Category Archives: Agents

Written by Lara | Category: Agents, eBooksOne comment

The ever-awesome Scott Neumyer.

Scott Neumyer has an agent! You may remember Scott: I interviewed him a short while back about the process of e-publishing. His book, Jimmy Stone’s Ghost Town, has more than thirty five-star reviews on Amazon, and he’s sold more than 1,500 copies.

Scott’s success is great, but there’s another triumph in here as well: Scott now has an agent. I caught up with him recently to ask him about this development, and how success in the eBook world translated to success landing an agent in the traditional book publishing world.

H4W: Congratulations! You have an agent! This is great news. Who is it?

Scott: Thanks, I’m super pumped to be represented by Anna Webman at Curtis Brown LTD.

H4W: There are so many authors with traditional manuscripts who are hungry for an agent, and here you landed one with an eBook. How did that come about?

Scott: Once I decided to self publish Jimmy Stone, I knew it was fine if the book stayed an eBook, but I also knew I’d need an agent’s help with film rights, audio rights, and more. So, after the book had been out for a bit and had started doing really well, I sent out feeler emails to agents. In my query, I included basic information about Jimmy Stone including sales information.

I got pretty quick responses. Some agents asked to see the book. I got an offer from one agent and some others asked for more information. A few more days, a few more phone calls, and I was with Anna.

H4W: And now Anna’s shopping your book around to traditional publishing houses?

Scott: Yes.

H4W: If Jimmy Stone finds a home at a traditional publishing house, will you take the book off Amazon.com?

Scott: I’m open to any discussion anybody wants to have. I’d always envisioned Jimmy Stone as a series. So maybe book one stays online, but books two and three are published traditionally. Who knows. But there are so many innovative and cool ways to do things now. I’m open to anything.

H4W: What do you think your experience says about the publishing industry?

Scott: It’s crazy. There are agents who are pursuing indies these days. The whole script is flipped. It’s like agents are querying authors suddenly. I know authors who are going back and publishing some of their old novels this way — stuff that never sold with traditional publishers, and it’s doing great online. eBooks comprise 11 percent of readers right now, and it’s only going to go up.

H4W: Overall, do you recommend authors publish their eBooks first, and try to find an agent that way?

Scott: As I mentioned in my last interview with you, I worked hard on Jimmy Stone and I made sure it was a good book no matter what its format. I didn’t just throw crap online and hope someone liked it. I worked on this manuscript for years, same as any author who wants to get published. The format isn’t going to sell a book. The writing sells a book.

Agent Expectations

05
Nov
2010
Written by Lara | Category: AgentsOne comment

My earlier post on the agent as editor garnered some questions outside the blog about what agents should do writ large. What can writers expect of their agents? What’s reasonable? What’s not?

Some of the expectations are quantifiable. Some aren’t. Let’s start with the easy ones:

1.) Your agent should sell your work. First and foremost, an agent’s job is to represent your book to a market of potential buyers. Ultimately, your agent should garner you a book deal. They should negotiate favorable terms for you at a publishing house that will, ideally, take an interest in not just this book but your entire literary career. The agent should accept payment for their services after the book is sold, not before.

2.) Your agent should communicate with you. This is especially important because expectation number one is not always smooth sailing. Not by a long shot. In which case, your agent needs to talk to you about what’s going on. They need to let you know how many publishers they submitted it to, what the backup plan is, and ideally if they’ll help you edit and then resubmit. You will have many, many questions about all these things. Your agent should be able to answer them within a reasonable time-frame.

When numbers one and two above aren’t working, that’s when things can get dicey. Concerns raised at that point will all point to one question: Is the agent invested in me as a writer?  Ideally, the answer is yes — again, not just for the book the agent holds in their hands right at that moment, but for all their client’s books down the road.

Writers might feel like their agent is not invested when, for example, they go long stretches without hearing from them. Or, perhaps, when a writer is getting the short end of the stick from a publishing house and the agent isn’t wading in to help.

The Fiction Writers blog offers these warning signs pointing to a maybe-it’s-not-working scenario. They also offer tips on firing your agent if it comes to that, advocating an amicable and professional end.

Of course, the flip side of the coin is that agents can’t do too much hand holding. If you expect your agent to spend an hour with you on the phone every day, your agent isn’t going to have any time to sell your manuscript or help build your career.

I have been very fortunate in my agent experience, but I know many writers who haven’t. Have you had a positive or negative experience with an agent? Please feel free to share in the comments — I’d love to hear from you!

[Image source: Jemima's Journal]

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