What Does Your Agent Do?

Unless I've been misinformed, an agent isn't supposed to encourage you to self-pub stuff. They'll help you if you talk it over with them and you both decide it's the best idea, but they generally don't bring it up first. But I could be wrong.

I can understand an agent telling the author to sell a book to a publisher or self-publish if that book isn't marketable on their end--as if it's in a genre they don't work in, or anything but novels which would create a limited market. For example, Brandon Sanderson sold his novella The Emperor's Soul to a small press with his agent's suggestion because novellas are a limited market and few agents deal with them.

However, if they're telling you to self-pub a book they'd represent, it sounds really freaking odd. Are they trying to see how many sales you can rack up? Have they offered you editorial services or suggested some? Which can be a scam. Do they not have confidence in that story, and if so why aren't they asking for revisions?

Have they told you their reasons why at all?


Also, if I was you I'd do my research regardless of what people in your circle say--I wouldn't know personally, but you and they can be all caught in a bad area and not know it.

That sounds really weird. What have you been doing on your end as far as writing new books for her to submit and such?

mada said:

She's given me no reason and very little feedback. The last MS, she told me to self-publish it and we'd see what it did, then she'd look at it again once I have numbers.

I did do my research and she's someone who seems to be highly respected, even outside of my circle. After I posted this, I did a search here and there's nothing but praise for her.

I've only sent her one new one, which is the one she said to self-pub. When I asked her what I should be doing with new works, she told me to email them to her if I'm interested in her repping them, but otherwise I can self-pub to my heart's content.

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I suggest you bring up your concerns and question to her directly. Ideally, your relationship with your agent should be like a partnership, and just like any relationship, lack of communication is a sign it's falling through. If I was in your position--somehow, no offense--I would jump ship as soon as she wouldn't give me a define answer and calm my concerns.

It also sounds like she's just got you on the side without any real wish to represent you. She wants to see how you'll fair before she's willing to put any work into you, which self-publishing can harm your chances at trade publishing and the results of which can greatly harm your chances with her, or a publisher if those sales aren't completely positive (and with self-publishing, there's a good chance it's sour, though I wouldn't know your situation).
Self-publishing can show what the likely outcome of a novel's success if it was trade published, but it's also nearly entirely dependent on the author for its success--which, looking at the marketing side of self-publishing, can take quite a while to find success in.

And, if she's not representing you and submitting your work at this moment, I see no reason why you should be self-publishing or not searching for another agent. If you haven't hooked her, waiting for the same fish to bite twice isn't the best option IMO. This is even counting if she's representing one of your works already (which, I'm unsure you've told us or not).

She may know what she's doing. We can't really say without knowing who she is.


But if you're not getting what you want out the relationship, it may be better to find someone else.

mada said:

Forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place, but I'm seriously wondering about this. I have an agent, but other than the deal I had on the table when I signed with her, there's been almost no interaction, other than her telling me to self-publish and sell more books, THEN she might be able to do something for me. Is this normal?

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I certainly hope not. I have a friend who got an agent a while ago, and they've been working together on revising his manuscript, and she's going to start submitting it to publishing houses soon. She's encouraging him to work on more novels, which she will represent if she thinks they're marketable, but she certainly hasn't said anything to him about self publishing or having to sell any books on his own first. I get the impression they've been in regular contact.

Actually, that doesn't really make sense. Why would an agent want you to spend time self publishing or selling things on your own? They wouldn't get a commission on that. Unless the book in question is something she doesn't usually work with or if it's something she has reservations about being able to sell?

This doesn't sound like a good agent to me.

Could you tell me who it is by PM, in confidence of course?

What you might do is contact another client of theirs and compare notes. Then you'd know if yours is typical for that agent or not. Not to say it wouldn't be a concern either way, but it'd give you a different angle on things.

mada said:

I've only sent her one new one, which is the one she said to self-pub. When I asked her what I should be doing with new works, she told me to email them to her if I'm interested in her repping them, but otherwise I can self-pub to my heart's content.

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Did she read this manuscript and offer editorial improvements? My agent made me rewrite my last manuscript 3 times before it was submitted.

I don't know if this is typical, but it sounds to me like she sort of considers your arrangement a one-off for negotiating your on-the-table deal. What kind of contract did you sign with the agent? Was there a contract or was it a "handshake" deal? Do you have confirmation that she's repping you as a career client or just on a book-by-book basis?

It might be that she negotiated your first publishing deal because you needed someone and it was an easy commission, but maybe she's not looking at you as a long-term client yet. She's willing to look at the manuscripts you submit, but obviously, she didn't think this first, fresh one was marketable. I don't know of any agent who would want to burn first publication rights to "see what it does."

On the other hand, I also don't know of any agent who would suggest a client go off and self publish a story they don't think is marketable/quality and risk damaging your brand, at least not without a definite talk about strategy and editing, etc.

I would talk to her again and try to define your relationship. Find out what's going on as far as her level of interest in repping you long term. Review your contract. And if all signs point to "you're not actually all that into each other," then maybe write a new book and start querying with new agents (contract and all other agreements squared away, of course).

mada said:

Forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place, but I'm seriously wondering about this. I have an agent, but other than the deal I had on the table when I signed with her, there's been almost no interaction, other than her telling me to self-publish and sell more books, THEN she might be able to do something for me. Is this normal?

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Is this a legitimate agent? This is not only abnormal, it borders on criminally insane. I couldn't run away from such an "agent" fast enough.

Yeah it sounds like your agent is fairly disinterested in you. There comes a time in a lot of agent-author relationships where this can happen. I've experienced it myself. I'd say part company amicably and start querying again. (Which sucks on a galactic scale but it's what's gotta be done)

If it was me, I would tell her straight that I was going to query other agents who would have interest in repping the book.

I'm also a little concerned, reading the thread, about your agent.

Call me a skepchick, but I can't help wondering whether possibly the agent took you on simply because you had an existing offer, rather than through any real interest in your writing and career. And whether he or she might therefore possibly not be the right agent for you, really?

heza said:

I don't know if this is typical, but it sounds to me like she sort of considers your arrangement a one-off for negotiating your on-the-table deal. What kind of contract did you sign with the agent? Was there a contract or was it a "handshake" deal? Do you have confirmation that she's repping you as a career client or just on a book-by-book basis?

It might be that she negotiated your first publishing deal because you needed someone and it was an easy commission, but maybe she's not looking at you as a long-term client yet. She's willing to look at the manuscripts you submit, but obviously, she didn't think this first, fresh one was marketable.

I would talk to her again and try to define your relationship. Find out what's going on as far as her level of interest in repping you long term. Review your contract.

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This is actually a fairly good explanation for what might be happening. If so, get a new agent.

heza said:

I don't know if this is typical, but it sounds to me like she sort of considers your arrangement a one-off for negotiating your on-the-table deal.

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I suspect this might be the case.

mada said:

her telling me to self-publish and sell more books, THEN she might be able to do something for me.

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Not this, that's what my agent does.

An agent is there to sell books for you. To make you (and by extension, her) money.

I'm with the others that it seems she took you on for that one book only. It's worth talking to her to see how she views the relationship, and if that is the case, start looking for another agent. If not, she needs to start doing something for you. As it is, she's doing nothing, so having this agent is doing you less than no favours. If you have an agent that does nothing for you, you might as well have no agent

Ditto what everyone else says. S/he may be a terrific agent overall. Just not right for you.

Did you know that AW has an Agents forum? You got good answers here in Roundtable, but might have gotten even better there.

Absolutely nothing more needs to be said but I had to chime in. I haven't even started seeking an agent yet but I know if one told me to self-publish, that would be the last conversation we ever had. I don't care who the agent is. In my opinion, that's a slap in the face.

My agent actually did mention to me that I should self-publish a certain book of mine, but it was previously published. Also, my agency assists their authors with self-publishing (at no cost). But she has never suggested that with any of the other books of mine that she reps. Sounds like your agent may not have enough connections to get deals for your other books and just doesn't want to say so. Maybe try another agency?

I got my agent based on a contract offer, for a project so small (no advance) that she wouldn't normally have looked at it on commission. She helped save my sanity on that contract, she's looked at new markets for my other work, and she's a strong editorial partner. She has big ambitions for my work. We keep in email and phone contact about once a month, if nothing merits more frequent talks.

She has some authors who self-publish backlists, but she has nothing to do with their operations. For me, she says self-pub is the last option, and what we'll look at if we can't get a strong commercial publisher involved.