The author-agent partnership – in loving memory of Scott M. Miller.

Alexandra Sokoloff - Screenwriting Tricks for Authors

My wonderful literary agent of nearly 20 years has exited the earth plane. Happily I believe in soul energy carrying on, because Scott’s was simply the best. Dry, sly, and such a GUY, in the best meaning of the word — in a world being overrun by toxic masculinity, Scott was the epitome of all the good of masculine, without any of the bad. He loved his clients with a fierce protectiveness and said he was happy when publishers hated him because it meant he was doing his job. But I find it hard to believe anyone ever hated that wide-open heart.

Hanging out with him was always a highlight of conferences like Thrillerfest and Bouchercon. He was surrounded by clients who are as much fun as he is and authors, editors, publicists, marketers, who just liked being around him. In Scotland and Ireland they use the word “craic” – more than just great conversation – he was a cracking good time. Early on in my author career, during some late-night festival revelry, Scott challenged a bestselling debut and a publishing exec to jump into an ice-cold lake with him — and then stood back on the ledge while the other two jumped. Let me tell you - THAT’S someone you want making your deals for you.

He kept working to his own standards of excellence up to the very end, setting our new series up in a great deal with our new publishers. That parting gift was pure Scott. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him but I also know he’ll always be with me.

My heartfelt sympathy goes to his family – he loved you all with all his heart and I have not the slightest doubt he’ll be looking after you. Thank you for sharing him.

Photo by Katie McBroom on Unsplash

I had written a different post for this week, but with Scott so much in my mind right now, I can address some of those topics in the context of agents.

It’s common (maybe I mean old-school) to call the agent-author or agent-screenwriter relationship a marriage. Partnership is probably a better word — but that is the very long term relationship I’ve had with both my literary agent and my film agent.

I want all good writers to experience the professional rewards and personal joys of that kind of relationship. (To be clear, by “good” I mean morally good. Immoral writers should get treatment for their issues.)

In that other post I wrote I was laying out concerns I have, or maybe I mean alarm, seeing several writers in a row looking at or jumping into alternative ways of publishing before they’ve even tried the traditional route that goes like this:

Find an agent - Submit to editors – Get publishing deal – Build a career

There are obvious financial and career benefits of having an agent. The bottom line is

A good agent can very well mean the difference between writing for a living and writing in those spaces between the demands of the day job.

And I’m speaking as someone who has indie published successfully. I would never knock it. I am an advocate of it as a viable alternative to traditional publishing, and it’s something every author should know something about to have in reserve. Also, knowing something about the tactics of indie publishing can also help traditionally published authors boost their sales.

However – much as indie publishing may look like a shortcut, it is unquestionably a harder path. If you are not prepared to do a whole slew of full-time jobs PLUS writing full-time, it is not for you. Throwing a book up on KDP and sitting back expecting it to sell anything is delusional.

The Find an agent - Submit to editors – Get publishing deal – Build a career route takes longer — but has far more probability of an actual writing career.

You don’t know a fraction of what a good agent knows about how to build and sustain a career.

So why would an aspiring author not try to find a literary agent?

There are a few serious errors I see from writers, over and over —

1. Writers not trying for agents, but instead jumping into non-traditional routes out of fear of rejection.

Here are some basic facts.

• You are going to be rejected. It is part of the job description.

• You may have to query a hundred agents, but you don’t need a hundred people to say yes. You only need one good one.

• The better prepared you are to query (prepared meaning you’ve done your research) the better chance you have at connecting with a great agent.

So instead of taking yourself out of the game before you’ve even tried, ask yourself, gently, if it’s just feat that’s keeping you from doing the agent research and sending out queries. I’ll talk more about how to do it in another post (and you can read more in Chapter 51 of Stealing Hollywood ). But first, just acknowledge that fear. And you know what? We ALL have it! That’s no reason for it to stop you.

2. Writers in such a hurry they try to take shortcuts before they’ve even tried the standard path

I’ve touched on writers indie publishing too soon already. Again, indie publishing is always there as an option. But to go straight there just for the instant rush of having a book out there is a really, really bad business decision. And writing for a living is absolutely a business.

Another tactical mistake I see inexperienced writers making (over and over and over again) is

3. Writers submitting to an individual editor or two before they even try querying agents.

Why? Why?

There are hundreds of editors out there and you don’t know anything about which of them are the best candidates for your book or the best way to approach them. That’s what an agent is for.

A huge part of your agent’s job is to know editors. To know which editor at what house and each imprint is looking for what kind of a book— know each editor's taste intimately, so that your agent can submit to exactly the right editor at each publishing company and put you and your book in the position of making the best possible deal available on the planet at that moment.

And you might be thinking, Well, that might have worked twenty years ago but with publishing house consolidation, etc., not any more.

You’re wrong.

IT DOES WORK. I see it working. I go to book festivals and writing conferences. I’m in various writer organizations. New writers are still getting book deals every day, in the same way that writers have been doing it for decades.

4. An irrational hatred of “gatekeepers.”

I am not going to pretend that there wasn’t a bias toward white cis male authors at publishing companies in the past. Just like there was at EVERY company in every sector. But despite the current administration’s best efforts to roll back the clock to the Middle Ages, times have changed considerably in publishing.

Bias still exists, and finding a large audience for your non-white non-cis male characters and themes could be one of the best reasons for ultimately going indie.

But the gatekeepers really aren’t there to keep you out. Mostly, they’re sorting projects looking for a basic standard of competence! Before I sold my own first film script I was a reader for production companies and mini-majors in Hollywood and I cannot tell you the level of sheer drivel that gets submitted. Without gatekeepers to weed out the obviously hopeless submissions there would be no film or book business at all. You do not want those submissions cluttering up your own chances of being read, by agents, editors or the readers trying to sort through the dreck to find YOU.

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

5. Only making a couple of submissions and waiting to hear for months or years hoping they’ll pan out.

Sometimes this is laziness. Often it’s fear. Mostly I think it’s exhaustion.

Look, I get it. After the Herculean journey of writing a book to begin with, the agent search seems like an unconquerable mountain.

You may have to submit to dozens of agents before you get a partial request from even one of them. Some people have submitted to over a hundred.

But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every submission. This is something that really can be done in bulk. Once you’ve got your submission packet together, you can tailor it to individual agents, but that’s just tweaking.

And there are ways to improve your chances of connecting with an agent – going to book festivals and conferences in your genre is one of the best. I’ll link to another previous post on working a conference for agent connections – or if I can’t find it, I’ll incorporate it into my next agent post.

You can make this writing thing work in a lot of different ways. But the traditional path is a path for a reason.

Is it easy? No. Is it instant? No. Is it guaranteed? No.

But to reject even trying that route because you’re afraid, or you want everything right now, or you think you’re going to somehow stick it to “the gatekeepers” — is really shooting yourself in the foot, or outright dooming yourself to failure.

I’m not saying you have to go traditional. I’m saying – before you decide, get still with yourself and check your motivation, what’s driving you. If it’s fear, please don’t abandon the path you’re afraid of! Acknowledge that we’re all afraid – and do it anyway.

If it’s impatience, acknowledge that we’re all impatient – and remind yourself that planning will build you a much better career in the long run.

And I sincerely hope your perfect agent will be there planning that career with you.

• Alex

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