Questions You Might Not Know to Ask a Literary Agent
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2020
- Literary Agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan sat down to discuss four general topics authors should broach with agents on "The call." From career goals to MONEY, here are all the things we think you should add to your list of questions.
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds TH-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also actively building his picture book list.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
The best takeaway for me is that I should be comfortable talking with them about awkward or straightforward topics
As a first-time author, I'd like to know what an agent's expectations are of me.
I laughed out loud when you shouted, "Money!!". Great advice for newer authors! Thanks so much!
I love this channel so much! Thank you for the open and honest conversations.
Thank you so much for this information. I've just stumbled upon your channel, and I love the content.
recently found your channel and have been binge-watching your content. I've been learning so much. thanks for sharing your knowledge
So many great nuggets of wisdom here. I've just submitted my queries off to agents this week, and I'm definitely hoping to eventually have these conversations with agents (if things go well). So I found this guidance to be very helpful and timely. Found your advice about "finding the agent perfect for now who's also open to working with the future you" especially helpful. Also, Jessica's point about "how they react to the question is as important as the answer they give." Thank you for taking the time to share this advice with us.
Thank you for encouraging the hard questions.
I'm never hesitant to ask if the person in question has experience, or is willing to work with a blind writer. It's a very necessary question because there are differences between visual and non-visual authors. So....yeah, I better ask, all the time.
Thank you for being honest about the hashtag. It's a necessary conversation to have.
It's so helpful to see the agents' side of things. We see so many videos talking about this from the author's POV but I think knowing both sides helps handle the call better
Thank you so very much for this open discussion of vital topics.
I love your channel. This was definitely a post from which I took lots of notes. Very helpful. (Jessica - maybe I haven't dug deep enough into your Tweets or MSWL to see it posted somewhere, but I had no idea you take magical realism. Good to know!)
I am so enjoying these videos!
This is something that is never discussed in your creative writing classes! Thanks for sharing the information, Jessica and James!
Great advice. Thanks. I wouldn’t have had an idea how to handle these issues.
Delighted to see you've civilized your gambrel ceiling.
Your You-tube videos are Awesome! I am learning so very much. Thanks!
Love to hear you guys discussing allyship!
Great video!!!!!
I've been building my question list for The Big Day, so these videos are really helpful. Thanks! I have one question on my list I haven't seen in these videos: How do you handle transparency? Hopefully there will be negotiations, contracts, etc. in our future, so how is reporting handled so I feel confident that I have an accurate picture of what's going on? If someone gets itchy when I ask about transparency (as I've had to in non-publishing-related negotiations), I know to run.
did ur big day come yet!? 😬
Enjoyed this!
Excellent questions
Thank you so much.
Have you ever passed on a book that ended up being a big success? Is that a worry that is always in the back of an agent's head?
Thank you for the great info! How does a person get the agents to even look at their query in the first place? I've considered dangling an amazon card - kidding-not kidding. That's a cheap trick and I want to be legit. I write screenplays too, and it's so hard to get past the overworked and perhaps jaded gatekeepers.
I met Judi Picoult once on a movie set in Nova Scotia. They were filming the adaptation of her book, "The Plain Truth." I got her email address and sent her a copy of my very first manuscript, which she read and commented, "I Really can't help you to get a publisher, but if you ever get your book published," I would be the first to purchase a copy of your book. That book was finally self-published and sold copies globally. Would it still be possible to edit and submit that book to an Agent now, since "Norma Jean Baker," aka Marilyn Monroe was the reason for that book?
If I am talking to more than one potential agent, should I be up front and say that?
My goals....write more books get them published and make my future agent glad they picked me up. Lol
Were you saying "publishing paid me" about pay discrepencies?
I’ve heard of authors asking for split accounting in that when they get paid from the publisher, the agent and author are paid around the same time without the author waiting for the agent to take their cut. Is that an appropriate question to ask on one of these calls?
If that's something you're interested in, you can definitely ask on the call.
You prolly dont give a shit but does any of you know a method to get back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid lost the account password. I would love any help you can offer me.
@Devon Abraham Instablaster =)
@Deandre Robert thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm.
Takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Deandre Robert It worked and I finally got access to my account again. I am so happy!
Thanks so much, you really help me out !
This is awesome advice. I am writing a middle grade fantasy book that has a few biblical allusions. It is a secular book, but King Solomon is mentioned, my protagonist has a Jewish name, and in the end he saves the fantasy world by rebuilding it in the order of the seven days of creation in Genesis. I am completely unwilling to remove these biblical references. Should I tell that to a prospective agent upfront?
Hi! Presumably, if they're at the point of offering representation, they're interested in those themes and wouldn't expect you to change them! However, if you're concerned, you can always tell them during an offer call: "While we're talking about revisions, I wanted to discuss what I see as core elements of the book that I will not want to make changes with, so that we can work on other things to make changes that are agreeable to us both"