BFLA OPEN WEEK: A Very Brief Guide to What an Agent Does

Written by Samuel Hodder

Before submitting a manuscript

An agent’s work begins with scouting for writing talent! This includes reading unsolicited submissions and creative writing anthologies, attending writers’ festivals and events by organisations which support emerging writers, and referrals from editors and colleagues. Sometimes, we proactively approach authors whose writing we admire, after discovering their journalism, or their website, or a self-published book, or even their social media.

We talk with the author about what they are looking for from an agent and what their hopes are for their writing career over the long-term. And we give the author a sense of our own preferred ways of working and what they can expect from a partnership. If we’re the right fit for each other, we clearly lay out our terms for working together in an agency agreement letter, which both the author and agent sign.

The next step is editorial work, in which the author and agent will work together to get the manuscript is the best possible shape before submitting to publishers. This usually has two stages. First, structural (or developmental) edits, which looks at the manuscript as a whole and how well its parts fit together and serve the central narrative. For a novel, questions of plot, pacing, perspective, characterisation and themes will be considered here. The agent’s knowledge of the publishing landscape and what editors are currently looking for can feed into these conversations.

Next comes a line (or language) edit, which looks at the way language is used to communicate the story at the level of the sentence. The word choice, tone, clarity and sharpness of the writing will all be discussed during the line edit.

A novel nearly always needs to be fully-written before being submitted to publishers (this is especially for debut authors). But non-fiction books can often be sent to publishers as a proposal, which includes an overview, a detailed chapter plan, and a writing sample of around 10,000 words.

Finding a publishing deal

From the first time an agent reads a manuscript, they will start to think about which editors and imprints would be a great fit for the book, and they’ll begin to pitch it to editors in meetings. Our goal is to get editors excited to read it! At the time of submission, agents will send out the manuscript over email, together with a submission letter. This letter will succinctly describe the book, tell the editor which rights are available, and a little about the author. The letter will also suggest a few comparison titles (or ‘comps’) – these are published titles by other authors which the book might fairly be compared with, to help give the editor a sense of where the book would fit within the publishing marketplace.

When an editor makes an offer for a book, an agent will inform all the other editors who have it, and this is often the point when an agent will set a deadline for receiving offers. If a number of editors make offers, the agent (after speaking to the author) could choose to hold an auction. An auction isn’t an in-person event, but instead takes place over email and phone calls. The agent decides the number of auction rounds, and in each one the publisher must at least match the highest offer made during the previous round, or drop out. The agent’s goal is to encourage the publishers to offer a higher advance each time. The agent also seeks to get publishers to offer for the same package of rights. When selling a book to a UK publisher, an agent will typically try to sell the rights to publish the book in English in the UK and Commonwealth countries. But larger rights packages are also possible, including ‘World English’ (the right to publish in English throughout the world), and simply ‘World’, (the right to publish in all languages throughout the World).

The last auction round is called ‘best and final’, in which publishers are asked to provide their very best terms, including in their royalty rates – the percentage an author receives on each sale of a book. The agent also asks publishers to provide information on how they will market and publicise the book on publication, and for any commitments the publisher can make for this. If possible, the agent will arrange in-person meetings between the author and the publishing teams, to receive more information and give the author a sense of the team they could be working with on their book.  

At the end of an auction, the agent presents the publishers’ best and final offers to their author and the author makes their choice. The agent will offer clear advice, but ultimately it is always the author’s choice to make. They do not have to accept the offer from the publisher that offered the highest advance, and can consider a wide range of factors – for e.g. the publisher’s editorial vision for the book, their sense of the editor’s enthusiasm for it, the plans for marketing and publicity, etc.

 After an offer is accepted

When the author makes their choice, the agent accepts a publisher’s offer on the author’s behalf. It is accepted ‘subject to contract’, which means the author can later withdraw if mutual agreement isn’t reached on all the aspects of a publishing contract. The agent will have asked the publisher to provide their major terms when making their offer, but there can still be finer points to agree at contract drafting stage – a publishing agreement typically has more than twenty sections. The goal of the publishing agreement is to lay out both parties’ rights and responsibilities and provide clarity on what to expect throughout the publishing process.

While the contract is being finalised, the editor will start to draw up their editorial notes, and send these to the author. The agent will ensure the author feels comfortable and confident about the editorial work requested.

Months before publication day, the agent will ask the publisher for their detailed plans for marketing and publishing the book, and schedule meetings between the author and the publisher. As well as the editor, we will seek contributions from other members of the publishing team, including the marketing manager and publicity manager, and perhaps sales managers as well. Opportunities for bookshop events, writers’ festivals, digital marketing and promotions, traditional media coverage, social media and more will all be discussed. The list of people (for e.g. authors, reviewers, influencers) who will receive a proof of the book ahead of publication will be agreed upon.

One especially exciting discussion is over the cover design! Usually, the publisher will present a number of designs to the author for their feedback and input, although the final decision is typically the publishers. If the publisher holds audio rights, the choice of narrator will be discussed too, and the author could have the opportunity to listen to audio samples by different narrators.

After publication

Shortly before publication, the agent will ask the publisher to confirm the number of orders received for the book from major book retailers. The agent will ask for further sales updates in the weeks following publication, and discuss marketing and publicity activities in the context of the plans. At the end of each six-month royalty period, the agent will ensure the publisher provides a detailed royalty statement, giving the figures for unit sales and income for each edition of the book. If money is due to the author, the agency will collect this on behalf of the publisher and promptly pay this onward to the author.

And then it’s…on to the next book!

BFLA OPEN WEEK: DEMYSTIFYING MONEY

Written by Juliet Pickering

Money – and the earning of it as an author – is still a mysterious business. Maybe that’s partly because earnings can vary hugely from author to author, and book to book, so there really is no One Size Fits All. An agent will not know how much an author is guaranteed to earn on their first or next books (although they might be able to take an informed guess!) or throughout their career, at the point they begin working together with an author. There are so many variables (more on those later) that it’s usually impossible for an agent to say, ‘this book will earn us millions/peanuts!’. But as agents we are very aware that all of us have bills to pay, and we want to support our authors earning as much as possible.

In the world of non-fiction, there are often more tangible factors to support an advance for a book: the idea itself and how ‘of the moment’ it is – and, of course, the author’s platform as expert on the topic, if relevant: i.e. does the author come with a ready-built audience or following that might translate to book sales, which publishers can factor in when offering. But for fiction it can be hard to estimate potential earnings from the outset.

An author can have many avenues for income, and an agent works to support and increase those (see Roya’s piece on rights). Most authors will not only earn from their book deals but also from some of the following: TV/film/radio/theatre, events (speaking, panels, chairing), teaching, mentoring, judging competitions, writing articles for press and online platforms, and sometimes from brand endorsement.

As agents, we usually start earning for our authors with the sale of their first book to a publisher, most commonly in the UK. To give you an idea of the structure of a book deal and how you might earn from it (a very general idea! There are more detailed breakdowns on the Society of Authors’ website) let’s start at the beginning, and on home turf (in the UK!):

Once an author and their agent have worked on either a novel or non-fiction book idea to the point when it’s ready to submit to publishers, the book heads out on submission and money conversations kick off when a first offer is made by an editor.

An editor will usually let an agent know they’re keen on the book as soon as they’ve read it (or the proposal), and after circulating the book with colleagues to get their vote of confidence too, will take the book to an Acquisitions Meeting (held weekly at most publishers) to get sign off on offering from the many other people that matter: Sales, Marketing, Publicity, Digital, Audio, Production, and more; at smaller and/or independent publishers, decisions on whether to offer for a book might be taken by one or two individuals, instead, but with similar concerns in mind. Agents will use anything possible in their armoury to suggest the book is a potentially good earner, e.g. we will use the most favourable comparison titles in our submission letter to editors, to indicate to their sales team that this is going to fly, e.g ‘It’s THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB meets Jack Reacher’!

If the editor has the nod from all the relevant people in-house, they then go and look at £££ – often these take the form of predicted profit and loss sheets based on sales of similar published books, and likely costs of production – and cost up a financial offer for the agent and author. Traditionally, the editor then sends an agent ‘the offer’, i.e. the advance they’re willing to pay for the book, and the deal memo to break down the key terms of a proposed contract.

Deal memos usually include the following:

•  The grant of rights to the publisher: are they buying UK and Commonwealth rights to publish the book, and is that including or excluding Canada (a key market for the US publishers, so we tend to hold it back if separating out US rights), or is the offer for World English language rights (excluding translation), or World All Language rights (every country around the world, including translation rights)?

•  The main royalties the author will be earning on sales of the book in the UK, across print and e-book editions, and sometimes audiobook too.

•  The key sub-rights earnings, eg if the book is sold to a third party such as newspapers for extracts, or large print publishers for production of a LP edition into libraries. Most commonly there are splits on sub-rights sales that start at 50/50 and increase from there, e.g. if your UK publisher sold Large Print rights to a third-party large print publisher, you might see 60% of that advance payment paid to you under the terms of your contract and set against your advance, and your publisher would keep 40%

•  The advance and how it will be broken down into instalments. For example, if I receive a final and best offer of £10,000 for a novel next week (the 3rd week of March), here’s how those payment stages might look:

  Your 1st instalment will be paid on signature of the contract - once your agent has accepted an offer (subject to contract) on your behalf, it may then take a couple of months for the contract to be passed back-and-forth between publisher and agency, who often have a template agreement but might still negotiate or fine-tune your own contract until it’s ready for signature. In some cases, a substantial contract (American contracts can often run to 40 pages!) may take several months to get to signature stage. Let’s hope for a smooth conversation here and estimate signature in mid-May. Payment: £2,500, end May/early June 2022

  Your 2nd instalment will be paid on delivery and acceptance of your book. Although you will have an official delivery date in your contract, the exact timing of the release of your delivery advance can differ from publisher to publisher, and book to book: for many, the ‘acceptance’ stage may come when you have edited your book with your publisher to an almost final stage. For some (non-fiction) books, you may have to wait until the book has been read and approved by a legal team, or if you’re quoting a lot from other texts then you may need to wait for permissions for those quotes to have been cleared. For a few, your delivery advance might be paid not long after you first send the book to your editor: this is usually the privilege of more established authors who deliver and edit dependably! It’s generally understood that your book will be more-or-less ready to go to the printer at the point the delivery advance is released by your publisher.

  Let’s imagine in this case that the publisher wished to publish in spring 2024. In which case, the author might deliver an edited manuscript of the novel within a few months of signing their contract, it could go back-and-forth a couple more times, then be sent to a copy-editor and the advance instalment released at the point where the text is near-final. Payment: £2,500 December 2022

  Your 3rd instalment will be paid on first publication: whether hardback, paperback or electronic edition, your publication advance should be due to you as soon as your book first goes on sale. If this book is a debut novel, then publishers will often prefer a long lead time pre-publication in which to send out copies and get buzz going around the book, the lead time being the period between a first widely-shareable copy of the text and first publication date. So, in 2023 there may be no further income on this deal from the UK publisher, while proof copies of the novel are being sent out to generate excitement for the book and get anticipation growing ahead of spring 2024 publication. Payment on publication of hardback: £2,500, March 2024

  If there is a 4th instalment, it is most commonly paid on publication of a second edition, i.e. if you’ve had a hardback copy of your book published first, a paperback edition might follow 9-12 months later. Let’s assume here that paperback publication is spring 2025. Payment on publication of paperback: March 2025.
  

As your agent, we work to ensure that you’re paid as much as possible, and we discuss the payment stages with you at the point that publishers are offering so you have a realistic sense of when you will receive income from your book deal.

This is how your (UK) book deal might take a couple of years or more to pay out its full advance. As soon as the book goes on sale it will be earning royalties on every copy sold, which start chipping away at the £10,000 paid to you by the publisher. An advance is all yours to take and run with, once you’ve been paid it, but it stands as a figure to earn back via sales once your book is out in the world: put bluntly, this book will need to earn £10k via hardback, paperback, e-book, audio, and other methods, before you see any further income paid to you from your publisher. It’s still the case that most books won’t earn out their advances for a while after publication, if at all.

I appreciate that this isn’t exactly cheering news… So, in the meantime, we look to other revenue streams for our authors. We will try to sell many of our authors’ books into the US, too. It’s obvious that there is a big and healthy readership there, although we can sometimes be stymied by our books being deemed ‘too British’ or ‘too local’, meaning that not every book will work for an American readership. For instance, a beautifully-written grief memoir should be able to strike a note for readers everywhere, but the US will have scores of their own writers covering this topic too.

Our fantastic rights agents take our books overseas and press them into the hands/inboxes of editors around the world who might translate and publish them. Those additional deals in, for example, France, Japan, Brazil, Croatia and many more, will help to top up an author’s income and those deals can come at the most unexpected and welcome of times.

If the UK publisher doesn’t insist on taking audio rights off the table along with print (and many do), there might be the opportunity to place those with an independent audio publisher. Perhaps we could option film or TV rights, or even consider whether the book might work on stage. In a best-case scenario, we might be able to find our author and their book UK, US, audio and translation publishers, and sell TV/film rights to a production company. These advances would be paid out differently (translation and audio publishers often pay 50/50 on signature and publication; an option fee is paid in full upon signature of the contract), meaning further income for authors.

 And on those variables I mentioned earlier, here’s why income can be so unpredictable for our authors:

•  Publishing schedules

  We publish books into our own publishing seasons, as a general rule (certainly at the larger publishers): new fiction will arrive from Feb-July; self-help in January; most of the big names (John Grisham/Nigella) in autumn, when they can cut through the busy pre-Christmas period. So, a decision about when your book is published – and you receive your publication advance – will be made according to the time of year it’s likely to receive best publicity, and can fit into a publisher’s schedule of the many other books they will be publishing that year.

•  Genre
  An author may be publishing more than one book a year – for example, if writing romantic fiction and publishing a summer novel and a Christmas novel, like Sue Moorcroft. In that case, the author might be paid 2 x delivery and 2 x publication advances per year (+ signature advance if it’s a year there’s a new multi-book deal!)

•  Mid-list authors
  If an author has been published before, it can be more of a challenge to find them a new publisher, and if their sales haven’t been high then the likely offers on a new book will be lower. However, an author can be successful elsewhere in the world while their books sell more slowly in the UK, so there may be healthier income from a translation publisher.

•  Pandemics

  It’s perhaps unsurprising to learn that the Covid pandemic affected book sales hugely, and this has had a knock-on effect for authors and their income. Previously healthy retailers for books had to close or reduce their book stock – here and overseas – and we’ve yet to see high street and supermarket book-buying return to former levels, even though books have been selling in greater number as a whole. Unfortunately though, certain books and authors did suffer from being published during lockdowns etc., and there’s no doubting that their income was diminished as a result.

•  Multi-book deals

  Sometimes we’re selling more than one book to a publisher, meaning that the signature advance will account for two or more books at once being signed up, and an author’s income is a better-known quantity across the life of the contract. There are pros and cons to signing a multi-book deal as an author and agent, but if it looks like the best thing to do at the point of signing up the first book, then we’ll be setting out your income across an even longer period, and this can offer a tiny bit of stability for authors, in the short term.

It’s worth remembering as a final point that an agent takes commission on the deals they broker for you so for each advance payment the author receives, as a general rule their agent is taking 15% commission in the UK and 20% commission from any overseas deal (standard commission rates for UK-based literary agents). To make this absolutely clear: you should NOT be paying any ‘fees’ to an agent to represent you, we work on a commission-only basis. If you’re approached by an agent who suggests otherwise, it might be worth referring to the Association of Authors’ Agents to check they’re a member/legit.

I hope this piece is helpful: it’s tricky to try and cover all the nuances of an author’s earnings in one (overly-long!) post, but you’re welcome to pose us more questions about this online in our #AskAgent #BFLAOpenWeek sessions on Twitter. And, as an author, the best you can do for yourself is ask an agent questions about money from the very first meeting. As I say, we won’t be able to give you figures and dates at that point, but we will be able to talk you through how hard we will work to earn for you, and the potential extra revenue streams we predict could be successful. Remember: we don’t earn until you do, so we want that income just as much!

24 (+15) hours in Kampala with Commonwealth Writers

Juliet Pickering reports on her whirlwind visit to Uganda for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Thursday 12th 

Readers, I took that seat

2.30pm: Sat on the plane next to a guy who looks about 12, who tells me he's on a Christian mission to Uganda. He's American, has never left even his state before, and seems pretty scared of what's ahead. I re-read the shortlisted stories before we watch Frozen in friendly silence until a fellow missionary comes along and takes the mickey out of him for watching a ‘girly’ film. Not very Christian, to say the least. 

 Two disgusting plane meals later...

 10.30pm I get out of the airport to find my transfer, and realise that there were six other people on the plane that Commonwealth Writers have brought over too. Hooray! We all pile into a large taxi with our cases teetering dangerously over our heads, and head to the hotel.

 11.30pm I'm sharing an apartment with Vimbia Shaire, a freelance editor who is teaching workshops the following week. She's chatty and lovely, and despite the lack of proper milk in the apartment and therefore being unable to drink a good cup of tea, we have a lengthy chat about all things publishing; often working with more academic titles, her experience is very different to mine.

It's good, but it's not P G Tips

Friday 13th 

8am I peruse the selection of exotic breakfast dishes: baked beans, curried vegetables, chips, chicken foot... Yup, chicken foot: in breadcrumbs. It's not bad, and goes well with the cassava wedges. 

Breakfast, avec pied

I get chatting to Myn Garcia, Deputy Director of the foundation, who delicately nibbles a bit of fruit while I scoff my chicken foot and explain what I'm doing there. I get the sense that the Commonwealth Writers people (especially Lucy Hannah and Emma D'Costa) take on a hell of a workload, and travel a huge amount to promote literature and work with writers all over the world. An incredible and varied job to have, although exhausting.

 Lucy asks me to join them for a non-fiction workshop at midday, to talk about the UK publishing industry and the role of the agent.

 10am I wander the compound but it's fairly self-contained. It alternately rains like crappery and then the sun shines hot and strong. No chance to park myself by the pool and read The Miniaturist, damn it!

 11am I am taken to the hotel where the workshops are being held, and introduced to a group of non-fiction writers - who have come from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya - and who are being taught by Ellah Allfrey (Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize) and Mark Gevisser. David Godwin also shows up, as he's in town for literary events the following week.

Non-fiction workshopping

We are asked about the role of agents in the UK, and when we want to see material etc. We're reminded about how different things are in the Ugandan/East Africa publishing world, when we're asked a lot about book ideas being stolen by unscrupulous publishers. I mean publishers are unscrupulous the world over, obviously (to any publishers reading this - love you guys!), but the writers' concerns were about them telling a publisher their non-fiction ideas at an early stage, and the publisher then taking that idea and publishing that book with someone else. I got the impression that the publishing world is pretty corrupt there. It might be related to the fact that there are no agents, of course.

 1am LUNCH. I eat shredded goat and it is surprisingly delicious. We also chat to the writers who are all kinds of interesting. There are quite a few political memoirists: writers who have suffered because of their political beliefs, or who have lost family/home/identity in genocide. Their experiences are varied and fascinating.

 I also meet Billy Kahora from the Kwani Trust, a literary charity based in Kenya "dedicated to developing quality creative writing and committed to the growth of the creative industry through the publishing and distribution of contemporary African writing".

 3pm I do a podcast interview for the Commonwealth Writers website, with top Dos and Don'ts when submitting to agents.

 4pm Back in our room, Vimbai and I are peckish and order some food. You would only have believed the size of the chocolate cake I was brought if I'd taken a photo instead of greedily attacking it immediately. One word: BRICK. Good to know that giant hunks of cake are enjoyed the world over.

 6pm Having donned our party frocks, Ellah, Vimbai and I head to the Short Story Prize party.

Photocall for the non-fiction writers

After an hour of drinks, canapes and chat by the poolside (tough life) – during which I learn that to be 34 and unmarried means I am an ANCIENT SPINSTER in Uganda; I so enjoyed my conversations with the writers about their lives - Romesh Gunesekera announces Jennifer Makumbi as the winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014, for her story about a Ugandan woman living in Britain, whose husband dies unexpectedly, leading her to discover he has been leading a double life with a second family in Uganda. She's a worthy winner, and you can read her story on the Granta website here.

Jennifer reads an extract of her winning story

At 9pm I dash to my room to change, and go to reception to wait for a taxi to the airport. Mike van Graan stops by and we introduce ourselves.

 9.30pm INSANE drive to the airport. The roads are packed, mostly with tiny scooters carrying three people, zooming lethally between traffic. I try not to wince as scooters regularly scrape our car bonnet. This was one of the best bits of the trip: 90mins of cruising through Kampala as people gathered at roadsides to eat from smoking food stalls, gather round a tiny TV or sell gum and nuts to passing cars (my lovely driver bought me a pack of Juicy Fruit as we sat in a long queue). Because you can't walk around town whenever and wherever you like, this was the closest I got to seeing Kampala. And it's worth noting that if you own a new and/or large car in Kampala, you can turn your lights on full beam and drive along the wrong side of the road and everyone will get out of your way because they're in awe of your amazing car *eyeroll*. 

 1am It's announced that the plane is grounded because it's been struck by lightning on the way in, and BA have to check it over before we fly again. No argument from me! Check that mofo twice!

 2am The one hour delay becomes a 15hr delay, and so ensues a long night/day of shunting around from airport to hotel to airport to plane. But despite this, it's been totally worth it.

 Follow-up: I've recently emailed some of the shortlisted writers from all over the Commonwealth; stories I particularly enjoyed included one about a young girl’s friendship with a gardener that’s destroyed by racial tensions; another which told of a teenager dealing with coming of age and the calm wisdom her grandmother could offer her; and a third about a brief, meaningful but then discarded love affair in Paris. I'll begin talking to the authors about their writing and what they're working on, in the hopes that some good fiction might come my way as a result!

 I'm really pleased that this trip introduced me to two groups of writers who might not usually think to submit to a UK agent. This is exactly what I hoped for when we began the association with Commonwealth Writers last year, and huge thanks are due to Emma, Lucy, Keenda and the brilliant team there, for making this happen and taking me along to Uganda.

A Day in the Life of a Media Associate…

Ever wondered what screenwriters’ agents do all day? Ellen Gallagher is here to satisfy your curiosity. 

A caveat from Ellen: this isn't the way every day pans out, or even a complete picture of everything that goes on in the Media Department, not by a long stretch. No two days are quite the same in the world of agents, that’s partly why I enjoy my job so much! 

8.30am – Begin checking emails on the way to work. I don't want to miss anything, and am utterly obsessed with organising my emails into folders. I work across a number of clients and projects, and I want to make sure that any emails that have come in are filed correctly so they can be dealt with promptly. Organisation is King in the Land of the Agents!

9.25am – Arrive at the office. Make a giant pot of coffee; it's always wise to endear oneself to one’s colleagues by providing caffeine-based sustenance. Similarly, cake is highly popular and should be procured and shared as frequently as possible.

9.30am – Right, it's email-handling time. I respond to as much as I immediately can, and put the rest in a ‘to do’ folder to be worked on throughout the day. Emails range from rights enquiries or contract negotiation to new client scripts and treatments, and everything in between.

10am – I have a lovely phone chat with a client, and we cook up some ideas about what to do next with his work. I end the call excited to read the script he’s going to send me.

10.30am – Now we enter the Invoicing Zone. I keep track of invoices and payments to ensure that clients get paid when they should. Our finance manager Sian is an invaluable ally, as she is a font of fiscal fortitude.

11am – I spend an intense half hour arranging meetings; some for our department, and some on behalf of our clients. I am the master of the diary, no meeting shall escape my iron calendar. I have a pleasant jokey exchange with a producer’s assistant about the awesome efficiency with which we just arranged that last meeting.

11.30am – I roll up my sleeves to delve into some contract drafting. There are always deals to be done, and putting together a contract which protects the writer’s interests is a vital part of the agent’s job. Contract language may sound a bit like it was invented by aliens who had learned English from reading the instructions on a shampoo bottle, but it’s the best wording to make a document as legally watertight as possible.

1.30pm – Lunch! I head to the kitchen and assemble a sort of mad salad which mostly consists of whole tomatoes. I really like tomatoes at the moment.

2.30pm – I peruse the ‘to do’ email folder again. Some of the emails in here require research or looking back over existing documents to respond properly, so I do lots of that. It’s essential to be thorough to make sure nothing gets missed, especially when rights are involved.

3pm – A client has written a fab script, I've read it and told her I love it. There’s a producer whom I think would love it too; I get in touch with them and they're keen to read it, so I send it across.

3.05pm – Ooh, an email has gone round saying somebody has returned from an overseas book fair and has brought some sort of food back for everyone. A mildly twisted ankle is sustained in the customary BFLA stampede for the kitchen.

3.10pm – The post has come in – we distribute contracts, financial statements and other documentation that needs handling on behalf of our clients. Lots of filing and record-keeping ensues. Organisation, once again, is the buzzword!

3.30pm – Time for a meeting. A producer has come in to tell us what they're looking for, and to hear about our clients and what they're up to. Cups of tea are enthusiastically quaffed.

4.30pm – I put some scripts on my eReader to look at this evening. I must prioritise existing clients’ work, but also I check out as many new submissions as I can from writers seeking representation.

4.45pm – I try to tie up as many loose ends as possible toward the end of the day. This includes logging script submissions (where we have sent clients’ work for consideration) and doing any last-minute email responding to keep the decks as clear as possible for the next day. I also use this time to read up on as much industry news as possible, in publications such as Broadcast, Screen International and online sources. It’s important to be aware of trends and developments in film and television so that information can be used to benefit our clients.

Around 5.30pm – I head out of the office with my eReader stocked up with scripts. There might also be a screening or play read-through in the evening that I’ve been invited to by a submitter or film school, but if not I'll go home to read and eat dinner. Another action-packed day of agenting awaits me tomorrow, bring it on!

Agents Don't...

Partly inspired by a twist on Richard Charkin's recent talk and his 'Don'ts for Publishers', we've turned this on its head and instead put together a list of ‘Agents Don't…’, intended to debunk some common myths about agents, or help explain how and why we agent!

 Agents Don't…

1. Publish your books. We seek a publisher for your book, and ensure your work is in the hands of a great editor and their team of marketers, publicists, digital experts and sales people.

2. Earn anything until you do. We work on a commission basis, so we only get paid when our authors do! This ensures that it's in everyone's best interests to take a book that's in the most appealing shape possible, to publishers, and why we might spend a lot of time honing your manuscripts and proposals before they go out on submission to editors.

3. Know the tastes of other agents. Strange to admit, but other agents are either our friends, our competition or both! We might know them socially, and know a little of their list of authors, but when it comes down to it representing a book is a personal business and we don't always know what floats another agent's boat. So that’s why we are very rarely able to recommend other agents if we turn your book down. Agency websites are most helpful; go and look at an agent's list and their bio, for the best information on what they're looking for.

4. Have any time to read during office hours. It's a common fallacy that we're to be found at our desks, feet propped on stacks of manuscripts, thumbing through our authors' newest deliveries and reading at our leisure. I WISH. Sadly there is no time to read during the day; we're busy negotiating deals and the resulting contracts, chasing payments and checking royalty statements, forwarding requests for our authors' appearances at festivals and events, meeting editors and listening to what they're looking for, liaising with publicity and marketing teams, catching up with colleagues on sending out our books for translation and media sales, and pursuing potential new authors. Very occasionally we might be able to squeeze some editing in on a Friday afternoon, but usually all reading (and editing) is done outside work hours.

5. Have the time to reply to submissions with detailed feedback. Unfortunately we simply don't have enough hours in the day to feedback our thoughts on your three chapters or proposal. And, if we want to be businesslike about it, it’s not in our interests to spend time editing a book we’re not going to work with! However, if we think a book is good enough to consider despite its flaws, or that it could be very interesting to us after a good edit, we will always say so. Equally, if the writer has talent but this book is not for us, we’ll say so.  And no book comes to us in perfect shape!

6. Appreciate rude or persistent writers, whether that's someone calling up the agency reception at regular and increasingly agitated intervals, or barging in on a conversation at a Fair or Festival. We know you're anxious to hear from us and, trust us, if you've a great book or idea then we will definitely be in touch. However, if you've a great book but have been rude to our receptionist or in chasing emails, we won't want to work with you. Polite and professional is the best way for us both to be!

7. Choose brand over book. It has to begin with a great novel or book idea, not just with one hundred million followers on Twitter (however helpful that might be further down the line!). Writers seem to worry a lot these days about their ‘profile’, and it can’t be denied that this is a concern to publishers sometimes too. However, we all need to be convinced that there’s a good, publishable book in whoever we represent (we would always hope that there are many good, publishable books ahead for an author), so the best introduction to us and to a publisher is with a winning idea and strong writing. Not every single author we work with is social-media savvy. I’d personally recommend using Twitter as it’s a LOT of fun and a brilliant place for talking to other writers and sharing writing experiences, as well as a valuable peek into the publishing industry via agents and editors, but it’s not essential.

8. Give up on an author after just one book. As mentioned above, we usually take on an author with a view to them having a long and fruitful career. This is why good writing is important; you could have one great idea, but then… nothing. But if you’re a good writer then we’ll keep chatting with you about potential new book ideas. And if your first book doesn’t sell, we’ll talk to you about pursuing something else. We’re in it for the long term!

9. Chase trends. Because a) we couldn’t possibly predict them (who saw FIFTY SHADES coming? Pardon the unintentional filthy pun) and b) we couldn’t keep up – most books benefit hugely from several months of editing, marketing and publicity, by which time the reading public is going crazy for the next trend: whatever happened to vampires?

 10. Go to lunches and parties just for the free booze. Yes, we know there is the popular belief that we are carousing every night, quaffing cheap party wine and canapes, but actually we go to these kind of social events (much less so now than a decade ago, too) to fit in catching up with editors and their colleagues, hearing about what they’re publishing and using these friendly occasions as an opportunity to pitch our books. And if we can munch a tiny quiche whilst we talk about our fantastic authors, so much the better.

11. Have to read just their own authors’ manuscripts and the submissions pile, but also a wide variety of newly-published books to keep up with competitors and publishing tastes. I try to cram in one non-‘work’ book per weekend, so I’m up-to-date with the books that are appealing to editors and readers alike. Why did everyone rave about The Fault in Our Stars? Best way to find out is to read it…

12. Only make deals.  It’s all about career planning and thinking strategically, looking ahead to try and shape an author’s career in the long term. We’re also sounding boards for our writers, who might come to us with new ideas and their plans for their futures; we maintain a continuous conversation about how we’re going to develop an author and their books, and how best to get them to where they want to be. This is becoming especially important in an ever-evolving publishing landscape, with new platforms, formats and models to explore with our authors.

13. Like telling their clients about rejections.  It hurts the agent too: they’ve taken the client on because they admire and love their work, and have a genuine and unswerving belief that a book should be published. Rejections are rubbish for everyone, and don’t get any easier!

 14. Exist in a vacuum.  We’re all actually human (strange as it might seem) and while reading and editing seeps into every moment of our supposedly spare time, we do occasionally have to have time off, do something else, to maintain perspective. (I don’t think we ever REALLY switch off, but a bit of fresh air can do wonders for new inspiration…) Just as writers are advised to put a book to one side for a little while once they’ve finished the first draft, in order to edit with a bit of new perspective, we all benefit from a break.

15. Sit behind our desks ignoring submissions, feeling superior or polishing our keys to the gates of publishing. (In short: take everything you read about publishing in the newspapers or similar, with a LARGE pinch of salt.) We're desperate to find good books and great authors; we comb our submissions pile as frequently and as thoroughly as we can, and are always happy to meet new writers, whether on Twitter or IRL. It's important for us to be accessible and excitable! And we never get bored of finding that next incredible book. 

By Juliet Pickering