096: Questions to Ask a Literary Agent Who Offers You Representation

 

You've queried your book, and now an agent emails you to ask for a phone call! That's so exciting, and it's a huge accomplishment! Before you immediately accept an agent's offer, learn what questions you should ask on the call to decide if this agent is the right one for you.

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questions to ask a literary agent who offers you representation

Hi, friend, happy Tuesday, you're listening to this on a Tuesday. It's actually Tuesday, as I'm recording this as well. This episode is something that I really needed when I was querying, and when I got an offer of representation from my very first agent. And what I'm going to do in this episode is okay, y'all, I really tried to narrow this down to like the top three questions that you should ask on the call. But I couldn't do that. Because I felt like there were more questions that were important. So I actually have a number of questions that you should ask, and a lot of these questions, or some of these questions you might already know the answer to because the agent might just volunteer that information anyways.

 

So it's not like you're going to have to ask all of these necessarily, but I think these are, this is a good starting point for you should have all of this information before you decide to accept an agent's offer. And there might be others that I missing, of course, because there are like, hundreds of questions that you could ask an agent. But this is a good base, I feel like.

 

So really quick my experience with this in case you are new to the podcast, and haven't heard me talk about my story before I signed with a literary agent in 2019, for my first novel, and then that book went on submission right before COVID. And unfortunately, it just died on submission, it did not sell. So then I wrote a second book in a different genre, and decided to part ways with my agent, my first agent and then queried again, last year in 2022, to find a different agent, and I signed with her in the fall of 2022.

 

So I've gone through this experience twice. And I learned so much from my first experience that I approached the process differently the second time around. And I made sure that I had a good understanding of my agent's communication style and strategy and all of that before I decided to accept her offer. Because it was really, really important to me this time around that I had someone who's going to be a good fit and responsive and who I felt like was going to be the right advocate for me and my work. And that's important for any writer.

 

Before we get into the questions, I just want to say it can be so exciting to get to the point where you have an agent who offers to represent you or who emails you and says hey, can we have a call? I loved your book, you know? Well, let me back up. And let's talk about the process and what has to happen before you had a call with an agent. So when you were querying, which is the process of trying to find an agent, you know, you send out your query letter, you send out your manuscript sample.

 

And if the agent likes that sample, they will get back to you and asked to read the full manuscript. Then, if they liked that manuscript, and they want to talk to you about working together about representing you, they will ask for a phone call. And if they don't ask for a phone call, they just right away offered to represent you and want you to respond via email, do not do that. Definitely make sure that you have a conversation with them before signing. The reason for this call that the purpose is is for you to feel out, the agent and the agent to feel out you. You want to have a conversation with this person and make sure that you are on the same page when it comes to revision when it comes to strategy when it comes to where you see your career going.

 

And just yeah, get get to know the person a little bit because up until this point, all of your communication has been via email or via messaging if they use like a query software where you submit your work to the database or something. So you want to have a chance to actually connect with them. So this call is very, very important. And there's a saying in the traditional publishing world, that a bad agent is worse than no agent. And I whole heartedly agree with that sentiment and what I was saying earlier is that it can be so exciting to get to this point that an agent wants to get on the phone with you. It can be so tempting to just go ahead and say yes right away without even really think thinking about it.

 

But you truly, truly have to make sure that this person is a good fit for you. And if there are red flags, if you're not getting a good feeling, if you are miles apart on where you see your career going, or the revisions that they want you to make on your book, then that is a sign that it is not going to be beneficial for your career as an author, to sign with this person. So believe me, I know how exciting it is. I know how tempting it is to just jump in headfirst. But it's worth it to do this bit of due diligence and just make sure that y'all are going to be a good fit. So with that being said, here are the questions. And they're in no particular order. It's not like a checklist that you have to go in this order.

 

Again, the agent might volunteer a lot of this information and tell you about their agency tell you about their style, how they work with clients, a little bit about their experience, etc. So you might not have to ask all of these. Number one, I would ask, are you a more editorial agent? Or are you more hands off? What this means is -- is this an agent who is going to give you a lot of feedback on your manuscript? Not just this first book, but any manuscript going forward? Are they going to want to work closely with you and provide feedback on what you're writing? Or are they like, here's a couple of comments. But like, basically, it's it's in your cort, you're the writer, whatever. There's, there's not one type of agent is better than the other some people like, I'm sure some writers like having the more hands off agent. Some writers like having a more editorial agent, it's just a matter of preference and how you prefer to work with people. I have found that I like an agent who is more editorial. So that's definitely something I was looking for.

 

Question number two, does your agency handle film, TV, foreign rights, etc? How are they handled? Are they done as handled elsewhere? You just want to get a sense of, okay, if we are looking to sell the film and television rights to this book, either at the same time or down the road as the book as the book itself? How does that process work? This is going to help you get a sense of the agency as a whole what their capabilities are, what their processes are, it's just good information to have.

 

Three, what is your preferred communication style? You might have an agent who likes to have phone calls to talk about things, they might just want to do a quick 10 minute phone call to check in about something. If you have a question. They might prefer to do that via email. It varies. And again, this is just a personal preference thing or or you know, there's no right answer.

 

I personally don't have a preference about how I communicate with my agents, my agent, but email seem to work best for them. So I was fine with that. And, you know, that was that was okay with me. But it's good to know that upfront. And something that I was very curious to learn on my call with Molly, my new agent that I have now, something that I made sure to talk to her about, what's her communication style in terms of like, does she do phone calls? Do we talk on Zoom, does she email, but also the frequency of communication and her response times because

 

I understand as a writer, as someone on this side of it, like I'm reasonable. And I understand that these agents are very, very busy. And I am not top priority for Molly like I'm fully aware of that. And I would not be top priority for any agent that I signed with. I'm debut writer, we haven't sold a book, like I'm aware. But I also want to feel like you know, if I have a question or send her some pages or I get back to her about something, I want to know that she's going to respond in a relatively reasonable amount of time. So communication style and communication frequency, I think is important to establish, just to get an idea of what you can expect from an agent when you are working with them.

 

Question number four, what are your suggestions for revision? This is definitely something that you should talk about already. So you should not have to ask this question. But in the event that the agent doesn't bring it up, definitely ask. You want to know what your agent is going to suggest you do to the book, the types of revisions that they want you to make before you send it out on submission. If you have an agent who is a little bit more hands off editorially, or if the book is just in really good shape, you might not have to do much revision at all, if any, and then you would just send it out on submission and that would be that. For myself and for my writer friends who have agents that I know a lot of people who have gone through this process, I've heard talk about this, there's at least some editing that has to be done.

 

So it's important that you and the agent are on the same page. If the agent recommends that you make a huge change to the book that you don't agree with, that you are not comfortable with, that you think is going to fundamentally change the structure in the heart of the story in a way that just makes you not want to do it, then, again, that might be a sign that this isn't the right agent for you. You have to be on board with their suggestions and, and agents are reasonable. I mean, these are all suggestions. You know, if the agent is telling you, Hey, I'd like to see this, I noticed this part was a little bit weaker, we should maybe change the ending because of this, XY and Z, maybe strengthening this character, etc. Those are all suggestions, of course, but

 

I highly value an agent's suggestions. They know the market, they know books, they might not be writers, but this is their bread and butter. This is what they do is they read and then analyze, and they see so many manuscripts come across their desk, that if they have a suggestion for something 99% of the time I'm willing to implement it, because I see the value in it. I see what they're saying. I'm like, oh, yeah, I that makes sense. I agree. Definitely, I can change that. I think it'll make the story stronger. So, again, it's not like, you know, if an agent suggests something, you absolutely have to do it. But if an agent suggests something on the call, or suggests multiple things, and you don't agree with any of them, that's definitely a sign that this isn't the right person for you.

 

Next question. Question number five, what is your submission strategy? Meaning when your agent, assuming you've done revisions, the book is in good condition, it's ready to go. Meaning when your agent sends it out to publishers, to editors of different publishing houses, what is their strategy? Do they prefer to have a small list at first, like maybe they just send it out to five or six editors that they've talked to ahead of time? Who are really excited to read your book? Or do they prefer to send it out to like 20 people at different imprints? I don't know enough about agenting editing and traditional publishing to know if one is better than the other, I can see advantages. Just as someone on the fringes of this, I can see advantages to both. But I think it's a good idea to know what to expect.

 

And it also, even though you might not have an opinion on which is better. And in fact, you know, you want to just trust your agent, I think it's a good question to ask, because you want your agent to have a strategy. If your agent is just like, I don't know, well, we'll kind of see what happens, you know, I'm not sure like, that's not, that's not a good answer. You want them to have a lot of experience sending books out on submission, and have a strategy that they implement, that helps them be successful, something that they think is going to maximize your chances of getting editor interest.

 

Number 6. I going to be working or communicating with anyone else at your agency. I decided to ask this because Molly works at she's an agent at Creative Artists Agency, which is a huge agency. And I wanted to get a sense of okay, am I going to be emailing with you or someone else? Like do you have a junior agent who works under you that I would be communicating with? Or am I just getting going to be communicating with you? So it was helpful just to hear you know, how things work there a little bit about the process? And yeah, so I think it's worth asking, you know, is, am I going to be communicating and working with you or, or someone else? Again, it's all about expectation. It's just knowing on your end, like what can I expect? What is it going to be like if we work together?

 

Number Oh, let me see. I have two more questions. Number seven, where do you see my career going? As an author. This is not something I was really thinking about when I signed with my first agent. This is this is not I was thinking ahead to book to a little bit because I had started gathering some ideas. But I really hadn't thought about my much about my career in terms of strategy and the role that an agent would play in that but that is something that Molly and I discussed on the call and I'm so happy that we did. And by the way, this is something that she brought up she had some ideas for me some thoughts for me about you know, career and and my next books.

 

And all of that just general thoughts, but it was really helpful, it was helpful to hear that she had taken some time to think about my author, brand, I guess and to think about what I would be doing next, and to think about what that might look like. And of course, there's so much that we can't control. And it's all just kind of, you know, hypothetical at this point. But it was very helpful for me to hear. And again, I just appreciated that she had taken the time to really think about my career as an author and how she could be a part of that, because an agent is a business partner, you want to be sure that they have an eye for strategy, and can really play an important role in your career moving forward, that they're not just going to be important for this one book. And then that's it.

 

And final question. Number eight, what happens if my book doesn't sell?Again, another question that I was not anticipating having to ask, I wasn't thinking about on the call with my first agent. Because it didn't really occur to me, I didn't know a lot about the process of going on submission. At that time, I didn't know that this is not an it's not uncommon for people's first book to just not sell like it happens. So yeah, I would definitely ask, what would be your strategy? Like? What would happen if this book does not sell? And when kind of related to the submission strategy, like when would we pull it after what point? Is it after the book has been on submission for a year? After we've sent it to this many publishers? Like what would what would be the defining line? If there is one, your agent might not have one?

 

And then what would we do next? After that point, again, you know, just helpful to know helpful to get a sense of how your angel, your angel, how your agent would handle that because no writer likes to think of, of their book being the one that doesn't sell no one likes to think of beings position. I know, it's it's hard to think about. But again, it does happen, and it's not uncommon. So it's good to have an idea of what the plan would be in the event that that happens. And then you can put it out of your mind and not think about it again.

 

So I want to reiterate, again, something that I said in this episode, when I was talking about one of the questions, which is that your agent is your business partner. And having a bad agent is worse than having no agent. It can feel so unbalanced and uneven in the beginning, because the relationship between writer and agent, because it's like, we're so freaking excited. And we're so grateful that someone has seen potential in our work and wants to represent us. Like that is a massive step to get to. And it can feel like the agent has all of this power and all of this expertise, which they do, they do have expertise. But it can feel like you don't want to, you don't want to press them too hard or ask any questions to be, you don't want to be difficult in any way. Because you don't want them to, you don't want to ask them the wrong question. And suddenly, they revoke their offer to represent you.

 

Almost like in a job interview, you know, like you don't want to push too hard because you want the manager or the hiring manager to like you, and you want them to offer you the position. But it's crucial to remember that the agent works for you. Right? The agent is representing you. So it is very important that you feel good about this relationship. And if there are any red flags, anything that's making you really, really doubt this person, please pay attention to that gut instinct. Please, please, please. So this is helpful. Again, if you're at this step, congratulations, that is so exciting to be to be there. Really, really exciting, a huge accomplishment. And yeah, I hope this gives you some good questions to think about, again, not an exhaustive list. But this is just a good foundation for you to kind of have going into the call so that you're prepared, and you can get a good sense of this particular agent. All right. Thanks for listening, and I will catch you next week.

Katie Wolf