One of the least written about careers toward which English
majors might naturally gravitate is the literary agent. Though literary agency,
or literary representation, is not a subject normally taught in school,
literary agents are as much a part of the book business as are writers and
publishers. What some English majors who are starting to think seriously about
a career path may not know is that literary agents are indispensable in the
ever churning mill of the book business.
Literary agents are the brokers between authors and publishers. Literary agents find emerging writers and
help those writers prime their work to a saleable product while at the same
time finding saleable authors for commercial publishing companies who rely on agents
for this service.
To demonstrate how busy and hopefully lucrative the book business can be, a useful statistic is one by the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization, UNESCO, which stated in 2005 that Britain and the U.S were number one and number two in the category of most new books published (new as in not a reprint.) In 2005, Britain published 206,000 new titles and the U.S. published 172,000 new titles. Those numbers include almost every type of book that is available—fiction, nonfiction, children's books, cookbooks, self-help books, text books, popular science books, popular math books (?), you name it (to be honest, I am not sure this number includes pornography, but I have heard pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry.) That is a huge amount of books, and almost all of them were brokered by an agent. Most lucrative, successful publishers just do not have the time and resources to do the work literary agents perform.
The
very basic function of a literary agent is to find writers who show talent and
have written what can become a saleable manuscript. Though they are usually unsung in the
publicity of book selling, literary agents have a busy career. They must divide their time between evaluating
new manuscripts that are continuously flowing in from writers, reading full
manuscripts by new and current clients, reading rewritten manuscripts by new
and current clients, preparing and sending those manuscripts to publishers, and
negotiating contracts with publishing companies (Mariotti and Fife 11).
A
simplified view of the life of a literary agent would be reading numerous
unsolicited manuscripts and choosing from among those the manuscripts the ones they
can sell to a publisher. Often, this has
little to do with personal taste. They
then contact the writer and hopefully sign them as a client. This involves the agent sending the writer a
contract or letter of agreement specifying the agent's commission, the agent's
fees, and any other terms that will come into play over the course of the agent
and writer relationship (Though some
agents work differently and will only have a writer sign a contract once the
book is sold to a publisher.) Once the
writer agrees, the literary agent begins working with the writer to prime and
polish the writer's work to what the agent believes is a saleable product. The agent will, ideally, have contacts within
the publishing world and know what type of manuscript sells at what publishing
companies. For instance, some publishers
are only interested in non-fiction, and some publishers are interested in
fiction but only science fiction. Publishers
understand that work submitted by agents will have already been scrutinized and
worked-over and fit the publisher's interests.
This is why most publishing companies will not consider unagented
submissions.
An
agent's contact with a publishing company is usually with the editorial staff. And there are different levels of editors in
a publishing company—at the top is the publisher, then the editorial positions,
which are the editor-in-chief, editorial director, senior editor, editor,
associate editor, assistant editor, and editorial assistant. Depending on the agent and their experience
in the publishing world, an agent's contacts could be with any of the editorial
staff (14).
Once
a manuscript is accepted for publication, the publisher decides how much it
will cost to publish the book and this price is used to determine the retail
price. This determines the author's
advance, and usually the advance is equal to the royalty the book will make in
its first printing. Depending on the
book and the author, first printings are usually around 10,000 copies. When all of this is determined by the
publishing company, the company negotiates a sale with the agent. An agent will typically receive 10-25% of the
sale price, 10-15% for domestic publication and 20-25% for international
(45). This is usually an agent's sole
source of income.
But
once the book is sold, the agent's job is not finished. Agents will also help their clients with new books
while helping them build a career with such things as public relations and
brand making. A good example of a brand
is Stephen King. The name Stephen King
is synonymous with horror stories. As
the literary agent Nathan Bransford writes on his blog, "Ultimately, the
agent is the author's advocate. They help the author become more successful and
work tirelessly to advance the author's career."
Though
agents do not need to be lawyers, they do need to understand the contracts that
are used in the publishing business.
They need to understand the details of these contracts and how they
operate in the publishing world so that their clients, and the agents
themselves, receive the best deal possible.
Agents must understand publishing rights and subsidiary rights which
include serial rights, dramatic rights, movie rights, audio rights, video
rights and foreign rights. All of this knowledge will be needed by a successful
agent (19).
Although
the road to becoming a literary agent may be an arduous one, if you are
dedicated to your career path, you can make it happen. On his blog, Noah Lukeman writes that the schooling
an English/ Literary Arts or Creative Writing major receives is not an absolute
prerequisite for working in the publishing world, but it will help. Lukeman also writes that having a legal
background is also helpful, particularly entertainment law. However, internship in the publishing
industry is most helpful. When it comes
to hiring someone with internship experience and someone without, the
internship experience will almost always win out. It should not be assumed, though, that this
experience will guarantee a job or career as much of the publishing business is
about timing. As such, Lukeman emphasizes
that anyone interested in the publishing business, and specifically literary
agency, should not become complacent whether or not they are currently employed
in the field. If you are not currently employed
in the field, keep looking. If you are
employed in the publishing world, and ideally in a literary agency, the agency
might not be supportive of promoting their assistants. If this is the case, it is better to move to
another agency.
Once
you have put in the time necessary to move out into the world of literary
agency on your own, Agent Kirstin gives insights on her blog, Pub Rants. She writes that when she ventured on her own into
the world of literary agency, it was very difficult to acquire clients for the
first two to three years. Not only was
she a new agent, but her base is in Denver.
She writes that she had to read query and sample pages in record time. She claims she could turn anything around in
a couple of weeks. Her plan was to get
to the writer first, and in this way she might have a better chance of signing
the writer. Apparently, that plan
worked. She also states that she made
the mistake of doing both fiction and nonfiction, but she realized she had no
innate ability for good nonfiction. She
writes that she took on authors with voice, even if they needed a ton of
editing work (English majors!) and, as she puts it, "got them ready to
shop." She writes that three or
four or five drafts were not unusual in the beginning, but now she is more successful
and is limited by workload and time. She
states that by far the biggest impact to her success has been her blog, Pub Rants,
which she began in 2006.
Although
many students, and even normal people, are not interested in Literary Agency
until they might need one, being a literary agent can be a lucrative career,
giving you a relatively comfortable living while keeping you in the world you obviously
love.
Works Cited:
Bransford, Nathan. nathanbransford.com
Mariotti, Richard and Bruce Fife. How
to be a Literary Agent: An Introductory Guide to LiteraryRepresentation. Colorado
Springs. Piccadilly, 1995.
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