Agent Agony

SHOULD I GET AN AGENT FOR MY BOOK?

I’d always thought I didn’t need an agent. I could negotiate directly with publishers myself and get as good a deal as they would AND then not lose 15% to them. However now that it’s not easy I’m beginning to wonder if I should revise my opinion. It would be nice to hand the manuscript over, say ‘here you deal with it, get me something fat and juicy.’ It would also be nice to have a bit of a champion, someone who might encourage me, tell me I’m fabulous, doing important work, making a difference to world. Every writer needs that and frankly I don’t think I hear it nearly enough. It would also be lovely to have someone standing by the queue of people at writers’ festivals as you are signing books putting post it notes with the correct spelling of the person’s name on each book. Some agents even do that.

HOWEVER, looking at the website of the two big literary agent companies in Australia it doesn’t seem like you’d get that. Have look and let me me know which you’d go with.

They’re all pretty scary and dictatorial in what they are NOT accepting.

Australian Literary Management (this one I imagine people crawling on their hands and knees. Sample pages burst into flame as they approach with anything even vaguely resembling a forbidden submission

Curtis Brown: their website isn’t too unfriendly. I think you’d get the ‘we loved it, but we didn’t love it enough’ approach.

Cameron Creswell - clearly thousands upon thousands of manuscripts have blocked the hallway they have been trapped in inside for 6 months and have to have food tossed in a first storey window. Poor things.

My chances?

I’m current writer with three well received adult novels with a ready audience of around 8 or 9000 and 4 children’s books under my belt with another kids book in production. Surely someone will take me on? I think I’m more scared of these agents than the publishers.

What now

I’ll be phoning Andy the ex-publicist at Hachette who’s a friend and pretty fantastic, for his opinion and recommendation. Also the wonderful, if horribly overworked, publishing editor at ABC Kids, Belinda for her advice.