Written by Sian Ellis-Martin
When you’re writing your first book, it can be difficult to see past the goal of finding representation with an agent. But what comes next?! Below is a non-exhaustive list of what you can expect from working with an agent, how your book is sold to a publisher, and what happens once you have a deal. Sometimes these things happen in a slightly different order – particularly once you have a publication deal and lots of things start happening simultaneously.
Edits from your agent
Although your agent already loves your book and writing (they’ve offered you representation after all!), it will usually take a few rounds of edits to get your manuscript ready for submission to publishers. Your agent will discuss those edits with you, and you’ll likely focus on the larger, structural edits first such as plot and narrative threads, character, pacing and general structure of the book. Once you’re both happy with the work you’ve done on a larger scale, your agent will usually do a line edit of the manuscript to check for any smaller issues to do with spelling and grammar.
Your book goes on submission
While you’re editing your manuscript, your agent will be doing all sorts of things in the background in preparation for submitting your work to publishers. Agents and the rights team will be pitching your book to editors when they can – at day-to-day meetings and at book fairs. Closer to submission time, your agent will draw up a list of editors that they plan to submit your work to and, once the manuscript is ready, they’ll send it out via email along with a submission letter.
As well as trying to secure a print deal, your agent will also be actively trying to sell other rights in your work, such as audio, radio, film and television (if these rights are covered by your agency agreement). If you write short stories, they may also be able to help you with submitting those stories to prizes and short story publications too. For more information on rights, see Roya’s piece from Open Week 2022.
Waiting
We often see news of overnight book deals, publishers pre-empting books for seven figures and hotly contested auctions with multiple publishers and massive advances. Sometimes books sell that way, and it’s really exciting when they do! But it’s not always the reality of the book selling and buying process, and sometimes you’ll wait a while before you hear that an editor is interested in acquiring your book. That’s completely normal – editors often have bigger reading piles than they have time to get to, and more hoops to jump through than your agent would have had when they signed you – but it can understandably be a frustrating and worrying time. Rest assured that your agent is on top of things, continuing to pitch your book, and will update you when they have news.
Agreeing a deal to sell the book
There are also multiple ways for an offer to come about. You might receive offers from multiple publishers, which means your book will be sold at auction. You might receive a pre-empt offer, which is where a publisher makes an offer but sets a deadline by which that offer will expire (this is usually an attempt to take the manuscript off the table and avoid an auction situation), or you might receive one offer.
There are also lots of variables within an offer itself, including how many books the publisher is offering for, advance level, royalties, bonuses and subsidiary rights splits. These main terms will be outlined at offer stage.
Your agent will be ready to handle any outcome of the selling process and will explain the ins and outs of each offer to you to ensure that you are equipped with all the knowledge you need to make the decision that feels best for you.
There’s always a chance that your book unfortunately does not sell, and your agent will be able to discuss a plan for next steps with you. You can read Isobel’s Open Week 2022 article here if you’d like to know more about how publishing is sometimes a long road to success.
Publisher contract
Once you’ve agreed a deal with your new publisher, your agent will negotiate the full contract with them. Contracts are usually based on a boilerplate – a template of agreed wording – between the agency and the publisher but if this is the first deal the agent has done with that publisher, they will need to negotiate the boilerplate first, which may take a little longer.
To find out more about the money side of your publishing deal, take a look at Juliet’s Demystifying Money piece from Open Week 2022.
Edits from your editor
While your agent is negotiating the contract, your editor will start to write up their editorial thoughts – yes, more edits! This will follow a similar pattern to the edits you undertook with your agent; first, the larger, structural edits, and then, once those edits are complete, your book will be passed on to the copyeditor and/or proof-reader who will check for any inconsistences, factual inaccuracies or spelling and grammar errors. You’ll be asked to check and approve the edited manuscript.
Proofs
Sometimes (but not always) a publisher will produce proofs of your book. Proofs are an early hard copy of your book – it may not have the final cover or be the very final text – which are sent out to early readers for review. This includes other authors, book bloggers and reviewers for newspapers, magazines and websites. It’s a good idea to have a think about whose hands you’d like to get the book into and to share that with your publisher when proof discussions are happening.
Choosing a cover
Alongside your edits, you’ll also engage in conversations about the book cover. Although a publisher usually makes the final decision on your book cover, they’re always happy to hear your thoughts and ideas too, and will usually seek your approval before they go ahead. This can be a really fun and exciting part of the publication process! Don’t forget to discuss the cover options with your agent who will have valuable insight too.
Marketing, publicity and promotion
Your editor will usually set up a meeting between you, your agent and the publishing team working on your book, including the marketing and publicity professionals tasked with looking after your book. In this meeting, they’ll outline their plans for promoting the book before, during and after publication. It’s also an opportunity for the publisher to outline what might be expected of you in the lead up to and around publication – this could include events, signings, social media posts or any other promotional activity.
Around this time and in the lead up to publication, your agent will ask the publisher about numbers: how many books have been ordered by the main retailers? What level are pre-orders at?
Publication
The big day has arrived! Your book will be in the bookstores (and possibly supermarkets) and available to buy online too.
After publication
In the weeks after publication, your publisher will update you and your agent on the sales of your book and any post-publication reviews that you might receive.
If you agreed a multi-book deal, you’ll probably already be writing your next book but if not, you and your agent will have a plan for selling the next one!
