Ask the Agent: Andy Zack

Re: Ask the Agent

- SE Literary Properties: In business several years, but no sales.

This guy's nice. He has good links. Lots of agents haven't sold stuff...maybe 'cause they prefer not to sell schlock. I'm leaving him alone.

- New Elite Literary Agency: $95 upfront fee. Seriously clueless, as is evident from a reading of their website.

Anyone who pays an upfront fee is too stupid to write anything worth reading. So is anyone who buys "consulting services." There are lots of stupid people who, thanks to bad agents, think they can write. I'm not a cop and I refer people to your site so they can be aware of your research. They do look extra dumb, I admit, but maybe they'll be a perfect match for an extra dumb writer.

- Harris Literary Agency: $250 upfront fee. Editors ignore their submissions.

Editors ignore all kinds of stuff. 95% of all successfully published books are sold by 2% of agents. If they wanna call themselves agents, who am I to disagree? Again, anyone who pays an upfront fee is an idiot, but the people on their website look happy enough and they appear to have sold some books. Maybe their clients wanted to blow $250. Maybe it made them happy. People have the choice whether to be an idiot or not. All agents charge reasonable expenses; the good ones take those expenses out of the advance and if they don't sell the book, they eat the expenses. If an agent doesn't think enough of your work to gamble the cost of reasonable expenses if he or she can't sell it, he or she doesn't think enough of your work to represent it. There are lots of "good" agents who charge writers for expenses after they've decided they can't sell the book and those expenses often add up to more than $250. I wonder what Andy Zack's policy is vis-a-vis sticking writers with expenses if he's not able to sell their work.

- Karen Lewis & Company: Everyone gets referred to a paid editing service run by a family member of the agent. Only "sales" are to Durban House, a publisher run by the agent's husband. Said publisher (which is included in your Publishers listing) poses as a small press but charges $25,000 to publish.

They always looked pretty absurd, I'll get rid of both of 'em. See how simple that is? G.

Re: Ask the Agent

Mr. Jones, please consider taking your argument to the Take It Outside portion of this overall forum. This topic, whether you like or respect Mr. Zack or not, is intended for him to dispense advice from the viewpoint of a literary agent.

While I do not see everything eye to eye with Mr. Zack, I have refrained from arguing with him in his topic over our differences. I think we should be considerate in this manner because it is fair to other writers who want his advice.

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I'm done discussing. If people wanna swallow his hogwash, that's their business. Thanks. G.

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They do look extra dumb, I admit, but maybe they'll be a perfect match for an extra dumb writer.

OK: I give up. Dave is right. We should shut this down.

- Victoria

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He's gone? I can only give thanks. Whatta maroon.

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(This post has been removed by me since Mr. Jones has left)

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Soooo :grin

Andy,

What's the worst way someone has approached you to be their agent?

Andrea

Re: Ask the Agent

Andy,

Thanks for your answers. Here's more:

1. Please can you tell how many new writers with no publishing experience you accepted as clients in the past year (2004) and in the past 5 years?

2. Have you managed to sell their books?

3. What do you think it is best for a new writer with no publishing experience to do:
- submit directly to the publishers (of course the choice is restricted to those that accept unagented submissions) and look for an agent after an offer has been made or
- submit first to an agent?

4. Which genre novel do you think it is easier to break into as a new writer?

5. Do you see the fantasy novel market now as being hotter than ever (because of the Harry Potter mania)?

All ideas and suggestions most welcome,

Pencilone

Re: Ask the Agent

Andy,

I was checking your "What We Want" list and on it is this:

"No gay or lesbian fiction."

Now could you expand on that? Does that mean the book can't have ANY gay characters AT ALL? Or it can't be a fiction book AIMED at gay people? My novel, follows the lives of a large group of people and each character is different. A couple gay ones, but most of them (probably 95 percent) are straight. I added the gay characters to add diversity to a mainly straight "cast." I just wanted some additional explaining from you.

Thanks.

E.G. Gammon

Re: Ask the Agent

Andy,

One more question (please remember I'm just a newbie and I hope I don't offend anyone with my questions):

1. What do you think is the role of the agent in selling the book to a publisher?

I know that this question may sound a little strange and too general. Some may say that if the book is good enough, it just sells by itself and it does not need an agent to do that. If the agent has no significant role in selling the book, than his role is mainly a legal one (taking care of contracts and following the book printing progress inside the publishing house, etc). In this case the agent presence is required only after a book is sold...

Others may say that even an excellent book will not be sold if no agent is there to push for it and open the right doors and make the right people read it. One may say that if the agent did not sell the book, then it is not the fault of the book, but it is the fault of the agent (lack of important contacts, no weight in spreading the word about a good book).

What do you think?

Thanks,

Pencilone

Re: Ask the Agent

Andy,

One more question just occured to me:

1. Please can you expand on the qualities of a good agent?
What qualities should a good agent have?

2. How would you define a bad agent? And I do not mean a scam and a thief, just a low performance agent.

3. From a client point of view, how would you measure the performance of an agent?

Thanks,

Pencilone

"elegant" writing and "literary fiction"

Mr. Zack: Thank you so much for your valuable information, and for handling the recent "problem" so well. And Happy New Year to you!

I have two related questions. I have read more than once that agents find "elegant" writing very hard to resist. The implication is also that "elegant" writing is very rare. The 2nd question is related: what in your view constitutes "literary fiction?" I was just on another board where someone came up with a new category: "popular literary fiction." When I think of "literary fiction" I think of a book like Lawrence Thornton's "Imagining Argentina," published a no. of years ago, as a good
example. But I also think that "literary fiction" could be found in any genre, if it is really good writing that is thoughtful and evocative -- if not "elegant."

What say you? Any good examples of "literary fiction" books that did very well in the market in recent years (besides "Cold Mountain.")?

Thanks so much,

Leena 44
PS: I've been "lurking" in this forum for several weeks, and it looks like it is full of wonderful advice from professional writers.

"elegant" writing

Mr. Zack: Sorry, I forgot to put my lst question in the above posting. What, in your opinion, constitutes "elegant" fiction writing? Any examples of authors who do reasonably well in the literary marketplace would be appreciated.

Thanks again,

leena44

Ask the Agent

Dear Andy,

I just got my computer back from the shop, so I've been MIA. I've also enjoyed reading your comments. Lots of good info here.

A YA agent asked for my novel; she said it would be 2-3 weeks for a response. It's been more than three weeks. What could be the reason for this?

Also, if a publishing house wants a novel, how much of the book will it change? One fear I have is this: when the novel is published it won't look like the one I submitted.

Best,

Lee

Re: Ask the Agent

Hi,

I thought I would give my experience in answer to Pencilone's questions to Andy.

Pencilone asked:

1. Please can you tell how many new writers with no publishing experience you accepted as clients in the past year (2004) and in the past 5 years?

I had no publishing experience when I submitted my first sold novel, ALIEN TASTE, to agents in 2000. While I gathered many rejections, I was accepted by the well-known agent, Jim Allen. (He later died. I'm now with Donald Maass.)

2. Have you managed to sell their books?

Jim sold my novel within four months to Roc Books, an imprint of Penquin Putnam.

3. What do you think it is best for a new writer with no publishing experience to do:
- submit directly to the publishers (of course the choice is restricted to those that accept unagented submissions) and look for an agent after an offer has been made or
- submit first to an agent?

I fully recommend submitting to an agent first. Before ALIEN TASTE, I had written a fantasy novel that I now realize is horribly flawed. I submitted it to agents and publishers at the same time.

The agents always rejected the novel quickly, and in several occasions wrote a detailed letter to why they rejected the novel. They explained that while I was a strong writer, the novel wasn't strong enough to sell. (I could have chosen to rewrite the silly thing, but by that time I was sick of the project.) They encouraged me to keep writing and send them my next project.

The publishers, with the exception of Del Rey who took a month, all took YEARS to reject my novel with a form letter.

- Wen

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>>I fully recommend submitting to an agent first.<<

I agree with Wen, if your goal is to publish adult fiction with one of the large houses. You'll often see advice from older writers to find a publisher first, and an agent second. That was reasonable advice when those writers got started, but publishing has changed a lot in the past 20-30 years, and IMO it's no longer good counsel, if only because of the long, long wait you are likely to have to endure if you send an unagented submission to a large publisher. I think your time is better spent trying to find a good agent.

If you're approaching an independent publisher, it's much more feasible to go agentless--indies are used to dealing directly with authors.

- Victoria

Re: Ask the Agent

Welcome, Wen.

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<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>What's the worst way someone has approached you to be their agent?<hr></blockquote>
I'd have to go with calling me and pitching me. It's about the writing. It's always about the writing, so a verbal pitch is fairly useless.

Beyond the verbal pitch is the author who calls me and tells me he'll be in town next week and he would like to come by to discuss his book. Like the "one-on-ones" that many writers' conferences have, a meeting to discuss a work I've never read really isn't productive. I've probably done 100 to 150 of such one-on-ones and have yet to find a project I'd represent. I also once spoke with a veteran mystery editor who told me he's been going to conferences for 21 years and had only found three authors.

I'm not knocking the conferences themselves; I think there's a lot of useful information to be found at them. But the one-on-ones just don't go anywhere for me.

Re: Ask the Agent

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>1. Please can you tell how many new writers with no publishing experience you accepted as clients in the past year (2004) and in the past 5 years?<hr></blockquote>

I can't say that I keep such records, but my best guess is two or three in the last year. And over the last three years perhaps all of them.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>2. Have you managed to sell their books?<hr></blockquote>

Well, the two novelists from this year we've been working with on editorial matters, so they haven't gone out. There's a self-published nonfiction author we took on this year for whose book we have an offer. As for the rest of the authors I've taken on over the last five years, I'd say it's a mix. But it's been a long time since I've given up on anything. I sold a nonfiction work this work on the 120th pitch/submission for hardcover publication by a major publisher.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>3. What do you think it is best for a new writer with no publishing experience to do:
- submit directly to the publishers (of course the choice is restricted to those that accept unagented submissions) and look for an agent after an offer has been made or
- submit first to an agent?<hr></blockquote>

I think an author should always have an agent and should find that agent before submitting to publishers. I ran into an ugly situation with a major publisher once. The author contacted me and said he had submitted directly to an imprint of this house and received an offer. I looked at his material and decided to represent him (coming with an offer in hand definitely does not automatically result in representation). When I contacted the editor to negotiate the offer, he said, "The offer was accepted; there's nothing to negotiate. We're happy to insert your agency clause, but that's it." Subsequently there was an extensive contract negotiation with the Contracts department and a better contract resulted, but the basic offer never changed.

Beyond stories such as these are the simple fact that authors generally do not understand what is and is not negotiable or worth negotiating in a publishing contract. An agent does.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>4. Which genre novel do you think it is easier to break into as a new writer?<hr></blockquote>

Considering that romance novels comprise some 50% of the book publishing output for the year, I'd guess that romance should be the easiest, but there's a lot of competition out there. After that, I'd say mystery.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>5. Do you see the fantasy novel market now as being hotter than ever (because of the Harry Potter mania)?<hr></blockquote>

Definitely not. For starters, I think the Harry Potter mania has cooled some. Many people I know didn't read the last one, despite having read everythng that came before. And recently I read the Japanese booksellers have been stuck with tens of thousands of unsold copies of the latest.

Additionally, I don't think there's been a wholesale conversion of Harry Potter fans to other fantasy novels. Sure, some kids will grow up and be more likely to read fantasy, but it won't be dragon fantasies or elves fantasies, I think, and those do comprise a huge number of the titles published every year.

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E.G.:

I mean works that would be shelved in the Gay and Lesbian section of the bookstore only or primarily, not more mainstream fiction that happens to feature a gay character or two.

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<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>1. What do you think is the role of the agent in selling the book to a publisher?<hr></blockquote>

In a way, I think you answered this question yourself, showing both sides the argument clearly.

My personal feeling is that I bring quite a bit to the table and mostly that's knowledge and experience. I do know who the editors are and I speak with them and meet with them. I work hard to what they are buying. I have over 1200 editors from mostly the US and UK in my database and for many of those, I have detailed notes on what they are hoping to buy right now.

I'm also very knowledgeable about publishers' contracts and what works and doesn't work. I know what can be changed and can't and what's worth changing and not. Many authors, it seems to me, think that a publisher is sending them a "standard" agreement that's going to be fair and acceptable. And that's just not the case. Publishers see themselves as the buyer of something, the customer. And the author is the vendor, the seller. Now imagine yourself as someone buying a car. You feel that the car should meet your specifications and be painted the color you want. It should run perfectly and have no defects, right? Well, publishers feel a bit about your book that way. But books are creative endeavors and thus very subjective. But not when it comes to contracts. Publishing contracts are written to ensure that the publisher gets what it wants from the book. Most publishing contracts do not give authors much protection at all and that's the primary reason to have an agent, because an agent should know how to get you those protections.

Additionally, most agents should know how to review your royalty statements and discover errors, and how to review the cover copy, etc., to advise you on what works and doesn't work. Publishers' royalty statements are not bank statements. You can't, frankly, trust them to be correct 100% of the time. I found an error this year, based on contract terms I'd negotiated, that resulted in an additional payment of $8000 to my client. I also found an error that proved that the Science Fiction Book Club's check for a payment had not been received. In this case, I made the publisher and author $1250 each, since neither the publisher's subsidiary rights or royalties departments had noticed that the payment had not been received.

If you were to review a contract and see the number of different royalty rates for different types of sales, you'd start to realize that there's plenty of room for error. Sales to bookstores are regular sales at regular rates. But if that bookstore is part of a chain and the chain has its own warehouse (Retail Distribution Centers, they are called), the discount is different and the royalty rate may be different. If IBM orders 2000 copies of your business book, the rate is different. If your book is shipped to Canada, the rate is different. Heck, one publisher says that if the book is shipped outside of the continental United States, the rate is different. Imagine if the company you worked for paid you a different rate for each day of the week, and then in months with 31 days, the rate for each of those days was different, then in months where there was a blue moon, the rates changed again. That's how publisher's royalty rates work.

Thus, it is a question of knowledge and experience that's brought to the table by most agents and the role they play is based upon that.

Re: Ask the Agent

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>1. Please can you expand on the qualities of a good agent?
What qualities should a good agent have?<hr></blockquote>

Detail-oriented, knowledgeable about the book publishing process, and willing to work with you to improve your work editorially and to explain the details that are affecting the way your book is being marketed to or by publishers.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>2. How would you define a bad agent? And I do not mean a scam and a thief, just a low performance agent.<hr></blockquote>

Throws it out there and sees if it sticks; doesn't negotiate the actual contract and takes the "boilerplate;" doesn't send the author the reject letters, particularly if those letters will help the author understand why his or her book isn't selling; doesn't have time to talk to the author.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>3. From a client point of view, how would you measure the performance of an agent?<hr></blockquote>

Well, I'd want to know where it was being submitted and what the response was. I'd worry if my agent disappeared after the contract was signed. I'd want my agent's input on everything contractual, such as the approval or consultation on the cover copy, etc. If my book wasn't selling to publishers, I'd want my agent's thoughts on why.

Re: "elegant" writing and "literary fiction&q

Leena:

I think "literary fiction" is primarily just very well written fiction, period. I don't recall ever seeing a "literary fiction" section in the bookstore, for example.

As for examples, THE CORRECTIONS and THE LOVELY BONES come immediately to mind. MIDDLESEX is another example.

Re: Ask the Agent

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>A YA agent asked for my novel; she said it would be 2-3 weeks for a response. It's been more than three weeks. What could be the reason for this?

Also, if a publishing house wants a novel, how much of the book will it change? One fear I have is this: when the novel is published it won't look like the one I submitted.<hr></blockquote>
Well, it's the holidays and many agencies are closed. Plus, such deadlines are usually ballpark numbers and not written in stone. I'd give it another couple of weeks, at least.

Sometimes materials do get lost in the mail. I suggest that authors use Delivery Confirmation when sending materials in. I encourage authors to never send anything Certified Mail or Registered Mail, or via Federal Express or UPS, unless asked to by the agent or publisher, or for contractual reasons. These services are unnecessarily expensive and generally require a signature. In some offices, that signature can't be gotten, because the office is small and everyone is out to lunch, or the office is closed for a vacation period. This may result in an inconvenience to the agent and/or a delay in your material reaching the agent. If you must know your material got there, use a non-signature method such as Delivery Confirmation.

Alternatively, insert a pre-paid postcard that just says "Material arrived at the ___________ agency," and a note asking that it be mailed upon receipt.

Re: "elegant" writing and "literary fiction&a

Mr. Zack,

If an agent has read an author's full MS and called them to request that they lengthen the ending and implement other small changes, said they're very excited about the book, and made a casual arrangement to meet in the next few weeks, how interested is the agent?
And how important is the meeting? ie, is the agent only likely to take on the author if the meeting goes ideally?

(is it obvious I'm talking about myself...?)