This article is copyright. Reproduction and distribution specifically prohibited. All rights reserved. © 2000 by Michael Chesley Johnson
Books reviewed in this article:
Times have changed, haven't they? It wasn't so long ago that you, the unpublished novelist, could have marched into any editor's office, plunked down the fruit of your labors, and that editor would have read at least a few pages, and cheerfully, too. But you know this already. You don't need me to tell you that, these days, editors with most big-time publishers are simply too busy to touch an unagented submission.
But times have changed more drastically than you think. Getting an agent is now almost as tough as getting an editor to peek at that first page. Many agents have full client lists, and those who can take on new clients may receive upward of a thousand queries a month from writers like you.
Well, if agents are too busy to sample your wares -- how will you ever get one?
That's where New York literary agent Lori Perkins steps in. With fifteen years of experience as an agent -- she's a founding partner of Perkins, Rubie and Associates, which represents 150 authors and has foreign representations in 11 countries -- she is street-smart.
But Perkins isn't just an agent. She's a writer, too. In her efforts to sell her own work, she has grown to sympathize with other struggling writers. To help them out, she has written The Insider's Guide to Getting an Agent. It's for beginning writers who want to put their work into the right hands.
In her prologue, Perkins says her book is a "guerilla guide to getting published, a sort of no-holds-barred look at the inner workings of the publishing industry, a naked literary lunch." Indeed, with every vivid, personal insight -- and the book is peppered with them -- you can almost hear her whispering, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but...."
Handling her material clearly and concisely, she first scopes out the landscape for the writer on the prowl for an agent. She talks about the changing publishing industry and how the role of the agent is changing with it; the different kinds of agents and what one really does; and the business behind publishing lunches. Next, she digs into the nitty-gritty. She talks about researching the field, how to write killer queries, and, once you've snared your agent, how to keep him.
The Insider's Guide to Getting an Agent is somewhat misnamed, because only half of the book really deals with getting an agent. The rest of it deals with what happens afterward: The first sale and the related issues of deal-making, contracts and royalties; writing the first book (a chapter curiously out of place, since you should have written the book before you go looking for an agent); subsidiary rights and publicity; and finally, on to building a career. Still, as Perkins notes, how all of this pans out depends on what kind of agent you get in the first place.
Many books for beginning writers are strong on inspiration but weak on details, especially when it comes to the business end of things. Here, Perkins introduces all the terms a beginner will need for understanding the complications of accounting. She even brings in the newest terms that publishers are apt to spring on a writer. For example, "joint accounting" -- also known as "basketing," or the practice of considering multiple books as a single entity when it comes to earning out advances -- is something you don't see talked about much in the other books, but Perkins makes sure you know what this snake looks like. (And it is a vicious one.)
To be sure, the book has some flaws that may confuse the novice. For example, she doesn't define "royalty" -- is that a percentage of the profits or a percentage of the retail price? (It's the latter.) In a list of organizations she gives, "SFWA" is expanded to "Science Fiction Writers of America," not "Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America," which is what it became a few years ago. But most of these problems are minor, and a writer's agent will set him straight on the proper definition of "royalty."
To finish, she gives the writer a set of appendices. Curious to know what sort of terms are negotiable in a contract? Look at the checklist she takes to the table when she closes a deal. Need to know how to write that novel proposal? Study one that a client of hers actually used. All of this rounds off the book into a reference work that will be useful not only for beginners but for old hands as well.
A companion volume to Perkins' book is the 2000 Guide to Literary Agents, which lists more than 500 literary and script agents. For each agency, the book details the names of member agents, what genres the agency represents, contact information, current needs, recent sales, contract terms and any conferences that the agents regularly attend. The book also codes the listings for how open the agency is to working with new clients, if the contact information has changed since the previous edition, and whether it charges reading fees.
Reading fees are a hot topic these days. Most professional writers look down on agents who charge reading fees; as they say, "money always flows toward the writer." The bylaws of the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR), a much respected organization in the industry, states that its members cannot charge reading fees. The 2000 Guide does include fee-charging agents in its listings, but it shoves these agents into their own section with plenty of warning flags. If you're a writer looking for an agent, by the time you get to this particular list, you will be well aware of what you're getting into.
The book organizes agents in other ways that the writer will find convenient. Want to see what agents are in your state? There's a geographical listing. Want to see what agents handle science fiction? There's a genre listing. Know the name of an agent but don't know what agency she works for? There's a listing of member agents that will tell you that. For these kinds of categorizations, this book is the next best thing to an on-line searchable database. (Maybe Writer's Digest will come up with that next year.)
This isn't just a book of lists, however. Shuffled into it are articles by well-known agents on topics such as what an agent looks for in a client. Also included are testimonials from authors and screenwriters on how agents helped them get to where they are today. It's even got the AAR Checklist for Authors, which is something you'll want to have by the phone when you start courting your prospective agent.
This book tries to be comprehensive and up-to-date, but there are a few holes. For example, in its listing of writer's conferences, you'll find Clarion West but not the original Clarion, both of which are top-notch science fiction workshops and still running strong. And strangely, in the listing of resource books, you won't find Perkins' Insider's Guide -- even though both her book and the 2000 Guide come from Writer's Digest Books. One article from her book is actually excerpted here.
In today's market, no guide is going to be one-hundred-percent current. Publishing houses merge, editors get the pink slip, e-mail addresses change. Nevertheless, this book is an excellent resource for any writer who wants to do as Perkins says and get his work into the right hands.
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