Agents of the Literary Kind, Part 2: Do I Need An Agent?

Do I need an agent?

For writers just wading into the Tides of Publishing, this is a popular question and an important one.

The quick answer... Depends.

Before you ask "Do I need an agent?", the questions to ponder first are "Do I want to publish traditionally with a big name publisher? Would I rather work with a traditional small, independent press? Or do I want to strike out on my own and self-publish? Or a little of all three?"

From TheRoadLessWritten.com

The Vote for Traditional, Larger Publishing Houses

These publishing houses have familiar names and publish hundreds of books a year. In the romance genre, these are publishers like Harlequin, Berkley, Kensington, and Revell. As an author, you work with a house editor who helps you polish your manuscript into final publication form. Then the production, marketing and sales departments take over to design a cover, write cover copy, decide how many copies to print and whether to publish electronically, create a marketing campaign, and distribute your book to book stores, both brick-and-mortar and online. Go traditional if:

• You write slowly. In the industry, this means completing one salable manuscript every one to two years. (We'll talk about "fast" later.)
• You want to write and let someone else take care of the business aspects of publishing:  cover design, ad copy, inventory, distribution, sales, and marketing. You just want to see the advance check and the royalties.
• You're content to let go of all control over your literary "baby" once you've finished the editorial work. 
• You're not willing to pay out the money to create your own business team; you're more than happy for the publisher to take all the financial risk. 
• The project you're writing is really suited to a larger publisher. It has a broad appeal, and you'd like book to have some real push behind it in the marketplace.
• You have self-published a few books, but feel you don't have enough name recognition to increase sales without a lot of effort.

If many of these describe you, then traditional publishing with a large house may be the right choice for you. And if so, the answer to the agent question is YES, definitely. There is only one large, traditional publisher (Harlequin, and only in their Series lines) who will often open up for un-agented submissions. For everyone else in the Romance world, you will need an agent.

The Vote for Traditional, Small/Independent Publishing Houses

These publishing houses may have less familiar names and publish a smaller number of books each year. Some of these publishers produce eBooks only. You'll still work with a house editor. But the business side of the house may be much smaller, and you might be asked to write back cover copy and do much of the marketing yourself or in concert with the publishers' other authors. Distribution may consist of only online retailers, and you may be responsible for placing books in brick-and-mortar stores. The publisher may pay royalties only and no advance. Go traditional small press if:

• You still want an editor to help polish your book and shepherd it through production and other services the house might offer. You'd be happy to jump in to do more marketing and help with distribution.
• You'd like to have some say in the cover design and other business decisions, even if you don't do all the work.
• You want to have something published fairly quickly, and many smaller houses can get books into the marketplace in under six months.
• You're still learning the ropes of publishing, and you see a small publisher as a learning opportunity as well as a business one. 
• You don't need an advance; you'll be happy with any royalties that come your way.

The answer to the agent question is probably NO. Many of these smaller houses do not require an agent for submissions. Before submitting, do check with the publisher you're considering.

The Vote for Self-Publishing (read, You Become a Publishing House)

The wonderful news is that we authors now have opportunities to publish our own work. Mind you, Kindle Direct Publishing at Amazon, IngramSpark, Lulu, Barnes and Noble Press and other online companies who help you self-publish do NOT publish. They produce your book (either in print or digital format), and they provide retail distribution. All of the other parts of creating a book: editing, cover design, interior text design, writing the back cover copy, marketing, advertising, inventory, and any distribution channels you want to add (like brick-and-mortar stores in most cases) are your responsibility -- in time, effort and money.  To self-publish and be financially successful (you will need to define what "financially successful" means to you), the following are probably true:

• You write quickly. In the industry, this means completing at least two salable manuscripts every year.
• You want to write, take care of business, and have control over the entire book creation process from idea to marketing. 
• There will be no advance check. In fact, you will either do the work yourself or invest money to create your own business team; find and hire an editor, proofreader, cover and interior text designer; and coordinate a marketing campaign and advertising.
• You've made a study of what's hot in your genre, and your story is a good fit for those readers. You're writing the type of story that has high appeal -- and you know just how you'll market to your target audience.
• You want to learn as much as you can about your craft and as much about the publishing industry as you can. The whole package feels like the right fit for you. 

Need an agent to self-publish? NO, definitely not. 

Now you have something to ponder before you decide whether to get an agent. These decisions are not easy, but your choices are about your life and how you want to live it, so don't rush the pondering. You'll thank yourself later.  

So, what did I decide? Next month, I'll talk about my choices to become a blended (hybrid) author.

Related Post: Agents of the Literary Kind, Part 1: What Is An Agent?