I've avoided otherwise great agents when I learned they represent and enthusiastically support authors I loathe.

Form letters nail it: this is a subjective business.

Filigree

It depends not only on the agent, but on the genre. I have no idea what the average is, but whatever it is, it means nothing. Your book will sell or not sell according to how well it's written, and how well publishers think it fits a given line of books. How well the other books an agent handles sell have nothing to do with yours.

Each books stands on its own, and the only statistics that matter are whether or not it sells.

Publishers Marketplace is a great resource to see what's selling and who is selling what, etc. Worth the fee, IMHO.

PinkAmy said:

I assume an agent isn't going to sign an author unless she thinks the MS is going to sell. Nobody likes wasting time. Does anyone know approximately what percentage of the manuscripts an agent reps eventually get published. I know this is going to vary from agent to agent, I'm really just trying to figure out if I get signed by an agent, what are the chances my MS will be published.

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That's a legitimate question, but the answer will vary wildly from agent to agent. When you find one who wants to represent you, you can ask him or her.

Barbara

I'd guess it's up to luck, don't forget. New agents to the scene who have very little or no track history can still sell your novel, though it might not be a great offer on the publisher's part. But if you have the choice between a well-known agent with a good track record and some new, promising guy to the scene... do I have to spell it out?