Is My Agent Still Working For Me?

LinkWorshiper

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I'll keep this short.

A few years ago, I wrote a manuscript I thought was quality enough to be published. So I hit the ground running and started the rough process of querying. After what seemed like a billion letters, I finally found someone who not only liked my manuscript, but who also seemed to "get" it. She made me feel like she was going to champion my writing to the n'th degree.

Fast forward a few years. My original manuscript was apparently a hard sell. She told me that the main response was that the writing was good, but it needed to be a less niche story. I went back to the drawing board with a new manuscript, which was apparently a bit more mainstream. The response was an absolute flat line. But then again, my agent barely had hardly any comments about it. We went through one round of edits, I gave it to her and then never heard a word about it. The few times I poked her, I got kind of generic answers. I've just busted my butt on a third manuscript, which she told me should would read as soon as she 'wasn't sick' anymore.

I know there's a lot that goes into the agent side of work, and I know I'm not the only client she has, but I can't help but feel like I'm on the back burner. I'm trying to decide if it might be time to find someone else... though I'm not really enthused about that idea. Maybe I'm just being a bit anxious. I know my manuscripts are at least pretty good, but with all of them just sitting there, I can't quite tell up from down anymore.
 
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kranix1

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First of all, I've never had an agent. So you can stop reading right now, probably.

This seems like way too much em effing time for nothing to have happened. Especially after how much time and effort you've put in.

Crack that whip.
 

mccardey

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I don’t think you say (do you?) how long you’ve been with this agent all up, or exactly how long she’s had this latest one for - but I think this would be a good conversation for you to have with her. You’ll pick up very quickly what her interest level is, and how you feel about continuing on with her. I know it feels scarey to do that, but you’ll feel better once it’s done.

eta: have you looked up her agency on the research page here?
 
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I don’t think you say (do you?) how long you’ve been with this agent all up, or exactly how long she’s had this latest one for - but I think this would be a good conversation for you to have with her. You’ll pick up very quickly what her interest level is, and how you feel about continuing on with her. I know it feels scarey to do that, but you’ll feel better once it’s done.

eta: have you looked up her agency on the research page here?

I signed with my agent in January of 2018. Summer 2018, I started preparing my second MS thinking it would be good to have something ready to go. It started to feel like the second one might go first -- and then nothing. In Fall 2018, I started the third MS, and I just sent the final edition about a week ago. She had told me that she was very busy in October, so November would be perfect for her schedule. And here we are.

I can't quite tell what her interest level is. The last time I panicked to her, she was reassuring and told me that she wouldn't have signed me if she didn't believe in the work. I also don't really know how she interacts with her other clients privately. We have a Slack channel for all her clients, and sometimes it feels like she's got some favorites, and it seems like she's constantly signing more people. But then again, that might just be my own incorrect perception. (I don't even know anymore.)

I have looked up the agency almost obsessively. There's a lot of sh't posting about the woman who started the agency, but not much else about any of the other people who work there. The newest post was from 2015 and was someone I recognized as one of my agent's clients. She was saying that she got a good Big 5 deal and that lots of work from the agency seems to be going that way. I wish I had the evidence. It's quite disheartening.

- - - Updated - - -
Somewhere in there, I might add, she found me a small indie press that turned out to be a total flub. (Like, it felt like I was in the plot of The Producers.) It was so bad, we pulled the MS. No other movement.
 
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mccardey

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There’s an area listed on the front page of this site called Bewares, Recommendations and Background Check - have a look and see if she’s listed there, and what the reports are like. You haven’t been with her all that long, really, given that you’ve sent in three books (three! *gasp*) - but ideally she should be updating you regularly with who she’s approached and what their response has been. This should be in keeping with how you and she envisioned the book being placed in your earlier talks. It’s possible you haven’t had these discussions with her, or that you were so thrown by getting an agent, you didn’t quite take all the info on board. It happens - trust me ;). But I think now I’d suggest re-approaching everything. Make a list of what you need to know, how much contact will make you comfortable and in what form, and what your hopes are going forward. You seem quite prolific (compared to me, anyway) and that might mean you need a bit more responsiveness than is usual, rather than the less that you’re currently getting.

Im sorry I can’t link to the Bewares page here -only because I’m a techno-thickie on a wildly unhelpful iPad: Universe, bring my computer back to me!! - but if you can’t find the page, sing out and someone will link it for you. We’re good like that. ��

eta: don’t be over-awed by her. She’s your business partner. You share an investment, you both have an interest in it succeeding, and you both have to pull your weight. Above all, communicate. Good luck. You’ll get better at this the more you do it - you really will ;)
 
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lizmonster

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What mccardey said. This is a perfectly reasonable, professional conversation to have with your agent. Have it on the phone if at all possible - I say this as a phone-phobic person, but tone of voice and verbal responsiveness can communicate a lot that email just can't.

You are very prolific, which bodes well for your career! But communicate, absolutely. If she's swamped, that's good for you to know. And if you need more contact about her schedule/workload, that's good for her to know.

If you do end up deciding to start a new agent search, be assured an awful lot of people have had to do that. It's not as rare as folks tend to think. It is, as mccardey said, a business partnership, and people aren't always suited to each other. But before you go that route, have the chat.
 

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If this had gone on over, say, a three year period, then you'd have a case, but this isn't a long enough period of time.

I've been with my agent for many years, she's scored great deals for others, and sold books for me. The latest book, which featured a hot new idea in a hot market, from a writer with a solid track record, took almost a year to sell and got 7 rejections before it found a home.

Absolutely make an appointment with yours for a phone call and have your issues ready on a list to discuss. It's going to be strictly business, not a venting session, where you both discuss the realistic possibilities of selling your present works.

If you still want to stick with her, have ready proposals for other books you want to do. Those may be easier to sell.

If not, then be prepared to move on, but politely. I've yet to run into my first agent at publishing events, but we'll smile and shake hands if we do.

One of my friends had a really wonderful idea for a suspense thriller about a woman with a terminal illness desperately looking for her brother in order to get a bone marrow transplant. One of the themes was how rain seemed to follow her. It was intended for the mainstream market.

Our mutual agent got no interest at all, the terminal protag was "too depressing."

She'd put a lot of work into a brilliant spec novel, had sold 20 other books, but no dice.

Back to the keyboard.

She reworked it into a woman fighting being taken over by a demon and searching for a powerful school chum who was the only person who can extract it and save her life. Oh, yeah, they could both control weather. She's being stalked by a thunder storm and the bad guy who inflicted the demon on her.

The publishers began fighting over it and it went to auction, eventually turning into a NYT's bestselling series, The Weather Wardens.

It took two years to get to that point, so KEEP WRITING. The lukewarm idea can always be reworked. The hot idea can always be rejected, have ideas waiting in the wings.
 
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There’s an area listed on the front page of this site called Bewares, Recommendations and Background Check - have a look and see if she’s listed there, and what the reports are like. You haven’t been with her all that long, really, given that you’ve sent in three books (three! *gasp*) - but ideally she should be updating you regularly with who she’s approached and what their response has been. This should be in keeping with how you and she envisioned the book being placed in your earlier talks. It’s possible you haven’t had these discussions with her, or that you were so thrown by getting an agent, you didn’t quite take all the info on board. It happens - trust me ;). But I think now I’d suggest re-approaching everything. Make a list of what you need to know, how much contact will make you comfortable and in what form, and what your hopes are going forward. You seem quite prolific (compared to me, anyway) and that might mean you need a bit more responsiveness than is usual, rather than the less that you’re currently getting.

Im sorry I can’t link to the Bewares page here -only because I’m a techno-thickie on a wildly unhelpful iPad: Universe, bring my computer back to me!! - but if you can’t find the page, sing out and someone will link it for you. We’re good like that. ��

eta: don’t be over-awed by her. She’s your business partner. You share an investment, you both have an interest in it succeeding, and you both have to pull your weight. Above all, communicate. Good luck. You’ll get better at this the more you do it - you really will ;)

I've read through the posting about the agency a couple times. One particular agent seems to have had a lot of drama attached to her, but the thread hardly says anything about the other agents. My agent was mentioned once by someone who had just signed at the time of the post. (She's since had two books published with the help of our mutual agent.) I remember thinking it seemed fine when I inked my own contract. Other Googling didn't find anything negative about her, and another friend who self-publishes in my genre said that even she knew who my agent was.

I feel like we had this conversation before (via a video chat), which is when we set out our schedule for the rest of the year: I would finish my MS and she would try to move it towards year's end. She was slammed for October, so November would be better for reading my new MS. I made a point to have my edits done so I could keep to that deadline.

Having said that, she really did have my back when we signed my first MS with a publisher so terrible, we pulled the plug. I suppose I'm just nervous about bringing it up again in case I sound needy. I don't want her to think I'm nagging her over something she's already doing. Maybe I just need the coddling. I think another part of me is worried about the... decorum? Etiquette? Will it make me look bad to look for someone else? I certainly don't want to hop to a new lily pad because I sunk the old one. And I DO like her, so there's that!

I guess the trouble is that I'm not seeing much on the back end. Probably just nerves getting to me. You all have been quite helpful.
 

mccardey

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I suppose I'm just nervous about bringing it up again in case I sound needy. I don't want her to think I'm nagging her over something she's already doing. Maybe I just need the coddling. I think another part of me is worried about the... decorum? Etiquette? Will it make me look bad to look for someone else? I certainly don't want to hop to a new lily pad because I sunk the old one. And I DO like her, so there that!

I guess the trouble is that I'm not seeing much on the back end. Probably just nerves getting to me. You all have been quite helpful.
Try not to think in terms of coddling or decorum or etiquette. She isn’t thinking of you in those terms - agents don’t work like that anymore. It’s a business, and she respects your work and thinks she can sell it, in partnership with you - but you have to see it as an equal partnership of professionals. Be honest and clear and pleasant to work with - that’s the way to efficiency and efficiency is what will work best.

good luck with it !
 

Barbara R.

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I'll keep this short.

A few years ago, I wrote a manuscript I thought was quality enough to be published. So I hit the ground running and started the rough process of querying. After what seemed like a billion letters, I finally found someone who not only liked my manuscript, but who also seemed to "get" it. She made me feel like she was going to champion my writing to the n'th degree.

Fast forward a few years. My original manuscript was apparently a hard sell. She told me that the main response was that the writing was good, but it needed to be a less niche story. I went back to the drawing board with a new manuscript, which was apparently a bit more mainstream. The response was an absolute flat line. But then again, my agent barely had hardly any comments about it. We went through one round of edits, I gave it to her and then never heard a word about it. The few times I poked her, I got kind of generic answers. I've just busted my butt on a third manuscript, which she told me should would read as soon as she 'wasn't sick' anymore.

I know there's a lot that goes into the agent side of work, and I know I'm not the only client she has, but I can't help but feel like I'm on the back burner. I'm trying to decide if it might be time to find someone else... though I'm not really enthused about that idea. Maybe I'm just being a bit anxious. I know my manuscripts are at least pretty good, but with all of them just sitting there, I can't quite tell up from down anymore.

Speaking as a former literary agent, I think you are right to be concerned. First of all, it sounds like you never saw any actual rejections while she had the book out on offer. Writers have every right to see those letters, which are usually in writing, often contain useful responses and at the very least serve to verify that the agent is indeed submitting. It's late now, but back then, I'd have advised you to ask to see those responses. Second, she never even responded to your edit of the second ms: not okay. I have to assume she never submitted it, which is REALLY not okay. Now she hasn't read your third...although you don't say how long she's had it. If it's more than a month, I would be seriously pissed. New work by existing clients takes priority over new submissions.

She's sick, she says. If she'd been an effective agent to date, I'd cut her all the slack in the world while she heals. But she hasn't been. I don't suggest you walk immediately---but you do need to have a serious, clarifying conversation with her, in person or by phone, not email. If she's not up for so much as a phone call, you can draw the conclusions. If she is, you'll learn a lot. Maybe she's ready to give up the relationship, in which case you get to move on with good will on both sides. Maybe she still loves your work and is willing to commit to a timeline and submission plan that will reassure you. (Don't forget to say you want copies of rejection notes.) Author-agent relationships are two-sided, or meant to be. Based on your post, you are doing your job, but she's not doing hers.
 

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Speaking as a former literary agent, I think you are right to be concerned. First of all, it sounds like you never saw any actual rejections while she had the book out on offer. Writers have every right to see those letters, which are usually in writing, often contain useful responses and at the very least serve to verify that the agent is indeed submitting. It's late now, but back then, I'd have advised you to ask to see those responses. Second, she never even responded to your edit of the second ms: not okay. I have to assume she never submitted it, which is REALLY not okay. Now she hasn't read your third...although you don't say how long she's had it. If it's more than a month, I would be seriously pissed. New work by existing clients takes priority over new submissions.

No, never any actual letters. We have a shared Dropbox in which she kept a list of all the publishers she was submitting to. For the first MS, she was pretty diligent about updating the status of each submission, so I never thought to ask about the letters. She has a similar list for the second MS, but it's been untouched since its creation in summer. I asked her in a Skype call about that, and she said that no one was responding even when she tried to urge them. The reason I get worried is because the changes she asked me to make were sort of overhaul changes that I agreed with, but ones that also made me newly sensitive to the work. She never gave me anything but 'It's good' after the changes, which involved a time period shift and the reorganization of a character's plot. Both things I wish she'd tell me about, even during our Skype call.

As for my new one, she's only just got it. It's been about a week, though we had agreed that she should expect it in early November (read: now). She said she would keep pushing for the second MS in the meantime. Now December is just around the corner. I have this sinking feeling it won't get read until the new year. It's not even that long!

She's sick, she says. If she'd been an effective agent to date, I'd cut her all the slack in the world while she heals. But she hasn't been. I don't suggest you walk immediately---but you do need to have a serious, clarifying conversation with her, in person or by phone, not email. If she's not up for so much as a phone call, you can draw the conclusions. If she is, you'll learn a lot. Maybe she's ready to give up the relationship, in which case you get to move on with good will on both sides. Maybe she still loves your work and is willing to commit to a timeline and submission plan that will reassure you. (Don't forget to say you want copies of rejection notes.) Author-agent relationships are two-sided, or meant to be. Based on your post, you are doing your job, but she's not doing hers.

She DID at least say she wouldn't have signed me if she didn't believe in the work, so there's that. Though if she didn't care for the second MS, I wish she could just say so. It would help me going forward.
 

angeliz2k

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Hi, LinkWorshiper.

I haven't quite read through this entire thread, and I will admit that my personal experience will highly color my reaction, so please do take it with a grain of salt.

I have slightly conflicting feelings here. My first reaction is that you should cut and run. I say this, again, because of my own experiences, which I should explain briefly: I got an agent, who seemed positive about my ms, and we went through a few rounds of edits, though she didn't actually seem engaged and the comments I received came (apparently) from a "reader". After submission had started, there was a lot of radio silence and little to no indication of what responses we were getting from editors. After nearly a year, we had a discussion about where we stood, and she said we should "put a pin" in that ms in favor of a prequel I had written. Again, there was a round of edits on the prequel. She, again, didn't seem super engaged. Again, radio silence as far as the submission process. Well, not total radio silence; when I pressed, she gave me names of publishing houses but no names of editors, or dates of contact, or indication of their responses. I got fed up and demanded specific info, and when none was forthcoming, I dropped her. This took place over the span of nearly two years.

You will notice some differences here to your own story. Your time frame is shorter, and you appear to be getting more communication and engagement, though I do want to ask whether that communication and engagement is, in fact, meaningful (my agent would talk to me reassuringly, but it was, as far as I can tell, just a lot of words).

So, my first reaction of "run for the hills" is really just a knee-jerk reaction. But I think there is something to be said for trusting your gut. Your head has the final say, but if something smells fishy, then don't ignore it. Look into it. If you aren't satisfied, then it's in your best interest to get out of what could be a bad situation sooner rather than later. If it isn't fishy, you'll feel much better for knowing it. Do not keep a bad situation going because you're anxious about having to look for an agent again. Trust me, I know how soul-crushing the querying process is. But having no agent or jumping back into the query trenches is better than letting a bad situation linger and/or worsen. I have found it extremely difficult to hurl myself back into the torture of querying, but I do not regret for one moment breaking with my agent.

Once again, disclaimer: my thoughts/feelings are very biased. I just want to give you a different perspective and a different way to think about it. Always be your own advocate. An agent is meant to work for YOU.
 

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Am I the only one who...doesn't really want to see rejection letters? At least not unless they contain suggestions I might actually consider acting on?

I mean, if it's something that would make the book better, great. But in general - "no" is just "no," isn't it?
 

mccardey

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Am I the only one who...doesn't really want to see rejection letters? At least not unless they contain suggestions I might actually consider acting on?

I mean, if it's something that would make the book better, great. But in general - "no" is just "no," isn't it?
No, you’re not. I’ve always asked my agent(s) to give me a précis of the responses - except for the stonkingly good ones which she’s to forward immmediately ;) .

no usually does mean no, and if it doesn’t and if my agent thinks there’s merit in the suggestions, I’ll trust her tell me.
 
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Barbara R.

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Am I the only one who...doesn't really want to see rejection letters? At least not unless they contain suggestions I might actually consider acting on?

I mean, if it's something that would make the book better, great. But in general - "no" is just "no," isn't it?

It's up to the writer. Some really don't want to see those letters, having had enough rejection, thanks very much. But many of those letters do contain some reason for the rejection, as opposed to rejections you get from agents. If the editor and agent have a good relationship, the editor is unlikely to reject without a word of explanation and will be more frank with your agent than she ever would be with you.

I always wanted to see the letters. If the reason's stupid, you shrug and say "Too bad for him, he just didn't get it." If it's personal ("I just acquired a very similar book"), then you just shrug and think, Them's the breaks. But once in a while, the rejection contains something savvy and actionable. For me, the chance to make a ms. better is more important than protecting my feelings.
 

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always wanted to see the letters. If the reason's stupid, you shrug and say "Too bad for him, he just didn't get it." If it's personal ("I just acquired a very similar book"), then you just shrug and think, Them's the breaks. But once in a while, the rejection contains something savvy and actionable. For me, the chance to make a ms. better is more important than protecting my feelings.

I love good editorial feedback. But I absolutely 100% don't need more unsubstantive negatives landing on my head. I fully support others having different preferences, but "protecting my feelings" is a non-trivial thing for me.

ETA: Oh, yeah, the topic. :) Communication is key, and unspoken assumptions can clutter up a relationship that might otherwise work well.
 
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mccardey

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I love good editorial feedback..
exactly. And if it’s good editorial feedback, my agent will share it with me. But at stage, I’d rather suggestions were filtered through her.
 

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Thanks everyone for the feedback. You've given me a lot to think about. I'm going to see how she handles the MS I just passed off to her. She said she was excited to read it and I want to believe that. For as much doubt as I have, she HAS helped me improve my writing. In the meantime, maybe I'll at least dust off the old Publisher's Market just in case.
 

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Call your agent and ask what the two of you can do to make a breakthrough. I had an agent sell one thing and not respond on a second, no matter how many times I wrote or called. Turns out they were in the hospital and eventually passed. Doubt that's your case but, if you don't have the conversation, you never know.

Jeff
 

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Am I the only one who...doesn't really want to see rejection letters? At least not unless they contain suggestions I might actually consider acting on?

I mean, if it's something that would make the book better, great. But in general - "no" is just "no," isn't it?

Nope. I felt the same way when I was querying. I mean, I didn't see a point of seeing a rejection if it didn't offer any substance to it.