Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work (24 page)

No author I know who signs with an agent wants that partnership to end. But, sadly, things do break down sometimes. Here are four signs that your agent-author relationship has turned sour.

1. LACK OF COMMUNICATION FROM THE AGENT.
   This is the big one. Most agents will respond to your e-mails within forty-eight hours, if not much quicker. But if you’re e-mailing your agent and repeatedly getting nada in return, that’s a bad sign. It means that your agent no longer considers you important enough to communicate with or she is simply avoiding you—or she doesn’t know how to prioritize her time. A serious lack of communication is a large problem and one of the first signs of a sinking ship.
   
2. DISAGREEMENT ON BIG ISSUES IN YOUR WRITING CAREER.
   You and your agent should be on the same page concerning what you write and your career goals. Sometimes an agent sees an opening for you in another area and wants to guide you in that direction. You may take this change of direction easily, or you may not. If you feel uneasy writing what your agent wants you to write—whether it’s a completely different type of book or the suggestion to change the age of your main character from thirty-three to sixty-three—then that’s another red flag.
   
3. DREADING TALKING WITH ONE ANOTHER.
   Personally, I always look forward to my agent’s phone calls. Why? Because she only calls with
   news
   , and news is welcome. Even bad news is welcome, because it gives us answers and closure, and helps us move on and decide the proper next step. So if you don’t look forward to your agent’s calls or she always acts put out when you get her on the phone, that’s bad. This partnership is fueled by enthusiasm, and dread is the opposite of enthusiasm.
   
4. A MAJOR DIFFERENCE OF OPINION ON AN OFFERED DEAL.
   An agent’s job is to get you a book deal. But, oddly enough, sometimes a deal offer can be a bad thing and lead to arguments between you and your agent. An agent is likely to be excited about her hard work paying off with a deal offer, but the deal may not be quite what you expected. All of the following scenarios are very plausible: (1) The offer comes from XYZ Publisher, but you’ve heard negative things about that house from writer friends. (2) The offer for your nonfiction proposal was much lower than hoped, and you now feel like writing the rest of the book will not be financially worthwhile. (3) A publisher offers you a healthy deal, but they, in fact, want to make your book the next edition of an existing novel series and take your name off the book. (4) The publisher wants to release your book but only as an e-book at first, with print copies being discussed only after certain sales figures are reached. If your agent is pushing you hard to take the deal but your gut tells you no, that’s never a good situation to be in.
   

So what happens if you feel like your efforts together have taken a downward turn? At that point, it’s time to compose an honest e-mail expressing your concerns. Make sure you don’t get upset or point fingers. Just calmly express what’s on your mind. It’s an invitation for the agent to write back and tell you what’s frustrating her. You both have nothing to lose at this point, and it’s time to stop holding back and express your true thoughts—albeit politely.

Ideally the open conversation will illuminate some issues or ideas you two didn’t understand before. Then you can use it as a jumping-off point for getting your relationship—and your career—back on track.

Conversely, the conversation may confirm your fears that the match is not a true match and it’s time to move on. The most common problem you are likely to address is a disagreement about how to move forward. If you feel very strongly about one course of action but your agent does not—like if you want to start writing picture books exclusively, while your agent says you need to stick to your bread-and-butter mystery books—there’s not much you can do.

In the worst case, the agent may not even choose to reply to this e-mail. If that happens, it’s time to pull up the anchor and sail on. You can then send a follow-up e-mail requesting the termination of your partnership, effective in however many days as set forth by your contract. Thank her for her time and hard work, and start drafting a new query letter to begin your agent search anew.

Keep in mind that if you want to find another rep who might be a better fit for your style, you should cut ties with your current agent before doing any new querying. It’s disrespectful to both agents if you talk representation with new agents before formally terminating your current contract.

Let’s put aside those end-times scenarios and focus on the good stuff: money. If you’re going to wheel and deal with literary agents and editors, you’ll end up spending more time than you’d like discussing rights, contracts, advances, royalties and a whole lot of other
boring
important stuff. This is a boundless topic, so here I’ll address the most common questions regarding how the payment process works when you sell a book.

You sign a contract with a publisher. In exchange for signing over the North American and English-language print rights to your book and possibly other rights as well, you are paid one of three ways.

1. FLAT FEE:
   a set amount of money up front that’s yours to keep. The amount does not change no matter how well the book sells. For example, if your flat fee is $10,000, the amount remains the same whether the book sells ten copies or ten million.
   
2. ROYALTIES:
   a small amount paid to you for every book sold.
   
3. ADVANCE AGAINST ROYALTIES:
   a sum of money up front to you with the promise of more (royalties) should the book sell well.
   

An advance against royalties is probably the most desirable, and it is by far the most common. It’s like you get both a flat fee and royalties combined. Let me explain exactly how an advance against royalties works. For this example, I’ll keep it real simple. Let’s say the publishing house offers you an advance of $30,000 and royalties of $3/book.

Note that the up-front advance of $30,000 is not
in addition
to royalties but rather
part
of royalties—meaning they’ve given you royalties for the first ten thousand books (times $3/book) up front. Since they’ve already paid you the royalties of the first ten thousand books, you will not start actually making an additional $3/book until you sell copy 10,001. The royalty possibilities are essentially endless. You can make $3/book forever as long as new copies keep selling in bookstores and online.

No. Any up-front money—a flat fee or advance—is yours to keep no matter what. But you’re on to something here with that question. If your book tanks and the project is a financial failure, you’ve created a huge hurdle to get over when you want to sell another book.

Yes, a huge advance means a large sum of guaranteed money (sweet), but a small advance means more reasonable expectations for you to meet and a greater chance for your book to be profitable, making you “a valuable author” in a publisher’s eyes and more likely to get one or more book deals moving forward.

Totally depends on the cost of the book, your contract, and how much it is to produce copies of the work. If you write a hardback novel, you may get $3/book. If you write niche nonfiction, it’s probably more like $1/book. And keep in mind that if you write with a co-writer or an illustrator, that royalty is likely cut in half.

This is the big question that never gets answered. The reason it never gets answered is not because editors are being coy but rather because
there is no answer
. The amount of your advanced payment is, for the most part, dependent on how many books the editor has projected you will definitely sell. It also depends on the book’s genre/category, the size of the house, the scope of the deal, your platform, your agent’s skill, and much more. There are just as many $3,000 deals going on in a day as there are $100,000 deals.
That’s
why there is no answer. No one wants to throw a figure out there that is interpreted as fact.

Hope
for money, but write because you
love it
. It’s not healthy to come in with a particular financial expectation. Three grand may sound like peanuts, but it can be reality. You should not be in the writing business for the money. The second you say, “I will not sell my book for anything less than [
X
],” you’re backing yourself into a corner. Perhaps you’re an engineer making $60/hour at your full-time job. If you decide to write a book on engineering, there is virtually no chance that the work you put into that project (writing, pitching, marketing) will amount to $60/hour. Know this going in so that both you and the agent aren’t disappointed.

Yes. Sadly, advances are trending down slowly. For example, a book that would have garnered you a $15,000 advance ten years ago may only gain about 50–60 percent of that total today. But the good news is that if your book sells well, there’s still plenty of money to be made on the back end with royalties. And with e-book publishers and partner publishers, there are more avenues than ever to sell in the first place—so don’t listen to anyone who says it’s all gloom out there.

It depends, but that money is usually split into multiple payments. For example, if you sign a deal for $12,000, you may get $4,000 upon signing the contract, then another third upon completion of editing or writing the project, then the final third when the book is released.

Typically, no. In my case, the check gets sent to my literary agent, who cashes it. She is then required to, within ten days, send me a check for 85 percent of the original amount. An agent’s standard commission is 15 percent of all monies made off the book. (The agent sends you a 1099 at the end of the year, so you can pay taxes.) Oh, and be aware that the checks from the publisher don’t come quickly. If I sell copies of my humor books in January, the royalty check doesn’t land until November usually. So patience is key.

I’m honestly not sure, and that’s why I encourage you to find a literary agent. It’s the agent’s responsibility to be in touch with the editor and accounting department to make sure the royalty statements (payments) accurately reflect proper totals that take into account sales, returns, foreign-territory sales, and film rights.

Traditionally, yes—as long as you don’t have an unfortunate contract that deems otherwise. If a production studio wants to buy your film rights, they have to pay you—and that isn’t cheap, either. They will likely
option
your book, meaning that they buy the film rights temporarily (for example, one year) in exchange for a limited amount of money. And a film company can certainly continue to option the book repeatedly year after year if they’re making progress and don’t want to let the property go. And that’s good financial news for you!

For every foreign territory (country) that you sell to where the book requires a translation, that’s more money. Advances and royalties work the same way in other countries: You get a small lump sum of cash (an advance) for each territory, with the possibility of more money (royalties) should the book sell well. If the book sells in ten territories, that’s a great way to make money off a project. Plus it’s pretty darn cool to see the different covers of your book with the title in different languages.

Not necessarily. Money will play a big, big role in the selling of the book—but there is more to consider. Are they promising a thorough marketing and publicity plan? Do they seem excited about the book? What rights are they asking for in exchange for that money? Do they design and produce beautiful books? Do they have a history of keeping their books in print for years and still promoting them down the road? Do they publish ten books a year or four hundred, and how will that play out in how your book is handled? All these questions factor in big time. In my opinion, it’s better to take a $10,000 deal with a house that loves the book and will push it than a house that offers double the advance but not a whole lot of love. It’s love and enthusiasm for a book that will give it the best possible chance to sell well.

“An offer in your pocket is always better than none,” says Laura Langlie, founder of the Laura Langlie Agency. “Certainly, if an agent feels she can demand more for a book, she should hold out; however, usually the editor who makes the first offer is the most enthusiastic and thoroughly understands the book and may turn out to be the best editor and in-house advocate for that book. The most money is not necessarily the best deal for an author. That enthusiasm, commitment, and support from all divisions within a publishing house often means more than those dollars in your bank account. An agent’s experience regarding what editors are looking to buy, what publishers are currently paying, and what the marketplace is like should lead that agent to advise her client regarding whether or not an offer on the table is the best (whatever its true meaning) that can be expected.”

You may find yourself taking a deal you didn’t expect to take—such as with an e-book-only publisher—because it’s simply what makes the most sense for your book and your career. There are many factors that will go into this decision when it comes. Your agent will guide you through every step as your dream grows and changes, and as your book makes its way into print.