In my last post here, I wrote about how I got a book deal with Bloomsbury off the back of a blog. One of the issues that arose was whether or not it was sensible to take on a literary agent. A starting point perhaps was a throwaway line from an animator friend of mine who said that in Hollywood (darling), you only ever get an agent when you don’t need one. This kind of summed up the position I was in with a couple of agents having contacted me and then having Bloomsbury showing interest. So did I go on alone and save myself the 15% or did I sign up with an agent?
For my part, having seen the benefits of a clerk negotiating my fees as a barrister, there was no doubt. After all, it’s far easier and more powerful for someone other than yourself to be arguing for more money. I was also entering a world about which I knew nothing at all and, even if I could understand the small print, I’d never have known what was standard practice and what not. But beyond all of this there was the long-term perspective of taking on an agent who will also be there for you even when the chips might be down and you really do need their contacts to help push your new manuscript onto the right desks of what is a very small publishing world. Oh, and not forgetting the fact that they can help you sell the potentially lucrative residual rights such as in TV, audiobooks and foreign publishing.
But, above all else, if you get the right agent they’ll be interested in you as a creative force. Not only because it’s in their interests to nurture and encourage you but also because if they’re really talented as an agent they’ll be as interested in and as passionate about the creative process as you are. This has certainly been my experience with Euan Thorneycroft at AM Heath and, several years on, I’m very glad I decided to take him on. Though as a postscript it almost didn’t happen at all since his original email, which was along the lines of ‘You don’t know me but I can help you etc’, was of such a type that it was sent straight to my spam box and it was only by chance that I stumbled upon it. So, yes, take on an agent if you’re able and never forget to double-check your spam!
In my next post, I’ll discuss how to put together your pitch for the publisher and the sorts of things you might consider including.
Tim Kevan is the author of ‘Law and Disorder’ and ‘Law and Peace’ which are published by Bloomsbury and available on amazon
Nice post Tim.
I feel like I owe everything to my agent. She took me on overnight on the strength of one chapter and had absolute faith in me from the word go. She schooled me in writing my proposal and knew the market so well that every publisher she sent it to was interested and the book went to auction - so that I was able to devote myself entirely to writing for a year or two.
A good agent is worth their weight in gold.
Hello Tim,
Your experience in getting an agent's interesting, as I too am in the market, as it were. Thank you for sharing that with us. I'm wondering if it's possible to reverse this... rather than a writer looking for an agent, if an agent will come to a writer. I know it sounds farfetched, but have you heard of anything like this happening?
Xean