Do You Really Need a Literary Agent?

Many writers ask whether they need a literary agent. It truly depends on your unique circumstances – and the quality of the agent. And it is much more important for an author in the US and UK to have representation than it is in Canada or Australia. This is partly a reflection of the market size and also partly a reflection of culture.
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Don't Send the Manuscript

Sending your (partial) manuscript into the online slush pile is a waste of time. Most writers with a finished manuscript don’t mind too much whether they get an agent before a publisher, or skip straight to the publisher. They just want to see their book out in the bookstores of the world. So the tips that follow apply equally to finding an agent as they do to finding a publisher.

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Research, Research, and Research Even More

There’s a lot of information hiding in plain sight if you know where to look. Start with your own library: what have you read that has something in common with your manuscript – such as genre, subject, historical time period?
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The Imprint page. This is the page at the very beginning of the book that details the publishing house that has produced it. It’s useful to note down the different imprints that belong to the same publishing house. For example, Penguin Random House is the huge behemoth publishing house, but within its universe, you will find imprints such as Viking and Michael Joseph. Familiarise yourself with which books are published under which imprint because these are conscious commercial decisions publishers make. Agents and publishers need to feel that your manuscript would be a great fit with a particular imprint.
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The publisher’s website will contain numerous pages devoted to each of its imprints. Study these to determine which imprint/s your work aligns with. You will be amazed at the education this gives you (or at least the number of fresh questions about the publishing process you’ll have), and at how impressive you will be to a prospective agent or publisher.
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Literary agent website submissions guidelines. I feel this needs to be listed separately because unpublished authors regularly feel free to ignore submission guidelines posted on literary agents’ websites. Those guidelines are there for a reason...
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Find a lot more tips by Virginia Lloyd, a former literary agent:

https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2018/09/13/how-to-research-literary-agents-and-book-publishers/

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Want to License Your Manuscript to a Publisher?

Are you writing a book, trying to get it traditional published?  Want to contract with a publishing house?  Read these articles first: 

“Less than Minimum Wage for Authors?”

“The Traps in Publishing Contracts”

“What Publishers Won’t Tell You”

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Bestselling author Kristine Rusch wrote an eye-opening blog post.  Here are some snippets, however you should read the article in its entirety.

"These “standard” book contracts are horrible.  No writer should sign some of the clauses in these contracts, and no writer should ever consider licensing rights under many of these terms."

"I wrote an entire book three years ago about contract terms writers should avoid. Unfortunately, the book needs updating—not because the terms I mentioned are gone now, but because even WORSE ones have joined them."

"I believe writers should understand what they sign, and walk away from bad contracts. Simply knowing that publishers will negotiate many of these points will help writers in standing up for themselves—without agents, who make the problem worse, generally speaking."

(Agents, who are not lawyers, break the law when they practice law without a license.  In some states, that’s a misdemeanor. In others, it’s a felony. But I digress.)

"Writers can hire lawyers to negotiate for them, and believe me when I tell you that the lawyers will do a much better job for the writers who partner with them.  Why do I use the word “partner”? Because I’ve seen some writers completely misunderstand what the lawyers tell them, and make matters worse.  Writers need to understand that contracts are a unit, and changing one clause without changing another will sometimes not make a difference at all."

"Most important of all, writers must understand that they are not selling their books
to publishing companies. Writers are licensing pieces of the book’s copyright."

"If you do not understand that, then get a copy of Nolo Press’s The Copyright Handbook, and read the dang thing.  Then re-read it and reread it and buy the updated version when it comes out, and read that one.  When you work with a lawyer on contract negotiation, make sure you understand the advice you’re given, and make sure you agree with that advice before you take it."

"Conversely, make sure your lawyer understands what you want, so they’re not simply doing what they think is best."

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