How do literary agents work?

The way agents work can be frightening to many first time writers.

Let's start by considering the stats that would be typical of a good quality medium-sized agency in London or New York.

Such a firm might receive annually about 5000 submissions. Those 5000 submissions will generally be filtered by a professional reader. That reader may also be a receptionist for the firm, or a secretary, but they are recruited and trained to be skilled assessors of manuscripts, so the filtration process is conducted accurately and professionally.

Of the 5000 submissions, perhaps as many as 10 per month - or let's say 100 in a calendar year - will be recommended to the firm's agents for a full review. Of those 100, the agency will typically take on around 2. Sometimes 1. Sometimes, in a terrific year, 3-4.

Literary agents aren't being unreasonable by setting such standards. Increasingly these days, it's tough to sell work and only the best of the best will succeed. "Best of the best" doesn't simply mean best in artistic or literary terms. It means in terms of the market too.

If, for example, you fell in love with Stephenie Meyer's vampires and have started to write such a novel yourself, you are almost certainly several years behind the curve. The market has moved on and you're writing for an audience that is now looking for newer things. You have to stay a pace or two ahead of the curve, not a pace or two behind it. If you aren't certain that your work is as strong as it can possibly be, then you would be very well advised to get a tough, constructive manuscript assessment from a professional editor. You may love your work, and your Mother may love your work... but a trained outside eye can find a thousand things that you've been missing.

Once an agent agrees to take you on (or 'represent you' in the lingo), his or (more likely) her core role is to sell your manuscript and negotiate your contract. Assuming that she succeeds in that task, her role will also be to supervise the publishing process, holding your hand, smoothing out any bumps, and advising on such things as cover design or editorial tweaks which the publisher may consult you on.

Although you will have a close relationship with both your agent and your editor, your relationship with your agent is likely to be far more durable, (because publishers move on, because book deals are short and so on). Therefore securing a strong literary agent is both vital and extremely hard to achieve.

Good web resources exist for information on how to get a literary agent... but you also need to remember that those resources are secondary to the main thing, which is your manuscript. Get your manuscript strong enough, and the rest (with a little discipline and patience on your part) will fall into place. If the manuscript is not yet right, however, then no amount of discipline and patience will ever do the trick. Best of luck!

Harry Bingham is the prize-nominated best-selling author of 5 novels and 3 works of non-fiction. He also runs The Writers' Workshop, an editorial consultancy for first time writers. The company also helps by recommending outstanding work to leading literary agents.

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