Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

N. K. JEMISIN: The author-agent relationship

is kind of like a marriage.

It's a professional marriage.

You may have to divorce that agent

and move on to someone else.

Try and make sure that this is a person

that you feel okay having some kind

of professional relationship with for a very long time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I hear a lot from beginning writers

that they don't necessarily want to get an agent.

They've heard that agents don't do a whole lot of work

and take 15% of your money.

And that's true.

They take 15% of your money.

They do, however, do a whole lot of work.

Here's the question that you have to ask yourself.

Do you have close personal relationships with people

in the publishing industry.

If you do, then you can be your own agent.

Do you have legal knowledge that allows

you to look at long, complex contracts

and find pitfalls or potential dangers?

Do you have enough insider knowledge about the book

business that you understand the dangers

of some of these contracts?

If you understand, for example, that you'll

make less money if you-- if you sell worldwide publication

rights to your traditional publisher versus just selling

North American rights.

So if you have a lot of insider knowledge,

if you've been in this business, then, yeah, of course

you can be your own agent.

If you don't have that knowledge,

if you, like me, are a former career counselor [LAUGHS] who's

trying to get your book out there,

and no, you don't speak legalese,

and somebody hands you a 25-page contract,

and no, you don't know how to read it,

then no, you probably shouldn't be your own agent.

I mean, yes, my first contract was actually 35 pages.

But anyway.

[LAUGHS]

So here's what an agent does.

Agents are professionals who have been in this business.

They've either worked as publishers themselves,

or they've worked with an agency for a long time, gotten

to know lots of publishers, editors, agents,

and they can go out and have conversations with these people

and hand them a book.

And the editor for that publishing house

is going to know, based on that person's reputation, based

on the fact that they know and respect that person,

they're going to know that this book that they're being handed

is worth their time.

Now, whether they buy it or not is a completely subjective

matter on that editor's part.

But they'll at least know that it's worth the time

that it takes to read it.

Publishers these days don't do slush piles, for the most part.

Slush piles, for those who don't know,

are what they used to call the piles of manuscripts

that publishing houses would take in as they were looking

for new talent to publish.

That's a thing that used to happen maybe 30, 40 years ago.

It's not common now.

And that's partly because the slush pile wasn't really

a good return on investment of time for publishers.

It took years, in some cases, to get through the slush piles.

And in the time that it took them

to read all of these-- these pieces

and decide which ones might be worth publication,

a lot of times, publishers would miss a potentially really good

book because it would be sold to someone else.

So the agent is a way to not have that slush pile.

The agent is effectively the slush pile these days.

And the agent not only gets your book

in front of that publisher, but they negotiate on your behalf

when the publisher decides that they like that book.

If you're very lucky, your book will go to auction.

You'll have more than one publisher interested,

and the agent's job is to manage that auction.

They will approach each publisher,

get those publishers' offers, you know,

approach other publishers and see if maybe they

want to get in on this.

And ultimately, they'll help you navigate that whole process.

They will read your contract for you.

They will warn you about potential pitfalls

in that contract.

They will tell you things that you should hold out for

or things that you shouldn't sign.

And ultimately, at the end of the day,

they earned that 15% by keeping you from getting scammed.

[LAUGHS] They keep you from getting

taken advantage of by people who understand

this business a lot better than you ever could.

So I think it's worth it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's a number of different ways

that you can use to find a good agent.

I mean, it's important that you find a good agent.

There are many, many agents out there.

Anybody that wants to can set out their shingle

and declare themselves an agent.

And a lot of scammers do so, because there's

a sucker born every minute, and an author who

is hungry to be published, hungry for fame,

is potentially a really good sucker that they can exploit.

so you've got to be careful out there.

One of the things that you want to do is look at the authors

that you like.

Look at the people who are publishing books,

who have recently published books with publishers that you

like, writing material that you like.

Find out who those people's agents are.

Find out who sold those books to which publisher.

And then right then and there, you've

got a set of potential agents to query.

You want to check those agents' names, though,

against one of several different databases

and resources out there that can help you identify scam agents.

In the science fiction and fantasy field,

there's Writer Beware, which is sponsored

by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

You can read about scams that have occurred recently,

and that can hopefully help you--

help keep you from being scammed in the same way.

You can read about common scams and common scammers,

so you can compare their name, the names

of the agents that you're interested in,

against the agents that are-- are a little questionable,

and then maybe learn to stay away from that.

You can also find agents by going

to either a pitch contest or a pitch conference or something

like that.

For those kinds of opportunities,

you're actually paying to get yourself

in front of potential agents.

With a pitch conference, you pay to get in,

but you have the chance to go and give

a pitch about your book.

That's a 30-second, brief description of the book.

We'll talk about pitches in a minute.

[LAUGHS] But that's a brief description of your book.

And you get the chance to go and sit down in front of an agent

and pitch your book at them, and see

if they're interested and are willing to ask

for the manuscript based on that.

You can also do a kind of pitch conference online.

It's become fairly popular in recent years to do.

#PitMAD is-- is the most popular one.

But there are different pitch contests

that happen on Twitter, where you tweet out your pitch.

[LAUGHS] And if it fits within a tweet, then it's pitch length.

And you just hashtag it with that particular #PitMAD,

or whatever the pitch contest is.

And agents will watch that hashtag.

If they see something interesting,

they'll reach out and ask you for a manuscript.

So some things to consider in deciding

whether to approach an agent.

First and foremost, you need to have a completed book.

You may have heard that it's possible to sell a book based

on an outline.

No.

Not if you're a beginning writer.

In non-fiction, sometimes that happens,

and so that's where some of that information is coming from.

But in the fiction world, you need

to have a completed manuscript before you even

attempt to approach an agent.

Ideally, you may have a completed manuscript

and a few other manuscripts that are kind of in progress.

Because a lot of times, when you approach an agent,

they'll ask you not just about that one particular book,

but they want to know, like, what all that you've produced

and--

and all of the books that you may eventually

be able to-- to be agented on.

Another thing that you want to kind of keep in mind when

you're approaching an agent is that it's

a business relationship.

You are approaching that agent in the same way

that you would a potential employer.

You're not going to work for them.

It's actually the other way around.

They're going to work for you.

But you still approach them and greet them

in the same kind of way that you would

in establishing any new, professional relationship.

So you can approach them in professional workplaces,

like science fiction and fantasy writers conferences.

You introduce yourself.

You shake hands.

You explain who you are and what you want.

And then you can have a conversation where maybe you'll

be given the chance to do your pitch.

You can actually approach agents in electronic or mail form too.

That's actually how I found my agent.

When I decided to look for an agent,

it was like the mid '90s, kind of before the internet was

the-- the main way to do things.

First, I sourced potential agents

by looking at my favorite authors

and seeing who had sold books recently

in two publishers that I was interested in.

I acquired an industry newspaper,

"Locus," for science fiction and fantasy.

Every genre of fiction tends to have its own industry

mechanism.

So I used "Locus" magazine to find

listings of agents who had sold books by particular authors

to particular publishers recently,

which told me agents who were active in the moment, agents

who were connected to the publishers I was interested in,

agents whose tastes ran to the kind of work

I like to read and hopefully write.

So that gave me an idea of who that base

set of potential agents was.

I checked them against Writer Beware

and other scam-checking operations.

And then I sent queries to all of those agents.

Now, to find out what the agent wants in a query,

you just simply go to their website.

They all have websites.

Go to their website.

Find out what they're looking for.

And then give them what they're looking for.

If the agent says they want just a cover letter and a synopsis,

do not send them the whole manuscript.

You've let that agent know at that point

that you can't follow directions,

and you aren't listening to them.

They don't want to work with somebody

who isn't going to do that.

So if they say send the whole manuscript, do that.

But most agents aren't going to ask for the manuscript

up front.

They're going to do a little bit of testing just

to make sure that you are paying attention, basically.

So they're going to say what they want,

a synopsis, maybe a list of all your projects,

maybe an outline, and you send them what they want.

Then at that point, after the agent's

had a chance to review it, then the agent will get back to you

and ask you for maybe something more.

Maybe they want to sample the first few chapters.

Maybe they want the whole manuscript.

Maybe they just want to talk to you a little bit more

and-- and kind of suss out whether you're

somebody that they want to work with,

and then they'll ask for the manuscript.

But at the end of the-- the whole process,

you want them to ask for your manuscript.

When they do that, then you can send them the manuscript.

And make sure that you make it clear that you only

are sending that manuscript exclusively to them

for a limited period of time.

Here's the thing.

Most agents don't want you to query multiple agents

at the same time.

That's because if they're a little slow on the take,

but then they finally do get around to it,

they may have expended the effort of reading

a whole manuscript, but only to find out at the end

that you've already sold that manuscript to somebody else.

So to save them that effort, you send them

the manuscript exclusively, but you

say for one month, or for three months, or something like that.

I am happy to share this manuscript with you.

I am going to exclusively send it to you for one month.

At the end of that month, please let

me know if you would like more time

or if I should send this to other agents.

That's just polite.

I have mentioned at this point that agents

will ask for certain things.

There are formats to these things,

so you want to go and look at a resource like SFWA.org,

S-F-W-A dot org, and other writing organizations,

which often are going to have resources on how to write

a cover letter, a synopsis, an outline,

all of the things that agents typically ask for.

How to properly format a novel.

Some agents really care about what

font you use as you're putting a novel together.

Some don't.

Some really care that you are going

to use a particular typing style,

with the period and the two spaces after each sentence.

Some don't.

But at the end of the day, you need

to make sure that you're giving the agent what they want.

So go look at that.

Go look at those resources.

Figure out how to do it right.

Format your work, and then send it forth.

For each genre of--

of published fiction out there, there

are agents who choose to specialize in that.

Very few agents are-- are Jack-of-all-trade agents who

can do everything.

Some agents even represent only certain formats.

So there used to be, back in the day,

when short fiction made more money,

there used to be agents who did nothing but short fiction.

These days, most agents don't do short fiction at all.

Some will.

But, you know, there are agents that

choose to specialize in romance or science fiction or mystery,

nonfiction--

that's a whole other field--

and so forth.

So you want to find agents who have that expertise.

The reason they specialize like that

is partly because they just like it,

but also partly because their--

their personal connections and experiences

are going to be in that particular genre.

They've either worked in a publishing house in that genre,

or they are friends with other editors in that genre.

They've been representing other authors in that genre,

and they've got a whole stable of big names

that will help them get a foot in the door.

They're all good reasons for that.

It's important to remember that the author-agent relationship

is kind of like a marriage.

It's a professional marriage.

And an important thing to remember

is that if you get an agent, and that agent

sells a book for you, that agent takes

a cut of that book sales for life,

because that agent is part of the reason

that that book is out there, published.

Even if you no longer work with that agent,

even if you fire that agent and move to a different agency,

that agent continues to get a cut of that particular sale

until that book is out of print.

So it's kind of like marrying someone and having kids,

and you continue to have to have a relationship with them,

because you've got kids together even after you divorce.

So try and, like, go into this [LAUGHS]

as carefully as you can.

You may not always get along with your-- your agent forever.

You may have to divorce that agent

and move on to someone else.

But at least, you know, try and make

sure that this is a person that you

feel okay having some kind of professional relationship

with for a very long time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The pitch.

The pitch is you giving a very brief, hopefully hooky,

description of your work to another person in order

to hopefully catch their attention

and make them want more.

And a lot of times, people call this an elevator pitch,

because you're supposed to visualize yourself

in an elevator with a person who has the power

to publish your book.

For 30 seconds, you're going down from the fifth floor

to the first floor, and you've got that much time

to make a positive impression.

So just as you would in an elevator,

you let them know who you are.

You let them know anything relevant about your background

that they may need to know, like I'm a published author who

is moving away from my old agent,

but I won a bunch of awards, and I'm looking for a new agent

now.

That's relevant.

Or I'm a new author who is thinking

about trying to get published by one of the-- the big name

publishers in New York, and I hear that you're an agent.

May I give you my--

my pitch.

And so you first tell them who you are and what you want,

and then you launch into talking about the book.

And you want to make it-- very much like with a short story,

you want to have a good hook that

keeps your audience interested and makes them want more.

So there's one sentence in there that you--

you are going to have to do some word smithing

on for a while in order to make sure

that it's a really good, attention-getting, interesting

sentence.

That sentence talks about who your protagonist is,

what your protagonist's conflict is,

and how they're going to have to resolve it.

And you've got 30 seconds, so you really only

have time for maybe three or four sentences.

So you make them really good ones.

At the end of that, you ask for what you want.

You say, I would like to send you my manuscript,

or I would like to send you more information about this.

How can I do that.

Can I get a business card.

Something.

At the end of it, you ask for something,

and hopefully, you get it.

So when you're giving your pitch,

your pitch needs to sound--

it needs to sound like you haven't rehearsed it,

even though you probably have.

[LAUGHS] You're going to rehearse it

because you want to make sure that it only

lasts for 30 seconds.

You want to make sure that it's interesting,

so you're going to try and do it in front of other people.

I mean, you're going to rehearse it,

but you want it to sound natural.

So do it until you feel completely comfortable having

this conversation.

Another thing that you want to do

when you're giving this pitch is that you

want to just simply start with what the book is about,

and that can be your first sentence.

It's about a princess who decides

that she wants to hunt dragons, because dragons constantly

harass princesses, and she's tired of that,

and so she decides singlehandedly to become

Xena, Dragon-Eating Princess.

Hunt them all down, eat them, [LAUGHS] as they would

once would have eaten her.

Vengeance is the name of my novel.

Please, may I send you my manuscript.

That's a terrible pitch, but it's

an example of the kind of thing that you want to do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Now that you've found an agent, your agent

is going to do the bulk of the work of finding

you a publisher.

They will send your manuscript out to publishers.

If that means that they need to make photocopies and do it

in physical form, they'll do so.

If they need to format it as an ePUB or something like that,

they'll do that.

If they need to edit your novel in advance

and make sure that it looks as good as it can be,

then they will do that, and they will work with you

on trying to get that-- that publication, that manuscript,

ready to be sent to a publisher.

Then, when it comes to actually negotiating

with that publisher, if you're lucky, like I said,

you'll have more than one publisher interested,

and the agent can then orchestrate an auction, where

they basically play one publisher against another

to try and get you as much money as possible.

If only one publisher is interested,

they'll still fight to get you as much money as possible,

you just don't have quite as much leverage

as you would have had otherwise.

But they'll sit down and have conversations

with that publisher about typical advances

for this type of book, for you as a debut author,

for this genre.

They will know all of that, as far as

what is typical for this field.

They will look at the contract that the publisher sent,

and they will warn you about pitfalls in it.

They will send that contract to you as well.

You should read it yourself.

Even if you're not super familiar with reading

long, intensive legalese, you need

to get familiar with that, because you can't just

rely on your agent to catch all of the pitfalls.

You should be watching for that too.

But you can have a conversation with the agent about what does

right of first refusal mean.

What do these strange legal terms translate to.

What does this mean in real terms

about when will I get my advance check.

When will I get--

when will the book actually be published.

What happens if I don't like the cover art.

You need to have all of these conversations,

and you can have them with your agent.

One of the great things about having an agent

is that you can have conversations with them that

would be uncomfortable to have with your publisher,

like you want more money.

[LAUGHS] Most writers probably do.

As a brand-new, debut author, you

don't want to necessarily approach your publisher

and demand more money.

You don't have the clout to do that,

and you could end up accidentally

offending the publisher if you ask in the wrong way.

You can have that conversation with your agent instead,

and your agent will have realistic conversations

with you about what arguments will work,

what your realistic chances are of being able to--

to get more money, whether your--

your ideas on how much you should be making

are realistic as well, and so forth.

So these are all things that the agent can help you with.