Agents: What Rachael, The Author, Should Do Next

Now that my friend Rachael has found a printer for her book, had a compelling cover done and has assigned ONE of her ten ISBN's that she bought from Bowker, she's ready for the next step.

As it stands right now, she can sell her book and it is hers. Because she bought her ISBN's from Bowker, (the only place one can get ISBN's. Lulu, Create Space and anyone else gets their ISBN's from Bowker) her book will AUTOMATICALLY show up on Amazon on-line and at Barnes & Noble on-line available through the publisher she set herself up as. That's what having an ISBN does for you so don't think it's really all that impressive. It isn't. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can achieve this level of being published without an edit and with very little effort or money. A BIG difference from what it took to get PUBLISHED many moons ago.

Now Rachael needs distribution to be the type of published author she wants to become. This is where being self-published or traditionally published comes in and this is where Literary Agents come in.

Agents started popping up when larger publishing houses became inundated with MS's and didn't want to go through all of them. They closed their doors to submissions and told authors they only took submission from agents. Guess what? Each house only takes submission from certain agents and the larger publishing houses NEVER tell you who those agents are so now you get to search. And let me tell you, if you think looking for a needle in a haystack was fun, trying looking for an agent to submit your MS to your larger house of choice. IT AIN'T NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. But you can go that route if you want to. I made a couple of attempts myself just to say I did it. I even sent one off a couple of weeks ago. I decided when I got a lead on an agent that represented authors who wrote YA horror. I laid out to the agent what my stories had already done as far as awards etc . . . explained that I'd already been published, pointed them to places where they could see the impact of my stories . . . honestly, I just figured I wouldn't hear back but true to form I got a response. Here's what they said:

Dear Ms. Dent:

I'm not a good fit for your work. would suggest you try Lucienne Diver, at The Knight Agency. She has a good background in your type of material.

Cordially,

Barry Goldblatt Literary LLC

All in all not a bad response. In fact, it's a very typical response. This agent claims to represent YA authors though with a slant toward horror. They're not a good fit for my work? My type of material? Oh do tell what type of material that would be. LOL Now you see what I mean by finding that needle in a haystack. An agent isn't a publisher and you'll waste a lot of energy trying to find one and bottom line is they'll NEVER get you to a larger publisher. Most larger houses actually only get their authors from friends of other authors they already have etc . . . (Yes, that's just my opinion and of course anyone can challenge it but it is what it is.) I've enough responses from agents I've queried in my inbox to substantiate my opinion. Agents, like large publishers and the bookstores that support them, are a dying breed due to the way publishing has changed. An author doesn't need an agent anymore and that's all there is to that. And that's a very good thing since none of them will represent anyone anyway. Gee whiz, you'd think they'd want someone with a proven track record or any track record for that matter.

Put your energy somewhere else. I almost went to a writer's conference to speak with this agent. Can you imagine the money I would've put out just to hear the above response. And I won't bother submitting to the other agent they suggested either. Energy expansion complete on this small effort.

If you understand why Literary Agents came into being in the first place then you'll understand why you don't need one now. It's not a money waster because an author doesn't pay a legitimate agent to represent them, at least not up front. The agent will take part of the money the large publisher pays for your MS should the agent find a large publisher who is interested (which they most likely won't.)

So that's my take on agents and writer's conferences as well if you go there looking for an agent. Waste of energy and waste of money. Just send up an email query at least that rejection is free. ;D