J.A. Konrath on Literary Agents
J.A. Konrath, author of the popular Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels mystery series, and the soon-to-be-released horror thriller Afraid, has always been a champion for writers trying to break into the business. You can find a slew of useful tips on his website and blog. I recently had the pleasure of asking him a few questions regarding literary agents.
Agents are sort of the intermediaries in the publishing process. A typical scenario would be for a beginning writer to finish his or her book, revise it until it shines, and then start sending letters (called queries) to agents. If an agent agrees to represent the writer, s/he will then submit the manuscript to publishers for consideration. Agents typically work for 15%-20% commission.
First of all, Joe, thanks so much for stopping by.
I’m happy to be here, Jude.
Why do writers even need agents? Wouldn’t it make more sense for writers to submit directly to publishers, thereby keeping all the money from advances and royalties for themselves?
There are multiple answers to that question. First off, many of the big publishers don’t accept unagented submissions. In case you hadn’t noticed, everyone and their brother has a book they want to sell. Hell, my dog is working on a manuscript (it’s called A Paws In Silence.)
Publishers have appointed agents as gatekeepers, using them to vet out the crap. A good agent only submits good books, which save the publisher a lot of time.
Secondly, agents do more than sell your book. In fact, they don’t actually sell your book at all. They sell the rights for a publisher to print and distribute your book for a certain length of time.
Let me repeat that, for all the newbies out there. You don’t need to register a copyright for your recently completed opus. You own the rights automatically. Then an agent sells those rights to different companies.
Besides North American rights, that cover the US and Canada, an agent will try to sell to many other countries as well. They’ll also try to sell book club rights, movie rights, TV rights, theatrical rights, first serial rights, among others.
Finally, a good agent does more than sell your stuff. They keep track of who owes you money, make sure you get the best contract possible, offer career advice, and often work with you to improve your manuscript.
Not a bad deal for just 15% of your income. And that’s 15% of what they sell. Reputable agents never charge the author for anything.
When should a writer start shopping for an agent? How did you know you were ready?
When you have a perfect, polished, marketable manuscript.
Marketable means it has a pre-existing audience. If you walk into a Barnes & Noble, you’ll notice the books are all divided into sections. Make sure your book fits into one of those sections.
Was it easy for you to find an agent?
It was easy as pie. But this particular pie took twelve years to bake. During that time I wrote nine unsold books and got over five hundred rejections.
There’s a word for a writer who never gives up. Published.
What if an agent agrees to represent you, but insists on charging upfront fees. Is this ever a good idea?
It’s a great idea for the agent. I may give it a try. Agents don’t need any sort of license or accreditation, so anyone can claim to be one.
So I’m going to place an ad in a magazine, calling myself an agent, and asking for a $25 reading fee.
If I can get 200 people a month to submit, I’m making a pretty decent living without having to sell a thing. Then if I charge these people an extra $20 a month for office supplies, or phone calls, I could be earning six figures a year, preying on newbie writers.
Or a better bet is to only submit manuscripts to agents you belong to the Association of Author’s Representatives, who follow a strict canon of ethics which states they charge zero fees. You can find them at www.aar-online.org.
Where are some other good places to look for reputable agents?
Besides the AAR, there are two yearly books, The Writer’s Market and Jeff Herman’s Guide.
But the best way to find an agent is to meet one in person. Go to a writer’s conference where agents are taking pitches, then pitch to them.
Once you sign with an agent, are you pretty much guaranteed to become published?
No. Agents sell maybe five to ten percent of the projects they take on. But a good agent will continue to build you, nurture you, and stick with you until a sale is made.
Afraid is a rather dramatic departure from your first five novels, the aforementioned Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. Was your detour into the horror genre something you discussed with your agent before you wrote the book?
My agent suggested it. I’d always wanted to do a horror novel, and had a lot of fan mail asking me to do so. I pitched her a concept, she liked it, and a few years later I had a horror novel, and a contract for another one.
Where do you think you would be in your career right now if you had never landed a literary agent?
I’d be asking you if you want fries with your burger. I’d also suggest pie for dessert. Mmmmm. Pie.
Is there anything you would like to add in closing?
I’m all about helping newbie authors, because publishing is a difficult business to break into, and real professional advice is hard to come by. My blog and website are full of information about agents, writing, editing, marketing, and promotion. Best of all, they're free.
Now please rush right out and buy 17 copies of all of my books. Do it now, before you forget.
***
Thanks, Joe!
Agents are sort of the intermediaries in the publishing process. A typical scenario would be for a beginning writer to finish his or her book, revise it until it shines, and then start sending letters (called queries) to agents. If an agent agrees to represent the writer, s/he will then submit the manuscript to publishers for consideration. Agents typically work for 15%-20% commission.
First of all, Joe, thanks so much for stopping by.
I’m happy to be here, Jude.
Why do writers even need agents? Wouldn’t it make more sense for writers to submit directly to publishers, thereby keeping all the money from advances and royalties for themselves?
There are multiple answers to that question. First off, many of the big publishers don’t accept unagented submissions. In case you hadn’t noticed, everyone and their brother has a book they want to sell. Hell, my dog is working on a manuscript (it’s called A Paws In Silence.)
Publishers have appointed agents as gatekeepers, using them to vet out the crap. A good agent only submits good books, which save the publisher a lot of time.
Secondly, agents do more than sell your book. In fact, they don’t actually sell your book at all. They sell the rights for a publisher to print and distribute your book for a certain length of time.
Let me repeat that, for all the newbies out there. You don’t need to register a copyright for your recently completed opus. You own the rights automatically. Then an agent sells those rights to different companies.
Besides North American rights, that cover the US and Canada, an agent will try to sell to many other countries as well. They’ll also try to sell book club rights, movie rights, TV rights, theatrical rights, first serial rights, among others.
Finally, a good agent does more than sell your stuff. They keep track of who owes you money, make sure you get the best contract possible, offer career advice, and often work with you to improve your manuscript.
Not a bad deal for just 15% of your income. And that’s 15% of what they sell. Reputable agents never charge the author for anything.
When should a writer start shopping for an agent? How did you know you were ready?
When you have a perfect, polished, marketable manuscript.
Marketable means it has a pre-existing audience. If you walk into a Barnes & Noble, you’ll notice the books are all divided into sections. Make sure your book fits into one of those sections.
Was it easy for you to find an agent?
It was easy as pie. But this particular pie took twelve years to bake. During that time I wrote nine unsold books and got over five hundred rejections.
There’s a word for a writer who never gives up. Published.
What if an agent agrees to represent you, but insists on charging upfront fees. Is this ever a good idea?
It’s a great idea for the agent. I may give it a try. Agents don’t need any sort of license or accreditation, so anyone can claim to be one.
So I’m going to place an ad in a magazine, calling myself an agent, and asking for a $25 reading fee.
If I can get 200 people a month to submit, I’m making a pretty decent living without having to sell a thing. Then if I charge these people an extra $20 a month for office supplies, or phone calls, I could be earning six figures a year, preying on newbie writers.
Or a better bet is to only submit manuscripts to agents you belong to the Association of Author’s Representatives, who follow a strict canon of ethics which states they charge zero fees. You can find them at www.aar-online.org.
Where are some other good places to look for reputable agents?
Besides the AAR, there are two yearly books, The Writer’s Market and Jeff Herman’s Guide.
But the best way to find an agent is to meet one in person. Go to a writer’s conference where agents are taking pitches, then pitch to them.
Once you sign with an agent, are you pretty much guaranteed to become published?
No. Agents sell maybe five to ten percent of the projects they take on. But a good agent will continue to build you, nurture you, and stick with you until a sale is made.
Afraid is a rather dramatic departure from your first five novels, the aforementioned Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. Was your detour into the horror genre something you discussed with your agent before you wrote the book?
My agent suggested it. I’d always wanted to do a horror novel, and had a lot of fan mail asking me to do so. I pitched her a concept, she liked it, and a few years later I had a horror novel, and a contract for another one.
Where do you think you would be in your career right now if you had never landed a literary agent?
I’d be asking you if you want fries with your burger. I’d also suggest pie for dessert. Mmmmm. Pie.
Is there anything you would like to add in closing?
I’m all about helping newbie authors, because publishing is a difficult business to break into, and real professional advice is hard to come by. My blog and website are full of information about agents, writing, editing, marketing, and promotion. Best of all, they're free.
Now please rush right out and buy 17 copies of all of my books. Do it now, before you forget.
***
Thanks, Joe!
Views: 21
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Christopherson on
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Nine books and five hundred rejections just to get an agent--and I'd thought Jonathan Kellerman's writing 10 books before getting published was an outlier, perhaps not.
This reminds me of a TV interview with legendary Baltimore Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson that I saw as a kid. Robinson was of average build and wasn't fast or strong and reported that as a kid he wasn't often the first person chosen for sandlot ballgames in his neighborhood. So the interviewer asked him how it was that his neighborhood friends, including the ones picked before him for sandlot, ended up selling insurance for a living and so forth, while he, Brooks, was now headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Robinson said: "I wanted it more."
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Permalink Reply by Jude Hardin on
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"I wanted it more."
I think that's the ticket, Eric.
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Sobieck on
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If I can get 200 people a month to submit, I’m making a pretty decent living without having to sell a thing. Then if I charge these people an extra $20 a month for office supplies, or phone calls, I could be earning six figures a year, preying on newbie writers.
What the heck am I doing trying to write novels? This sounds great. Where do I sign up?
Of course, the reputable agents make much more than this. Also, if an agent does not make sales, word will eventually get around.
Quote of the year (so far): I’d be asking you if you want fries with your burger. I’d also suggest pie for dessert. Mmmmm. Pie.
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Of course, the reputable agents make much more than this.
It depends. Reputable agents work strictly on commission, so their income depends on how much they're making for the writer.
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Permalink Reply by Jon Loomis on
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Nice interview, Jude. It might've been interesting to ask about divorcing your agent, too--what are the signs that it might be time to move on? I know Dana's just been through this, and the author/agent relationship can feel fragile and tenuous for a lot of us at times.
Konrath's funny--who knew?
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You're right, Jon, that would have been a good question. If I remember correctly, Joe did fire an agent early in his career (like years before he ever got published), so he has some experience on that front as well.
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Permalink Reply by John Desjarlais on
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Great advice here. I've had two agents; my first agent sold my two historical novels and then retired. It took a year-and-a-half to get a second agent for my first mystery and when I did, he was in a serious car accident after nearly three years of shopping the book and he had to leave the business. I found another one through a writer's conference online a year later and she has found a home for the mystery. She worked with me on some revisions that really strengthened the story, but I thought that was unusual - my previous agents didn't suggest anything editorially. Anyway, "Bleeder" is coming out this August and a sequel should be out in 18-24 months. Finding an agent takes a lot of work - it's important to keep good records about what was sent to whom, when, with what results.
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Good point, John. Most writers aren't going to land an agent on the first try, so it pays to query widely. If you're sending them out in batches of 20 or whatever, it's definitely a good idea to keep good records.
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