This is a book which will tell you all you need to know about literary agents.
A literary agent is someone who represents a writer in negotiating with publishers, film producers, and indeed anyone who wants to make any sort of deal with that writer.
The theory is that the agent, whose whole life is spent negotiating deals, will know the business inside out, will therefore get a much better result than would the poor ignorant writer if she tried to negotiate on her own behalf. Hence the writer will, in the long run, earn a lot more money through an agent.
That’s the theory. But is it true in practice? And in today’s digital marketplace, where self-publishing costs you nothing, does a writer really need an agent at all?
The aims of this book are as follows:
(i) To provide you with a short history of how agents first made their appearance, in the late nineteenth century, and how their role has changed and developed right up to the present day.
(ii) To provide you with examples of how relationships between agents and authors have sometimes gone badly wrong, to no one’s advantage, least of all that of the writers concerned.
(iii) And, finally, to show you that there are now more ways than one to make your work available to the reading public. By making use of such opportunities, you may eventually get to the point where it would be useful to have an agent, if only to exploit to the maximum the success which you have earned without one.
A Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents is the sixth in Michael Allen’s series of practical, down-to-earth guides for writers; the previous ones deal with emotion, viewpoint, style, success, and traditional publishing. This one will be most relevant to those who write fiction, whether short stories or novels – but non-fiction writers will also find it useful.
Michael Allen’s first novel was published over fifty years ago (1963). He is the author of numerous other novels and short stories (some written under pen-names) which have variously been published in hardback, paperback, and ebook editions, in the UK, USA, France and Denmark. He has also run two small publishing companies.
A literary agent is someone who represents a writer in negotiating with publishers, film producers, and indeed anyone who wants to make any sort of deal with that writer.
The theory is that the agent, whose whole life is spent negotiating deals, will know the business inside out, will therefore get a much better result than would the poor ignorant writer if she tried to negotiate on her own behalf. Hence the writer will, in the long run, earn a lot more money through an agent.
That’s the theory. But is it true in practice? And in today’s digital marketplace, where self-publishing costs you nothing, does a writer really need an agent at all?
The aims of this book are as follows:
(i) To provide you with a short history of how agents first made their appearance, in the late nineteenth century, and how their role has changed and developed right up to the present day.
(ii) To provide you with examples of how relationships between agents and authors have sometimes gone badly wrong, to no one’s advantage, least of all that of the writers concerned.
(iii) And, finally, to show you that there are now more ways than one to make your work available to the reading public. By making use of such opportunities, you may eventually get to the point where it would be useful to have an agent, if only to exploit to the maximum the success which you have earned without one.
A Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents is the sixth in Michael Allen’s series of practical, down-to-earth guides for writers; the previous ones deal with emotion, viewpoint, style, success, and traditional publishing. This one will be most relevant to those who write fiction, whether short stories or novels – but non-fiction writers will also find it useful.
Michael Allen’s first novel was published over fifty years ago (1963). He is the author of numerous other novels and short stories (some written under pen-names) which have variously been published in hardback, paperback, and ebook editions, in the UK, USA, France and Denmark. He has also run two small publishing companies.
