When New Isn’t Better: The Value of Experience
By Victoria Strauss | October 28, 2022 |
“Everyone has to start somewhere.”
It’s a familiar truism. And like most truisms, it states a fact so self-evident that there’s no need to really think about it. There’s no start without a starting point, right?
Too often, however, it’s used to dismiss or excuse a lack of skill or training or experience or some other important qualification for doing something that requires expertise.
Because “starting” doesn’t necessarily mean starting from zero. If you start your own law practice, you’ve presumably gone to law school and passed the bar. If you start your own contracting firm, you’ve hopefully apprenticed and/or worked with other builders. If you start your own real estate agency, you’ve taken courses and obtained a license.
Non-zero starting points are just as important for new literary agents and publishers. This may seem obvious—but it’s a fact that writers too often ignore.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE
Working as a literary agent, or running a publisher, is not an entry-level job. These are complicated, challenging professions that demand specialized knowledge and expertise—not just because skill is needed for success, but because the publishing industry is weird and opaque and clubby and really, really difficult to figure out from outside.
An agent needs—at a minimum–to have contacts at publishing houses and an understanding of publishing contract terms, as well as a nose for marketable manuscripts (not as easy as it sounds). A publisher must—also at a minimum—understand editing and marketing, know how books are acquired and distributed, be capable of creating a fair contract, be able to hire qualified staff–and, just as important, have a business plan.
Such skills don’t come out of the blue. They’re best acquired through training at a reputable agency, or working in publishing in some capacity. Because there are no licensing or educational requirements for literary agents, however, and the easy availability of digital publishing technology makes starting a publisher as simple as setting up an Ingram Spark account, anyone can become an agent or a publisher…even if they have absolutely no qualifications for doing so.
Inexperienced agents and publishers often have unrealistic ideas about what it takes to succeed. They may believe that a love of books and writing is enough to bridge the knowledge gap, or that the scars of a previous bad publishing experience will empower them to do better. They may imagine that publishing is a fun side hustle they can do in their spare time, or that a career in corporate sales gives them skills transferable to agenting. They may not realize the importance of a business plan, and assume it’s okay to skip the prep work—to just jump in and learn as they go.
That’s not to say they don’t have the best intentions. Frequently, they do. But without professional skills and experience, they are at a significant disadvantage, and face a high risk of failure in an extremely competitive industry that’s precarious even for people with substantial credentials.
THE PRICE OF INEXPERIENCE
Brand-new agents and publishers still building their lists offer the possibility of access, in an industry where access is highly restricted and competitive. Along with hope, dreams, and the frustrations of the query process, it’s one of the main reasons why so many writers are willing to give unqualified people a pass.
Failure isn’t the only thing you’re risking when you sign with an inexperienced agent or publisher. Thanks to their lack of knowledge, they’re more likely to have odd or nonstandard business practices (such as fee-charging or cost-sharing), or to create author-unfriendly contracts, or to hire unqualified editors, or to have poor accounting.
Your inexperienced agent may submit your work to undesirable publishers or fail to negotiate problem contract clauses—or be unable to make any sales at all. Your unskilled publisher may miss work deadlines and pub dates, publish books with formatting errors, be unable to retain staff, or just be overwhelmed by the logistics of running a business where schedules have to be met and payments made on time. There’s a higher likelihood of unprofessional behavior–bullying, ghosting, retaliation–especially toward writers who report problems or demand accountability. The line between personal and professional may become seriously blurred.
Writer Beware’s files are filled with such stories. A few examples:
- The resume of Pigeon House Literary’s founder included no agenting or publishing experience or training whatsoever. Despite that, and an unbelievably unprofessional website, she set about recruiting clients via Twitter pitch events. Over a year later, she had yet to make a single sale—but she was still recruiting.
- City Limits Publishing, established by an individual with a history of business failure whose sole publishing experience was a handful of self-published books, closed down after just over a year amid a blizzard of author complaints, including misrepresentation and gaslighting. Authors were left with royalties unpaid, their books still available for sale on Amazon, and no way to reach the publisher.
- The founder of Entranced Publishing had no publishing credentials when she started the company. Initially things seemed fine…but within a few months, editors started leaving and writers began reporting payment and other problems. Less than a year after release of Entranced’s first titles, writers learned that the company had been sold—to another individual with no publishing experience. A few weeks later, the new owner closed Entranced down.
- Helmed by a CEO with no professional publishing background, Hurn Publishing quickly ran into trouble: late payments, books published with errors, and more. A year after startup, the company abruptly went out of business. The CEO then went radio-silent. Several months later, authors were still waiting to be paid.
- Yet more examples, along with a discussion of why small publishers fail, can be found here.
DUE DILIGENCE
Before rushing out a query to that new agent who liked your pitch on #PitMad, or submitting to that startup publisher that just put out a call for manuscripts, it’s a very good idea to take a pause, and do some investigating to make sure they’re qualified to perform.
What should you look for? Ideally, training or work history at a (reputable) agency, or a position in the traditional publishing industry as an editor, sales rep, publicist, etc. Look for longevity: a three-month internship, for instance, isn’t enough time for comprehensive learning. Specifics are important: the name of the agency or publisher, the exact job title. Claims like “Agent X worked as an associate agent at three premier New York agencies before starting their own agency” are worthless unless you can confirm them.
Less certain, but possibly transferrable skills might include years of experience as a bookseller or bookstore buyer, a professional writer with Big 5 publishing credits (for agents), or graduation from a publishing course (for publishers–though keep in mind that many of these courses are geared to entry-level skills,and such learning is mostly theoretical).
Not useful, at least on their own: an English degree or an MFA in creative writing (neither of these provide publishing industry contacts or business skills). Freelance editing (unless the person has worked with major publishers). A history of self-publishing (publishing yourself is very different from publishing others). A career in corporate marketing or sales (book and manuscript sales require a very different sort of selling). A passion for books and writing (a great motivation—but not a sufficient starting point).
This information should be easily findable on the agent’s or publisher’s website. Be wary if it’s not, or if it’s too vague to verify. LinkedIn can be helpful if the agent or publisher has a profile (sometimes because it helps to unpack inflated claims).
And if the agency or publisher is a black box, with no staff information at all, it may be best to move on.
IN CLOSING…
There are no guarantees, of course. Highly-qualified agents and publishers fail. Inexperienced agents and publishers sometimes learn, grow, and do right by their authors.
But as in any expert profession, you are best served by someone who has the skills to do the job. Signing with an agent or publisher who is starting from zero is basically volunteering to be a guinea pig while they attempt to learn on the fly. Publishers and agents who fail, fail themselves–but they also fail their authors. And that can do considerable damage to careers and finances–not to mention, waste one of a writer’s most precious resources: time.
Have you had an experience with an inexperienced agent or publisher? How did it turn out? Do you have any research tips to share?
Victoria Strauss is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including the WAY OF ARATA epic fantasy duology (THE BURNING LAND and THE AWAKENED CITY) and PASSION BLUE and COLOR SONG, a pair of historical novels for teens. In addition, she’s written a handful of short stories, hundreds of book reviews, and a number of articles on writing and publishing that have appeared in Writer’s Digest, among others. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
She is the co-founder, with Ann Crispin, of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group that provides information and warnings about the many scams and schemes that threaten writers. She received the Service to SFWA Award in 2009 for her work with Writer Beware.
She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Another great, crystal-clear post. Thank you!
Hello Victoria, and thanks for your real-world post. You perfectly lay out the Catch-22 facing writers looking for agents. The experienced agents already have a solid client list and aren’t interested in untested writers. Why would they be interested? The new agents have few if any contacts or experience in the business. Their grateful clients are essentially crash dummies being used in R&D training exercises. Often, the throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks technique is used: send out to many editors, in hopes something positive will happen. I’ve been down this road with two agents. Of course I was delighted to be taken on–until it became evident that these people weren’t able to do me any good.
Thanks again. As I said last week in a comment to another WU writer, it’s always better to know than to not know.
Hi, Barry,
I absolutely get how hard it is, and I don’t want to diminish that. But honestly, no experienced agent worth their salt would refuse to consider a marketable manuscript just because the writer hadn’t yet been published. To use another truism like the one that started my post, every successful author was once an untested newbie, until an agent and/or a publisher took a chance on them. Every agent is dying to discover someone like that, believe me. Old writers retire, die, or flame out; new writers keep the industry moving. Again, I don’t want to minimize how tough and frustrating and sometimes depressing the query-and-submit process can be. But never think that you can’t query an experienced, successful agent just because you haven’t published anything yet.
I will risk being pegged as a grumpy old man by answering your comment. Many times I have heard or read about how anxious successful agents are to find new writers, replacements for their aging stable of writers. But if you are suggesting that successful agents are combing through piles of email queries or the forms required by many agencies, you lose cred with me. If you say successful agents will listen to one of their successful clients who’s enthusiastic about a writer the client knows and likes, and the agent then takes a look, I believe you. The only other possibility is someone who has ginned up a massive social-media presence, a list of followers who are good bets to buy a book when it comes out. Since publishers now require authors to be their own Mad Men and publicists, learning that an unknown has such a following will be of interest.
I won’t try to change your mind. I’ll just say that successful agents may not always read their queries themselves–they may have assistants do it–but any good agency _will_ trawl through its query pile, and never having published before is not a criteria for tossing a good query aside. If it were, debut authors would never get published by the big houses–and they do, all the time.
I was an assistant to the president of a NY literary agency, and one of my jobs was to plow through queries. So yes, it’s real.
All very true, but slightly depressing first thing in the morning.
The hardest part of all of this is having a good agent, a well-known agent like your work and then reject it. Happened to me with three agents. So many writers have found other ways to get their work published….but these reminders are always good ones. But as Michael wrote, depressing. Maybe that’s why I again keep putting off that next step.
Don’t give up. I was very fortunate to find a talented, well-connected literary agent about 12 years ago. My agent is a bastion of knowledge and correct advice about being published. She has connected me with several outstanding publishers in recent years, including one in Europe that will make my author career notable everywhere. Like any other profession, there are good and bad agents. But understand this; literary agents are your key to unlock the pathway to the best and largest publishers in the world. If you aspire to become published by Penguin Harpercollins or SImon & Schuster, then you’ll need to find and acquire an agent who works with their acquisition editors. She taught me how to write a winning publishing proposal. It’s very detailed and specific. I detail this in my writing blog at https://cweinblatt.wordpress.com/. There is no other way to achieve this type of success. So, be what they want. Be a several-times published author who has the best reviews from the most relevant organizations in those genres. Knock their socks off when you have a chance to interact with them. Rinse & repeat. It’s always an ongoing process. If you write fiction, your author profile (everything positive that appears when someone decides to Google your name) is your ticket to such powerful authors and to acquire the best agents. Good luck!
You know I have experience with this. I learned a BIG lesson!
I was following that situation and then stopped. Is that “agent” still going? I can’t even remember the name they were under.
Nothing to share, I’m afraid, except gratitude for your vigilance, education, and cautions. I’m a newbie with a book I’m optimistic about, so, for me, your timing couldn’t be better. Please keep doing what you’re doing. Without it, I’m not sure I could take care of myself.
When looking at new agents (or an agency) how much apprentice experience and how many book sales would be acceptable?
Hi, Felicity,
I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules here, and someone else might give you a different answer. But on apprentice experience, I’d say at least a year. The ideal apprentice situation is someone who has been training or apprenticing at an agency for a year and is being promoted to junior agent; they’ll not only have had the time to learn, they’ll be in a familiar work environment and have the expertise and contacts of the more established agents to call on.
As to book sales, the AALA used to require agents to have been in business for at least two years, and to have made at least 10 sales, in order to join. Now, they have tiered memberships based on the amount of time worked as a literary agent. I still think the two years/10 sales benchmark is a good one, but the size of the agency and the number of clients the agent has do factor in: fewer clients, fewer sales. An agent with 5 or 6 clients might make just two sales a year. On the other hand, if the agent has 30 clients and is averaging two sales a year, that’s not great.
Time is an important factor too. As a general rule of thumb, a new agent should start making sales within a year of starting up; longer than that suggests problems, such as a lack of contacts or making poor client choices.
Membership in AALA means at least a minimum number of years working as an agent with a track record of real verified deals. It’s kind of the gold standard, would you agree Victoria?
The Publisher’s Marketplace deal database is also a trove of information of which agents are actually selling and to whom.
None of that is to say that any given agent is the right match but at least it’s a starting point to find the experience one wants. Good advice.
Hi, Don,
I do agree–experience and sales are the gold standard. I just checked the AALA’s membership requirements, though, and they’re now just demanding a certain number of years working as an agent, and the membership questionnaire doesn’t mention sales at all. Maybe assuming that if you’ve been an agent for five years you’ll definitely have made some sales?
But this is not a safe assumption. I can think of at least one person who has worked for several agencies over more than five years and has never made a sale; they are currently helming their own agency. Others have been agenting for several years but have only a handful of sales and/or sales only to non-advance-paying publishers. I know that the AALA is trying to be more flexible and inclusive to move with the times, but IMO and FWIW, years of experience alone are not enough to show competence.
I think my earlier comment vanished. I just wanted to tell you I love every word of this and think it’s spot-on–and I’d add that its principles apply also to hiring any industry pro, like editors or designers. These are skills that take time and experience to develop. I will be sharing this post in my FoxPrint newsletter.
I appreciate all you do to shine a light into the dark corners of the industry, Victoria, and help authors make careful, informed choices for their careers.
Hi, Tiffany,
Thanks for the kind words! They’re much appreciated.
I absolutely agree that the same principles apply to hiring other industry folks–editors in particular. There are _so_ many underqualified editors out there; I don’t hear about them as often as I do about underqualified agents and publishers, but I’ve heard from writers who’ve lost a lot of money on bad edits.
I probably should have mentioned this in my article, but the Writer Beware website (as distinct from the WB blog) has detailed pages on agents, publishers, and editors that include tips on vetting as well as warning signs of bad practice.
I have had you and Writer Beware as a recommendation on the Resources page of my FoxPrint Editorial website for years, for this very reason. :) Thanks for all you do for authors.
Everyone mentions the self publishing companies that are scams but I’d be interested in a list of those that are legit.