Do you need an agent?
The most common question that other writers ask me is "Do you have an agent?" And most are surprised when I say no. I've sold seven books to publishers throughout the U.S., including one novel to Wizards of the Coast, without an agent.
I love the idea of having an agent: somebody to sell my work, read contracts, and make sure royalties are paid on time. In the best of all possible worlds, somebody who cares about my writing, gives me suggestions on how to make it better, and maybe even mentors me through the ups and downs of pursuing a writing career.
And there are agents out there who do all those things. I know that. And I think paying them 15% of earnings is more than fair if they are the ones establishing where I can earn those earnings.
However, I've always found a market for my work without an agent. Mostly because I like to sell before I write (it's a time management issue), I've pursued publishers who accepted queries and issued contracts before I completed the manuscript. I could have gone back and gotten an agent to handle the back end of the process, but I don't find reading contracts intimidating or troublesome. Most publishing contracts are straight forward, I can cross out anything that I don't like, and (sadly) I never thought I had a project worth so much money that it would pay to involve an agent or a lawyer to close up possible loopholes.
Realistically, I write for the midlist, not the bestseller list. Niche nonfiction, genre fiction. And for that market, you can find publishers who are willing to work directly with the author.
Now, should I get the big bestseller idea, the Oprah book, the one that I know will sell millions, I would go look for an agent. But until then, I'll keep chugging along, working with publishers who want to work directly with me.
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Kamol Kurbanov says:
Rosemary Jones
Hi,
I'm Kamol and I have ideas for films, Tell me please, how I can tell my ideas film Directory or film producer. And I want sell 1-2 my film ideas and open itself film company, who can give me advase or help me after working together.If it's you interesting, we can working together when I sell my ideas.After we can open film company.I a little know english but I have ideas for films,and how I can tell about it's film producer and I almost finesh script for film at russian language.
Thank you and I wait you answer and advase.
Please answer my email: script1980@mail.ru
Rosemary Jones says:
No interest in film
Other than reporting on film festivals, that's an industry that I have no aptitude for. But everyone who I know working in that area definitely says it's worse than publishing -- you absolutely have to have a good agent to get anywhere in Hollywood!
Kristen J. Tsetsi says:
No luck with publishers
How have you even found publishers willing to look at work not represented by an agent?
Do you concentrate on small presses?
Most large publishers I've read about have an absolute rule: "No unsolicited manuscripts, no manuscripts not represented by an agent."
Dale Estey says:
Absolute rules are meant to
Absolute rules are meant to be broken absolutely. Find an editor who deals with your type of project and send a proposal letter. Preferably an email. Then they can decide what to do.
Rosemary Jones says:
I'm with Dale, don't worry about the rules
There are larger publishers who take authors without agents. But you have to be writing what they want. I write to the publisher's needs, not seek a publisher who matches my needs. It's a slightly different approach. A time management issue as I've said, as I do work a regular job (writing PR) and freelance covering Seattle theater. That's a lot of wordsmithing and not nearly enough free time for the fiction, as much as I love to write it.
So, when I went looking for a fiction publisher, I thought about what I wanted to write. I love good old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery fantasy. The kind Fritz Leiber wrote or Edgar Rice Burroughs (or any of his pulp contemporaries). That's not a popular field right now and the closest I could find was the Wizards of the Coast. Except to write for them, you must set your stories in their world. Still my characters and my story, but their fantasy landscape (Forgotten Realms).
Taking a "I can do that" approach, I submitted, and submitted, and submitted. I lost contests that they ran. I got rejections. But, after awhile, they did buy one short story. Then a novel. Then another novel. WOTC is one of the largest publishers of fantasy in the US (their list is only slightly smaller than Tor's). They are not for everyone. But if you can write to fit their needs, and your own, they're a lot of fun to work with and they've never objected to me writing the stories that I want to write. Crypt of the Moaning Diamond may be set in their world, but it is very much my story. City of the Dead, even more so (at least that's what I think!).
I sold the nonfiction books along the same lines. In all cases, I had an basic idea, did a lot of looking in bookstores to see who was publishing what I was interested in writing, and then went straight to them.
Making sales doesn't mean that I never had rejections. I have had lots. But sales with a regular royalty-paying publisher are possible. After all, if they don't put out new product every year, they are out of business. So they need writers just as much as writers need publishers.
Matt Lavin says:
Astonished
Rosemary - This is a real revelation to me. I've been working on a Fantasy story, and frankly beginning to question how much effort I should put into delivering a finished product.
If my goal is to end up with a 'saleable' book that hews close to what WOTC puts out, I feel pretty penned in by WOTC's whims. It never occured to me to attempt to secure something without the completed work polished and ready to go.
Any chance I could pick your brain on this topic a little more?
Thanks!
-Matt
PS - If I didn't love writing it, I wouldn't have even started, so I have no illusions about the primary goals.