Facts about Literary Agents Every Author Must Know...Revealed

Literary agents are necessary players in the publishing world. They serve as the not only the middleman but as the manager to the author’s career. Literary agents can truly make the career of a motivated and professional author.

Many authors first enter the publishing world visualizing themselves making these huge deals and earning this awesome income before they have written their first book. That’s okay, having high expectations is what keeps everyone pushing forward toward their dreams.

For most authors who are just starting out though, trying to seek out literary agents is a total waste of time because you don’t have any clout with which you can get a strong enough book publishing deal to support your agent. 

Most literary agents take about a 15% portion of whatever money the author receives. The authors who get good publishing deals with traditional publishers are the ones who already have an established audience and some level of celebrity or an established platform.

These publishers need to know that they are going to be able to sell your book fast to recoup money they have lost by producing your book. So they only want to invest into authors who they feel have strong market appeal. 

Literary agents already know this information better than anybody else, so they don’t want to work with beginning authors who don’t have significant clout because they know they will probably come up empty handed. No body has time to waste in the publishing industry so no one wants to take chances.  

This is why self-publishing continues to grow; it gives you the power to begin and develop yourself as both an author and a business-person. The goal that we give authors who are serious is to learn how to sell 5,000 books in a year and then either try to get an agent to negotiate a traditional publishing deal for you or sell another 5,000 self-published books and enjoy the high profit margin.

The more books you sell as a self-published author, the better stronger literary agent you will get when you come to that bridge, which in tern will ensure you get a better publishing contract. 

Facts about Literary Agents

They are business people. A good agent is a good manager for their author. You should try to select a manger that you see eye to eye with and understand. You want someone who understands where you are trying to take your career and they should be able to offer a plan to help you get there. 

They are lawyers. A good literary agent knows book publishing laws and laws pertaining to the industry. This is important when you are in a bad situation with a publishing company or you are being sued by someone for something you said in your book.  

They are coachers. A good agent will tell you what you need to do in order to reach your goals. They help you shape a good writing career.

They are connected. You definitely want to work with a literary agent who can show a history of work that they have done, meaning authors they have represented and deal they have made. This is important since you are entrusting your career to them. You don’t want to waste tie with an agent who has now connections to editors, publishers, or other people who are important to building your writing career. 

They operate within a genre. Many agents operate within a certain genre. You need to be sure that the literary agent you are trying to work with has connection with publishers, media, and editors in your particular genre.    

When seeking an editor you need to write a professional looking book proposal to send to them and a snippet of your book. Do not approach a literary agent if you have not even written at least part of your book.  

You should go to your library and look up the Literary Market Place publication to get a listing of agents and what genre the mainly represent. 

If you think this information was helpful and you’re really serious about writing the best book you possibly can, get the best book publishing deal you can and selling thousands and thousands of copies of your book then you need to [CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE]