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[GWL]: Agent or no agent?

At 09:19 PM 1/14/2002 -0800, you wrote:

Let me enter the fray. :-)

While I know some garden writers eschew agents saying they can do it better 
- in my experience, they can't.  My agent not only negotiates contracts but 
finds me work. She has pulled my anatomy out of economic fires and has made 
me money during our relationship.  She keeps track of current language and 
electronic issues and knows which publishing houses bend and which 
don't.  She has the relationship with any number of editors to simply call 
and ask or discuss current or future projects and get responses that save 
both time and effort on my part. It is difficult to describe those 
intangibles and difficult to put a price tag on them.  I give her the 
standard 15% of signed projects and I'm happy with this. More than once, 
I've seen her get the advances jacked up to more than cover her percentage.

Bottom line: I can't imagine writing a book without an agent to handle the 
negotiations and follow up after the book has been delivered (nobody ever 
mentions how agents solve "little" problems with contracts after the fact). 
;-)

Fiction versus non-fiction.  Not yet having sold a fiction book, I can't 
speak to that but I can tell you when my great Canadian novel finally hits 
the bookstores, it will have been an agented deal. :-)

If you have a book deal in hand, an agent will do the job for 10% rather 
than 15.  That too is standard.

Advances versus Royalties.  Now, here's an interesting one.  My first 
agent, the person who broke me in and taught me all I know about writing 
effective proposals (another story) and now unfortunately dead too young, 
once told me. "Take the money and run."  I, doing my business-like thing, 
was analyzing two competing offers on a book and "proving" to myself that 
the lower advance but higher royalties was the better deal.  She tactfully, 
quickly and forcefully pointed out that the vast majority of garden books 
never made royalties and that authors had better simply count the advance 
they got as the only money the book would ever make.  Royalties were like 
frosting on the cake.  My best advice to other book writers - Take that 
advance money and run!

Now, some books do make out their advance and if you've had one - you're in 
the minority and should congratulate yourself on this fact. :-)   Mind you, 
you may also have received such a low advance that the book *had* to 
eventually pay you royalties. ;-)

(Mind you, I also have to say, if I get X dollars to write this book and it 
takes me Y months, how much then am I making a month X/Y in bottom line 
dollars?  Intriguing question when it comes to figuring out the real value 
of your next advance.)

About agents doing the negotiating for you on a flat fee.  If its a low 
advance, it is not worth their while to get involved.  So if your advance 
is less than $4000, it likely isn't worth an agents time to get 
involved.  You'll have to pay them by the hour or do it yourself.  Get a 
quote as well as recommendations from other authors you know and trust.

If your advance is greater than that, you might find it worthwhile to 
simply let the the agent do their thing for the 10% of normal standards.

By no means would I ever pay an agent 20% of the advance for negotiating 
the deal (see comment above re royalties) it is far cheaper to give them 
the standard 10%

But then, I wouldn't do any project without an agent. :-)

Doug



>Andrea,
>
>               My understanding of it goes like this: If you already have 
> a book deal in hand, you ought to be able to get an agent at a lower rate 
> than they normally charge. Most are charging 15% now, so perhaps 10% of 
> the deal is fair? This is negotiable & is done all the time. As to a flat 
> fee, I have no idea. My best guess: if you can get an agent to negotiate 
> the deal, for around 20% of the advance-- and none of the future 
> royalties, I'd go for it.
>     I'd look at the track record of the agent too. What have they sold? 
> How well do their writers like them? Congratulations on the sale!

Douglas Green,
Freelance writing: You've got a story to tell - I can write it.
http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/clips/clipmaster.htm
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