Be Your Own Editor

A question from Wendy:

Dear Lisa:

I submitted a story to a big-name author/ghostwriter who has several books out and who does well in publishing anything he puts his hand to. He used my story—I was treated fairly and paid well. He then promised to hook me up with an agent if I finished a book on the same topic. He is a well-respected author and a very credible and honest writer with proven publishing contacts and agent contacts. He put his promise in writing, and I am confident he will keep it—but he hasn’t responded to my last few emails. It’s been a year.

But I haven’t written the book either—it’s just in the fourth chapter. Should I email him that information and ask for the name of an agent, or do agents prefer a finished book? I’m a writer by profession, but this is my first book. I’ve had other agents all agree to take me on after reading some of my short stories (all published). Should I give him another chance to respond—knowing he asked for a completed book and I have one-third of a book—or should I try to find my own agent? With my professional resume and clips it won’t be hard to get an agent, but I want to get a GOOD agent, not someone who is a novice. That’s why I’d like his referral. I have no idea how to go about finding a really good agent!

You’re in a complicated situation, Wendy. I’ll try to address each aspect of it, one at a time.

First, you say this author/ghostwriter used one of your stories. If the book he used it in has been published by a major publisher and done well, and your name is included as the author of a section of the book, that (along with your other published stories) should be of great help in landing you a good agent. Any book publishing credits at all give you a leg up over most writers who contact any agency.

But what about this referral? You can try e-mailing him again just to let him know that you’ve written a few chapters and you’ll let him know when the book is finished. He may have simply been busy, and the fact that you’re actively writing may spark his interest again. But if he specifically told you to contact him only after you completed a manuscript, you might want to not risk annoying him by not following his instructions. He may just feel there’s nothing he can do for you yet.

The answer to whether you need to finish your manuscript for an agent depends largely on its genre, which you don’t mention. If it’s a novel or memoir, agents will usually want to read the whole thing. (In that case, you’ll have to take the time to finish your manuscript anyway, so maybe in the interim the author will get in touch.) With most other types of nonfiction, however, a strong proposal along with a few well-written chapters are enough to pitch it to an agent. And it may even be wiser to take this approach, in case you get feedback from agents suggesting you take the book in a different direction.

So take into account what your author friend said on that score. If you feel you’re in the right in contacting him now but get no reply, or if you finish the book and he still fails to respond, you may have to give up. But since he made a promise to you in writing, I’d say you have the right to (politely) pester him a little, certainly if you go ahead and finish the manuscript. Is there any other way to contact him besides e-mail? One idea is to call or write to his agent and see if they’ll put you in contact with him. But you might want to say something vague, such as “He expressed interest in working with me on my new project,” rather than “He said he’d help me find an agent.” That might not be the wisest thing to reveal to his agent.

The fact that every agent you’ve approached has expressed interest in representing you bodes well. How do you identify the best agents? Try registering at PublishersMarketplace.com and perusing their lists of recent deals to see what agents/agencies are selling the type of book you’re working on. Visit as many book trade sites/blogs as possible to see who’s selling what. You might also consult Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents 2007 to get a sense of which agents you want to contact. Remember, it’s not only about finding a good agent, it’s about finding a good agent who knows how to handle the type of book you write.

Yes, it helps to approach them through a referral, but not having a referral doesn’t mean you’re dead in the water. As I said, your publishing credits will be a tremendous help. Take a look at some of my tips for querying agents here. If you have an effective approach that plays up your strength and experience, good agents will take notice.

I wish you the best of luck, Wendy, and do contact me again if you have any more specific questions… and to let me know how things are going!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Readers Q&A, The Book Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.