questions to ask agent offering rep

You can ask about sales.

You can ask what their ideal plan for your book is.

Do they have an idea of when they'd like it to go on submission to editors?

Do they have editors in mind?

What sort of revisions do they think the story needs?

If you can track down any of their clients (who are willing to speak to you), you can ask them about the agent's style. That way you know if the agent in question is hands-off or hands-on.

There are several repped authors on this board, so you might be able to get some information that way.

If you haven't already, check the agent out on Query Tracker to see if you recognize anyone on their client list. That will at least give you a reference point for sales.

Congrats!!! The wait was worth it

Probably worth it to buy a months' worth of Publishers' Marketplace so you can see their sales themselves and save more time for style/fit questions. Like:

How many round of submission do you do, and how many editors in each round?
What are the terms of the contract -- open-ended for all works, time-limited, per book?
What do you think of my other book ideas? What direction do you see for my career?
Do you have authors whose first book didn't sell, but you retained and sold another book?
Etc.

I think I'd be most interested in future books. That is, how much control I would have over subsequent novels, or would their genesis be a collaboration between me, the agent and some editors. After a friend of mine sold his first couple books, he got teamed with some type of "creative consultant" who basically said, "Okay, here's what we want your next novel to be". In some ways, that'd be cool, but in others....hmmm....not so much.

silver76 said:

What questions would you ask an agent offering you rep and the best way to ask them...
i guess questions about sales- but how do you ask delicately?

Click to expand...

Agent Rachelle Gardner has a great blog post on questions to ask: http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/ (look in the column of popular posts on the right side of the page). I used that as a start and then added other questions of interest to me.

Also, you should ask for contact info for clients and then you can contact them to discuss their experiences - if the agent has a long list, ask for a sampling of newer and older clients, and if you can, track down one of the clients that hasn't sold.

You can also ask about how the agent works, how she sees the book in the market/how she'll pitch it, about revisions and what happens if it doesn't sell, etc.

But do your research - you shouldn't have to ask about info posted on the agency's site or the agent's blog, etc. Don't waste time on things you could find out yourself - but find them out before the call so you can concentrate on what you really need to ask.

And relax - agents know this is an exciting but anxious time.

good luck.

~suki