During my writing years, I’ve met many authors, all in many stages of their publishing careers. New authors, seasoned authors; fly-by-night authors, committed authors; enthusiastic authors, disenchanted authors; indie-published authors, traditionally-published authors; agented authors, unagented authors.
You name it. The gamut runs as tall as it runs wide.
As it’s to be expected, these authors all have their own set of experiences which shape their outlook on their careers as well as their opinions on many relevant publishing topics, including the one at hand: Should one get a literary agent?
Predictably, the opinions and debates on the topic are as varied as the types of authors, which calls for another list: Authors who dream of getting an agent, authors who are indifferent; authors who swear agents are evil, authors who worship their agent; authors who look up to authors with an agent, authors who look down on authors with no agent. And of course, authors who say you should get a literary agent and authors who say you shouldn’t.
So, should “you” get a literary agent?
For many authors, this is an easy question to answer. For others, it’s one that’ll haunt many waking hours until resolved. In the end, it’s a personal manner. Any ensuing decision will be the correct one for that particular author and subject to change in the future. The main thing is not to stress out and think about it logically, rather than emotionally.
How did I decide?
In two previous posts, “How I got my book contract” and “You have an offer from a publisher,” I shared how I got a 3 book deal with Harper Voyager and, consequently, how I got an agent. In that second post, I mentioned how my decision to get an agent was a no-brainer and also promised to share how I went about answering yay or nay.
After thinking about the issue while considering 3 key areas, my answer was a resounding YES—no doubts, no jitters. So I hope these “thinking points” help other authors facing the same decision and take the emotional aspect out of the equation. So here are my reasons to get a literary agent . . .
1. Goals/Dreams
One mistake that I think authors make when faced with this question is thinking in the short term. They concentrate on their current book or current offer, and fail to examine the issue while also considering their long term goals.
When I received my Harper Voyager offer, many people asked me: “Why get an agent?! You did all the hard work and found the publisher yourself. Why give someone else a piece of the pie?!” My answer to them was: “What pie?” I mean, unless my book (Ignite The Shadows) sells, there is no pie. My agent only gets a commission from the sales, so everything she does and has done up to this point is based solely on her belief on my book and on Ingrid Seymour as an author. And man, don’t I want someone to believe in me and be on my side? Hell yeah! 🙂
In my opinion, wishing to eat every piece of the “current” pie shows a narrow perspective. Instead, a better approach would be to ask: How many pies will I get during my long, successful career?
For a dreamer like me, the answer is easy, because . . .
My dreams are my goals.
I want to taste every flavor of pie there is! I want the foreign rights pie with chocolate drizzle; the Hollywood blockbuster pie with a cherry on top; the merchandise pie with whipped cream; I want it all.
Hey, I’m not crazy. Like I always say, one has to reach for the stars to reach the moon. No?
So given these goals/dreams, the next logical question for me was: Do I need an agent to accomplish this lofty goals? Since I don’t have any clue about international law, movie deal negotiations, etc. etc., the answer was clear . . .
YEP, I need an agent to accomplish my overly-sweet, delicious goals! Forget the little bite-size pies.
2. Focus
Contracts make me cross-eyed. I understand computer language better than legalese—I’m a software engineer after all, not a lawyer. So I knew that when faced with the incoming contract from Voyager, I was just going to lose my mind together with its relative peace (I create too much fictional conflict to truly have full peace of mind 😉 ) if I had to try to understand the terms.
So, I immediately knew that hiring someone who knows the ropes in the literary world, would be crucial in helping me keep my focus, both emotional and professional. I didn’t want the stress of contract negotiations, or any distractions from my writing—there are enough of those as it is!
I also didn’t want to hire an IP lawyer, because—given my pie aspirations—that would mean hiring one EVERY TIME I bake a new one. Nope, that would be something else to worry about and take my focus away from what I set out to do in thet place . . .
. . . which is an author, not an agent AND a lawyer.
3. Support
As I said in the first point above, I want someone on my side. Specifically, someone who knows the ins and outs of the publishing industry, someone who knows editors and the material they’re looking for, someone who believes in me and wants to see me succeed.
There are certainly other areas to examine when faced with this choice, but these 3 where enough for me. I hope they are helpful to you!
[Image attribution: Photo by Milos Milosevic, used under CC/No changes]