When an agent is going to call you about representation, what are your top 3 or 5 questions to ask?

They won't know if there's going to be an auction, so no point asking that.

If I didn't know anything about the agent (except, presumably, that they were reputable and had made sales in my genre) I would ask:
- How editorial they are. (It was important to me to have a hands-on editorial agent, but might not be to you.)
- How much editing they think the MS needs before submission.
- Which imprints they're thinking of submitting to.
- How many editors they usually submit to in each round, and at which point they give up on the MS. (Obviously phrase these nicely!)
- What happens if it doesn't sell. Is the contract for one book or for my career?

I know those last two seem negative, but they're important IMO.

tony6781 said:

What are your top three/or top five questions you would ask an agent, if they
say they are going to call you about representation?


Also, is it OK to ask if there is going to be an auction for the book?

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My first three questions will probably be something like:

1. OMG, really?
2. Really?
3. I mean, like, REALLY???

Agents are the ones who decide if a book is going to auction. They send the book out to editors with the auction terms and conditions. But this might happen after it's been on submission for a while, if it gets a lot of positive attention, or it might happen before it's sent out anywhere.

Ask about how the agent works, what they will expect from you, what your obligations will be, and so on. Ask about their vision for your book, if they're an editorial agent.

I agree with all the agent responses here, but can I just say that these -

Carrie in PA said:

My first three questions will probably be something like:

1. OMG, really?
2. Really?
3. I mean, like, REALLY???

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- are excellent questions.

Firstly, if you've researched the agent on the internet enough you may not have to ask any questions. Apart from a few hold-outs, most are pretty generous online with their methodologies and general practices.


The biggest flag would be if they had never sold a book ever, and they were a single-agent company. In my experience that was a pretty difficult position to start from.

1. Ask if you could e-mail a couple of their clients. I used to think this was a really weird and intrusive thing to do, until I discovered the value in doing it. The clients I've talked to have been really friendly and honest about their relationships with their agents (or ex-agents). You could also reach out to clients on AW and see if they'd be willing to answer a couple of questions about their agents. I've done this before, and people here have been very open and helpful with sharing their experiences.

2. How much editing do they think your book needs and HOW LONG do they foresee spending on editing? I spent the last 1.5 years in revisions hell with my last agent, and I was definitely *not* happy with that timeline. But when I asked them about it, they said it was "normal", that this was "how things in the industry works". I wasn't okay with it, so I left, but that's 1.5 yrs spent waiting and waiting and WAITING SOME MORE. I still twitch when I think of all that time wasted, just poured down the drain because I kept accepting their excuses ("We're just so swamped! We'll get the notes to you by the end of the week!" and then come the end of the week, nothing. Rinse and repeat for months and months and months.) After leaving, I heard of another one of their ex-clients being in revisions for over a year, so I think this timescale may be normal for them. If you're okay with it, that's great, but I think this should be discussed and made clear beforehand.

3. If this information isn't readily available online, ask about their recent sales. Have they sold to houses which you would like to sell to? Be sure to Google their past sales and see how those books are doing. I made this mistake with my last agents. They were from a top agency whose name impressed a lot of people, including the agent I was interning for, so when I couldn't find much information about their individual sales, I shrugged it off and went with them anyway because hey, they're from a well-known agency, so how bad can they be, right? Wrong. When I started feeling unhappy with how slow they were being, I dug deeper, contacted more people, asked more questions...and found out my agents didn't have many sales at all. One of them only had a few sales which were mostly picture books (my MS is YA) to small presses, and the other had zero sales and she's been in that agency for awhile. I don't know how they got to be agents at that well-respected agency, but there you go. Always do your research. Being part of a top agency does not necessarily = top agent.

4. Discuss your other projects with them. If your book doesn't sell, are they interested in your other projects?

Those are really the only questions I'd ask, and if I could look at their sales on PM or their agency website myself I wouldn't bother asking #3. Similarly, if I knew their clients, either from AW or Twitter, I'd just contact their clients directly and skip #1, so I really only end up with 2 questions to ask. I used to try and gauge their enthusiasm during the initial phone call or meeting, but I dunno...I'm a bit cynical now, I guess. My last agents were extremely enthusiastic over the phone, and then all that followed was a string of very enthusiastic excuses about how they just moved offices, how they had a bad cold, how they had to travel, how they had another bad cold, how they're just so swamped with work, how they had to travel yet again blah blah blah. I cannot reiterate this enough: Speak to their clients/ex-clients.

Following on what Puttputt said, try to contact a client or two whose books the agent hasn't yet sold. If you're not comfortable asking the agent to provide that kind of reference, see if you can find somebody on here or on Twitter, obviously being polite and undemanding of their time. I had two offers of rep, and I spoke to clients of both agents whose books hadn't sold yet, and it ended up being the deciding factor for me. Because as much as we all like to think our first agented book will sell, it might not. Or other tough stuff might happen to you farther down the publishing road, and how the agent handles it and treats you is important. This all rolls up into the "communication style" portion of question asking, but I found that those writers were able to give me some really valuable feedback beyond just "He/she sold my book for a great advance and I'm soooo happy!"

Most of my top questions are answered before I query, otherwise I wouldn't have queried that agent. So the discussion would center around working styles, timelines, future projects and when I can expect revenue for the action figures deal that accompanies the movie deal.

Jeff

I remembered I had read this on Agent Janet Reid's blog not long ago. A check list of what to ask the Agent, between their offer and your acceptance.
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.ca/2016/05/between-offer-and-acceptance-checklist.html

For sure ask to talk to a couple clients. Both of my agents put me in touch with other authors on their lists. I talked to one by phone, and the others were very open in emails. You can ask them about things like follow-through, how good the agent's editorial eye is and communication style. Listen carefully to what they say for red flags; any dissing or negative disclosure will likely be cautiously worded.