On Wednesday, superstar mystery writer Jenny Milchman came
through Lawrence and had lunch with seven local writers, including me. We had a
delicious and wonderful meal full of interesting conversation, stories tall and
small, and lots of yam fries (because who doesn’t love yam fries?).
The group was full of variety—three traditionally pubbed Big
Five writers; two querying writers; a self-pubbed author; an agented author
(me) and a reader.
Before our meals (and yam fries!) arrived, Jenny posed a
question to the group. And this is basically it but I’m paraphrasing because we
discussed it in different facets: Is it necessary in today’s publishing
industry to have a big-shot agent?
While it’s true that you need an agent to get a traditional
deal with the Big Five, do you need a “name” agent to be effective? When
looking for an agent, is it best to focus on the names you see repeatedly in
Publisher’s Marketplace? (Sorry, Jenny, had to paraphrase here.)
My answer was this: you need the agent for you. If that’s
the big-deal agent, it’s the big-deal agent. If it’s a freshman agent you
really connected with, it’s that excited newbie.
The four of us that are agented agreed, though two of us
have agents who aren’t big and two have agents who are huge names in their
categories. Our experiences have been vastly different, but we agreed that for
an author-agent relationship to be effective:
- You need an agent who gets you as an artist and a person
- You need an agent who knows the industry and your category
- You need an agent who knows how to negotiate
It’s funny because before I was agented I would’ve been
happy just to have ANY agent say yes to me. But now I understand the “behind
the scenes” part of things and that’s definitely changed my opinion. I feel
very happy with my agent and my experience, but I know several people who have run from their agents in tears because things didn’t work out for each of those
three reasons above.
And when it doesn’t work out, often your confidence takes a
hit, you must query again, AND any book the agent has shopped that didn’t sell isn’t
something that another agent would likely make the rounds with again.
I thought Jenny’s question was very important, especially
given the negative experiences of people I know. And given that many writers
want representation very badly so that they can have a “traditional” career.
For those of you who have queried, what stands out to you
about the agents you most hope to connect to?
