Querying agents and publishers at the same time?

Generally, no, you want to query one or the other. If you want an agent, query agents, for exactly the reason in your last statement. Yes, it will hurt you if you burn bridges with publishers your agent could have approached in your name.

No, you don't want to query publishers and agents at the same time. With very few exceptions an agent will not be able to query a publisher who already told you know.

If you decide you want to pursue a publisher on your own and you get an offer, you could try and interest at agent at that point. But some agents won't get involved with a deal they didn't cultivate. And this approach can be much slower than pursuing an agent before you go after publishers. Not to mention your choices are much more limited - there are some big houses that have a slush pile, but many of them do not which means you would, by default be starting with mid-size or small publishers.

If, for some reason, you decide to do both anyway, you probably should tell agents that you already have your MS out on sub with publishers. Just know that's another reason for them to reject you (because you are burning bridges with publishers with every rejection). You don't have to tell publishers you are looking for an agent - they should not be less eager to work with you just because you wind up with representation at a later point. (Any publisher that says they don't negotiate or work with an agent should be avoided. It means they don't respect your desire to look out for your own interests.)

After getting rejected by about a hundred agents on my first book, I started querying small publishers and got a couple of offers. Same thing with the second book. Didn't get an agent until I got an offer to publish for my fourth book. But all the publishers I queried were ones that accepted unsolicited submissions. Now I let my agent do it all

popgun62 said:

But all the publishers I queried were ones that accepted unsolicited submissions. Now I let my agent do it all

Click to expand...

That's the only way I would consider querying agents and subbing to publishers at the same time. Because agents get a commission on the sales they make for you, it's in their best interest to go after the bigger, advance-paying, large-distribution publishers (who, with a few exceptions, usually work mostly through agents). It's not worth an agent's time to sub to small houses that don't pay an advance and don't make many sales.

So if you sub to those small houses, you likely wouldn't be stepping on a prospective agent's toes. However, do you want to go big or go small? What happens if you're subbing both at the same time and you get an offer from a small house? Do you rush to accept it? Or do you wait and try to get an offer from an agent who can get their foot into the door of much bigger houses than you could on your own? You eliminate that dilemma by querying agents, first, and then, publishers (largest to smallest). That way, you don't burn any bridges or have to decide between the small bird in the hand or the potentially larger birds in the bush.

Some people come at the idea with the assumption that if they get a publishing offer first, it's easier to get an agent afterward... but most successful agents won't want to spend time on very small publishers, so it's not as much of a carrot as you'd think.

ETA: I'll add that it really depends on what you want out of publishing. If your goal is just to be "published" and you don't care if it's with a really small, e-pub only house, then you'll probably have faster (but less lucrative) success trying smaller houses that take unsolicited MSes. If what you really want, though, is to have an agent and publish with a larger house, then maybe you don't ever sub to small publishers. Maybe if this book doesn't attract an agent, you trunk it and write a second or third book that does. Or maybe you publish with a small, decent house that gives you some editing lessons and helps you improve enough to go after bigger fish. You decide what's important to you and plan around that.

I understand the urge to get things moving quickly but it's likely to backfire.

First, many agents don't want to bother with a manuscript that's already been out to a bunch of publishers. That ruins their chances of sending it out to those publishers in a more polished, professional way so it cuts down on their chances of making money. It can also give them the impression that you're unprofessional and don't know or care how things go.

Also, if you did get an acceptance with a publisher on your own, it's likely to be with a less impressive press than an agent could have gotten for you. Most of the top publishers don't accept unagented submissions, so why rush to try to get a smaller deal than you could have had?

And so on. If you are going to try for an agent, do that. Only after you've exhausted your list of agents should you start on the smaller presses yourself.

Sometimes an agent will look over a contract for you that you've already gotten yourself. But that still cuts you out of everything else the agent could have done for you.

I'm going with what everyone else has said. You start with agents. If you exhaust your options there, you can go to publishers who take unagented submissions. But what if you get an agent and you've already been rejected by 20 of the publishers they may include in their sub list? Chances are, those editors won't be in the first round, since usually agents start with the ones that don't take unagented work, but what if they're in round 2 or 3 and you've now eliminated your round 2 or 3?

I agree with the rest of the thread. You want to query agents first because if you query a bunch of publishers and get rejected, that makes it harder for the agent later. I have also been told (though I can't say from personal experience, so take this with a grain of salt) that the best strategy is to query more powerful agents first--or if you do go for publishers, more prestigious publishing houses--and then move to lower tiers in each successive round so that you can find the best possible deal, rather than wondering if you could have gotten picked up by someone better.

Also, agents act as a buffer between you and the publisher and can be useful mediating your business relationship with the publisher, negotiating contracts, etc. The general consensus seems to be that if you can get an agent, you should.

It's a horrible idea. At best, you will probably end up with a small publisher where your career will stall, and with an agent who is lower tier. At worst, you'll ruin any chance your book has of selling.

Go one route or the other, but if you decide to submit to publishers yourself, think as an agent, and do not submit to publishers a top tier agent would avoid. Better no sale than a bad sale.

Add me to the "bad idea" list.

Of course, in my experience, querying agents alone has always been a bad idea.

caw