Saturday, February 23, 2019

A question to add to your list for "when an agent offers rep"

Add this question: do you rep the book or the author?

Wait, what? I hear you ask. What's the damn difference? I wrote that damn book! You rep ME!

Well, no, not quite.

If the agent reps the book, generally she's saying this is a one book at a time arrangment. If Book Two isn't to her liking, she's not going to offer rep for it. That means you're agent hunting again.


If the agent expects to rep YOU, it's understood that she reps you for all your work. If you're planning an expose of the AAR, the time to tell her that is before you sign on the dotted line.

Any questions?


13 comments:

E.M. Goldsmith said...

This is something I would like to know before I query. I don't want to bother with a "book only" agent. I need a career agent. Is there a way to find this out prior to querying an agent? I have not seen where agents claim on their websites, hey, I only rep books, not authors.

K. White said...

Is it more common for an agent to offer to rep one book at a time or to handle the author's entire career?

From my position on the hamster wheel it seems that in the past it was more common to handle an author's entire career, but lately more emphasis is placed on one book at a time. (I have more than a few friends who were dropped around book two or three because their agent either changed genres or lost interest in their writing.)

Amy Johnson said...

Today is off to a great start. I've wondered about whether some agents represent the book rather than the author. Information I've gleaned over the years seemed to suggest that might be the case. Now I know. Thanks, Janet.

Aaaand, I'm sure others on the Reef were as excited as I was earlier this morning to learn today's Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster. Chockablock! What a wonderful word! I think I'll add it to my list of favorites.

Matt Adams said...

Mine started with the author, switched to the book when she switched agencies. She said not to worry about it, that she loved my stuff and would represent anything I wrote.

Then she did not like the second book. Bad conversation to have.

If I ever get offered again, that will be the first question I ask. But at the same time, you can't expect someone to pitch something they don't love, so even in a "author" situation, it doesn't obligate the agent to sell a book they aren't confident in. So maybe it's a much moot-er point than you'd imagine.

Janet, have you found that book-only is becoming more prevalent these days?

Colin Smith said...

Hmm. I didn't realize this was still a thing. I thought most agents these days are client-agents, not book-agents. Thanks for the heads-up, Janet! :)

Panda in Chief said...

It seems like this is often addressed on the agent's/agency website. And if it's not,mit would be a very i portant wuestion to ask if you get to the "call" stage of your query to any agent. Probably, this is one of those places where when the agent asks if you have any other projects in yhe works, to both have them and haul them out to show offering agent.

Lennon Faris said...

Yeah I didn't know this was a 'thing,' either. I thought the agents who did this were considered legal but nefarious.

Good to know indeed!

Craig F said...

I have noticed, during my current research for agents, that several state that they are full service, based on the author.

If you are searching, try them first. I have not yet noticed any with the language for one and done couched in their website. It is possible that it is a thing seldom done. It might be one of those complicated things that is judgement based.

How you ask all of these agent check list questions might have something to do with it. Try to stay level headed and conversational during that double interview know as the "Call".

If I can mange that when, and if, it gets here, I'll let you know.

Mary said...

My contract just says "the work" but my agent has stayed with me. Though I've noticed that it seems to be taking a long time to sell book 3. Probably time to have the conversation. Gah, I really don't want to go internet dating again.

April Mack said...

What does “an expose of the AAR” mean? Do you mean, planning your excuse ahead of time when you break up with an agent?

Julie Weathers said...

I went through this back in another lifetime. The agents wanted my suspense and more importantly my historical, but not my children's books. So we agreed I would find a different agent for the children's books.

Now, I see a substantial number of agents who would happily rep historical, but run backwards at high fantasy. It's getting closer to query time and I think about this. I'm focused on historical now, but let's face it, one day I'm going to pull those fantasies back off the shelf and I really don't want to go agent hunting again. I am too danged old for this dance.

MA Hudson said...

A question I have is, should we also ask if it's the individual agent that's signing you up, or the actual agency? What happens when agents leave their agency? Do they always take their clients with them?

AJ Blythe said...

Wowzers. I didn't know this was a thing either. I assumed it was the author. Thank goodness for the treasure chest!