Recently I received the following email from an aspiring writer, asking about literary agents:

“It seems like the most difficult part of a writer’s career is getting the “right” agent to sell your books.  Do they get a commission if the book sells well?  Does that explain why agents are so picky about which authors they work with?  Is there any preference for authors who’ll sign a “book a year” contract vs. a “book every two years” contract?  Since the agent is attached to more than one author in similar fields, isn’t there a danger that one’s unpublished script could leak to another?  It’d be worse if the author is new and doesn’t have a foothold in the industry.”

I’ll bet quite a few people are wondering the same things, so I hope these answers help.  I’ll take the questions one at a time:

Do they get a commission if the book sells well?  Does that explain why agents are so picky about which authors they work with?

Agents get a commission from the author’s earnings, on every book that the agent has sold to a publisher.  Generally the commission is around 15%, although I’ve heard of agents who are starting to charge more.  So no matter what that book earns — pennies or millions — the agent gets her cut.  Since the money flows directly from the publisher to the agent, she will take her commission first, and then send the rest of the money to the author.  So yes, an agent wants every one of her authors to be bestsellers, because the more her authors earn, the more she earns as well.  In this way, the agent’s and author’s interests are aligned.  Since an agent can give adequate attention to only a limited number of clients, she’s going to be picky about which clients she chooses.  Earning potential isn’t the only factor.  Maybe the client is a slow, slow writer.  Maybe the client is literary, and thus has little hope of selling well.  But if the agent truly adores that writer’s work, that may be all it takes for the agent to take him on. 

Is there any preference for authors who’ll sign a “book a year” contract vs. a “book every two years” contract?

The quicker the writer can turn out books, the more money he’ll make for the agent.  But a basic level of quality still has to prevail.

Since the agent is attached to more than one author in similar fields, isn’t there a danger that one’s unpublished script could leak to another?  It’d be worse if the author is new and doesn’t have a foothold in the industry.

To my knowledge, it’s never happened.  If an agent were to receive a literary masterpiece from an unknown author, she’s not going to feed that ms. to one of her more established writers.  No, she’s going to snatch up that unknown author as her client and build him.  She’s going to assume that there are more great books to come from that author.  She’s not going to lose an opportunity to discover the next Stephen King by screwing him over and letting one of her other writers steal his work.  So that’s something you don’t have to worry about.  Really.

I’m no literary agent, but I can tell you what kind of client I’d look for.  First, I want one who’s proven he can write, and the only way to prove it is to produce a good manuscript.  Even if I couldn’t sell THAT book, there should be some sort of spark, some raw talent that shines through in the manuscript.  I’d look for a client who’s reliable, who can turn in a manuscript when he says he will.  I’d look for a client who doesn’t demand the impossible.  I’d look for a client who’s easy to work with.  And I can’t emphasize that last point enough.  A literary agent told me about a bestselling, multi-published author who wanted to switch to her agency.  Within minutes of walking into the office, the agent knew she couldn’t represent that author.  “She was demanding, she was inappropriate, and she’d be hell to work with.”  This was also an author who would have brought in a big chunk of money every year.  But the stress of dealing with this author outweighed the income the author would have generated.

So the last piece of advice about landing an agent: be a reasonable human being.  It works outside of publishing as well.