All language subtitles for Masterclass N. K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing - 14.How To Find A Literary Agent

[MUSIC PLAYING]

N. K. JEMISIN: The
author-agent relationship

is kind of like a marriage.

It's a professional marriage.

You may have to
divorce that agent

and move on to someone else.

Try and make sure
that this is a person

that you feel okay
having some kind

of professional relationship
with for a very long time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I hear a lot from
beginning writers

that they don't necessarily
want to get an agent.

They've heard that agents
don't do a whole lot of work

and take 15% of your money.

And that's true.

They take 15% of your money.

They do, however, do
a whole lot of work.

Here's the question that
you have to ask yourself.

Do you have close personal
relationships with people

in the publishing industry.

If you do, then you
can be your own agent.

Do you have legal
knowledge that allows

you to look at long,
complex contracts

and find pitfalls or
potential dangers?

Do you have enough insider
knowledge about the book

business that you
understand the dangers

of some of these contracts?

If you understand, for
example, that you'll

make less money if you-- if
you sell worldwide publication

rights to your traditional
publisher versus just selling

North American rights.

So if you have a lot
of insider knowledge,

if you've been in this
business, then, yeah, of course

you can be your own agent.

If you don't have
that knowledge,

if you, like me, are a former
career counselor [LAUGHS] who's

trying to get your
book out there,

and no, you don't
speak legalese,

and somebody hands you
a 25-page contract,

and no, you don't
know how to read it,

then no, you probably
shouldn't be your own agent.

I mean, yes, my first contract
was actually 35 pages.

But anyway.

[LAUGHS]

So here's what an agent does.

Agents are professionals who
have been in this business.

They've either worked as
publishers themselves,

or they've worked with an
agency for a long time, gotten

to know lots of publishers,
editors, agents,

and they can go out and have
conversations with these people

and hand them a book.

And the editor for
that publishing house

is going to know, based on
that person's reputation, based

on the fact that they know
and respect that person,

they're going to know that this
book that they're being handed

is worth their time.

Now, whether they buy it or
not is a completely subjective

matter on that editor's part.

But they'll at least know
that it's worth the time

that it takes to read it.

Publishers these days don't do
slush piles, for the most part.

Slush piles, for
those who don't know,

are what they used to call
the piles of manuscripts

that publishing houses would
take in as they were looking

for new talent to publish.

That's a thing that used to
happen maybe 30, 40 years ago.

It's not common now.

And that's partly because
the slush pile wasn't really

a good return on investment
of time for publishers.

It took years, in some cases,
to get through the slush piles.

And in the time
that it took them

to read all of
these-- these pieces

and decide which ones
might be worth publication,

a lot of times, publishers would
miss a potentially really good

book because it would
be sold to someone else.

So the agent is a way to
not have that slush pile.

The agent is effectively
the slush pile these days.

And the agent not
only gets your book

in front of that publisher, but
they negotiate on your behalf

when the publisher decides
that they like that book.

If you're very lucky, your
book will go to auction.

You'll have more than
one publisher interested,

and the agent's job is
to manage that auction.

They will approach
each publisher,

get those publishers'
offers, you know,

approach other publishers
and see if maybe they

want to get in on this.

And ultimately, they'll help
you navigate that whole process.

They will read your
contract for you.

They will warn you
about potential pitfalls

in that contract.

They will tell you things
that you should hold out for

or things that you
shouldn't sign.

And ultimately, at
the end of the day,

they earned that 15% by keeping
you from getting scammed.

[LAUGHS] They keep
you from getting

taken advantage of by
people who understand

this business a lot better
than you ever could.

So I think it's worth it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's a number
of different ways

that you can use to
find a good agent.

I mean, it's important
that you find a good agent.

There are many, many
agents out there.

Anybody that wants to
can set out their shingle

and declare themselves an agent.

And a lot of scammers
do so, because there's

a sucker born every
minute, and an author who

is hungry to be published,
hungry for fame,

is potentially a really good
sucker that they can exploit.

so you've got to be
careful out there.

One of the things that you want
to do is look at the authors

that you like.

Look at the people who
are publishing books,

who have recently published
books with publishers that you

like, writing material
that you like.

Find out who those
people's agents are.

Find out who sold those
books to which publisher.

And then right then
and there, you've

got a set of potential
agents to query.

You want to check those
agents' names, though,

against one of several
different databases

and resources out there that can
help you identify scam agents.

In the science fiction
and fantasy field,

there's Writer Beware,
which is sponsored

by the Science Fiction and
Fantasy Writers of America.

You can read about scams
that have occurred recently,

and that can
hopefully help you--

help keep you from being
scammed in the same way.

You can read about common
scams and common scammers,

so you can compare
their name, the names

of the agents that
you're interested in,

against the agents that are--
are a little questionable,

and then maybe learn
to stay away from that.

You can also find
agents by going

to either a pitch contest or a
pitch conference or something

like that.

For those kinds
of opportunities,

you're actually
paying to get yourself

in front of potential agents.

With a pitch conference,
you pay to get in,

but you have the
chance to go and give

a pitch about your book.

That's a 30-second, brief
description of the book.

We'll talk about
pitches in a minute.

[LAUGHS] But that's a brief
description of your book.

And you get the chance to go and
sit down in front of an agent

and pitch your book
at them, and see

if they're interested
and are willing to ask

for the manuscript
based on that.

You can also do a kind of
pitch conference online.

It's become fairly popular
in recent years to do.

#PitMAD is-- is the
most popular one.

But there are different
pitch contests

that happen on Twitter, where
you tweet out your pitch.

[LAUGHS] And if it fits within
a tweet, then it's pitch length.

And you just hashtag it with
that particular #PitMAD,

or whatever the
pitch contest is.

And agents will
watch that hashtag.

If they see something
interesting,

they'll reach out and
ask you for a manuscript.

So some things to
consider in deciding

whether to approach an agent.

First and foremost, you need
to have a completed book.

You may have heard that it's
possible to sell a book based

on an outline.

No.

Not if you're a
beginning writer.

In non-fiction,
sometimes that happens,

and so that's where some of
that information is coming from.

But in the fiction
world, you need

to have a completed
manuscript before you even

attempt to approach an agent.

Ideally, you may have
a completed manuscript

and a few other manuscripts
that are kind of in progress.

Because a lot of times,
when you approach an agent,

they'll ask you not just about
that one particular book,

but they want to know, like,
what all that you've produced

and--

and all of the books
that you may eventually

be able to-- to be agented on.

Another thing that you want
to kind of keep in mind when

you're approaching
an agent is that it's

a business relationship.

You are approaching that
agent in the same way

that you would a
potential employer.

You're not going
to work for them.

It's actually the
other way around.

They're going to work for you.

But you still approach
them and greet them

in the same kind of
way that you would

in establishing any new,
professional relationship.

So you can approach them
in professional workplaces,

like science fiction and
fantasy writers conferences.

You introduce yourself.

You shake hands.

You explain who you
are and what you want.

And then you can have a
conversation where maybe you'll

be given the chance
to do your pitch.

You can actually approach agents
in electronic or mail form too.

That's actually how
I found my agent.

When I decided to
look for an agent,

it was like the mid '90s, kind
of before the internet was

the-- the main way to do things.

First, I sourced
potential agents

by looking at my
favorite authors

and seeing who had
sold books recently

in two publishers that
I was interested in.

I acquired an
industry newspaper,

"Locus," for science
fiction and fantasy.

Every genre of fiction tends
to have its own industry

mechanism.

So I used "Locus"
magazine to find

listings of agents who had sold
books by particular authors

to particular
publishers recently,

which told me agents who were
active in the moment, agents

who were connected to the
publishers I was interested in,

agents whose tastes
ran to the kind of work

I like to read and
hopefully write.

So that gave me an
idea of who that base

set of potential agents was.

I checked them
against Writer Beware

and other scam-checking
operations.

And then I sent queries
to all of those agents.

Now, to find out what the
agent wants in a query,

you just simply go
to their website.

They all have websites.

Go to their website.

Find out what
they're looking for.

And then give them what
they're looking for.

If the agent says they want just
a cover letter and a synopsis,

do not send them the
whole manuscript.

You've let that agent
know at that point

that you can't
follow directions,

and you aren't
listening to them.

They don't want to
work with somebody

who isn't going to do that.

So if they say send the
whole manuscript, do that.

But most agents aren't going
to ask for the manuscript

up front.

They're going to do a
little bit of testing just

to make sure that you are
paying attention, basically.

So they're going to
say what they want,

a synopsis, maybe a list
of all your projects,

maybe an outline, and you
send them what they want.

Then at that point,
after the agent's

had a chance to review it, then
the agent will get back to you

and ask you for
maybe something more.

Maybe they want to sample
the first few chapters.

Maybe they want the
whole manuscript.

Maybe they just want to talk
to you a little bit more

and-- and kind of suss
out whether you're

somebody that they
want to work with,

and then they'll ask
for the manuscript.

But at the end of the--
the whole process,

you want them to ask
for your manuscript.

When they do that, then you
can send them the manuscript.

And make sure that you
make it clear that you only

are sending that manuscript
exclusively to them

for a limited period of time.

Here's the thing.

Most agents don't want you
to query multiple agents

at the same time.

That's because if they're
a little slow on the take,

but then they finally
do get around to it,

they may have expended
the effort of reading

a whole manuscript, but
only to find out at the end

that you've already sold that
manuscript to somebody else.

So to save them that
effort, you send them

the manuscript
exclusively, but you

say for one month, or for three
months, or something like that.

I am happy to share this
manuscript with you.

I am going to exclusively
send it to you for one month.

At the end of that
month, please let

me know if you
would like more time

or if I should send
this to other agents.

That's just polite.

I have mentioned at
this point that agents

will ask for certain things.

There are formats
to these things,

so you want to go and look
at a resource like SFWA.org,

S-F-W-A dot org, and other
writing organizations,

which often are going to have
resources on how to write

a cover letter, a
synopsis, an outline,

all of the things that
agents typically ask for.

How to properly format a novel.

Some agents really
care about what

font you use as you're
putting a novel together.

Some don't.

Some really care
that you are going

to use a particular
typing style,

with the period and the two
spaces after each sentence.

Some don't.

But at the end of
the day, you need

to make sure that you're giving
the agent what they want.

So go look at that.

Go look at those resources.

Figure out how to do it right.

Format your work, and
then send it forth.

For each genre of--

of published fiction
out there, there

are agents who choose
to specialize in that.

Very few agents are-- are
Jack-of-all-trade agents who

can do everything.

Some agents even represent
only certain formats.

So there used to
be, back in the day,

when short fiction
made more money,

there used to be agents who
did nothing but short fiction.

These days, most agents don't
do short fiction at all.

Some will.

But, you know, there
are agents that

choose to specialize in romance
or science fiction or mystery,

nonfiction--

that's a whole other field--

and so forth.

So you want to find agents
who have that expertise.

The reason they
specialize like that

is partly because
they just like it,

but also partly because their--

their personal connections
and experiences

are going to be in
that particular genre.

They've either worked in a
publishing house in that genre,

or they are friends with
other editors in that genre.

They've been representing
other authors in that genre,

and they've got a whole
stable of big names

that will help them
get a foot in the door.

They're all good
reasons for that.

It's important to remember that
the author-agent relationship

is kind of like a marriage.

It's a professional marriage.

And an important
thing to remember

is that if you get an
agent, and that agent

sells a book for
you, that agent takes

a cut of that book
sales for life,

because that agent
is part of the reason

that that book is
out there, published.

Even if you no longer
work with that agent,

even if you fire that agent
and move to a different agency,

that agent continues to get
a cut of that particular sale

until that book is out of print.

So it's kind of like marrying
someone and having kids,

and you continue to have to
have a relationship with them,

because you've got kids
together even after you divorce.

So try and, like, go
into this [LAUGHS]

as carefully as you can.

You may not always get along
with your-- your agent forever.

You may have to
divorce that agent

and move on to someone else.

But at least, you
know, try and make

sure that this is
a person that you

feel okay having some kind
of professional relationship

with for a very long time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The pitch.

The pitch is you giving a
very brief, hopefully hooky,

description of your work
to another person in order

to hopefully catch
their attention

and make them want more.

And a lot of times, people
call this an elevator pitch,

because you're supposed
to visualize yourself

in an elevator with a
person who has the power

to publish your book.

For 30 seconds, you're going
down from the fifth floor

to the first floor, and
you've got that much time

to make a positive impression.

So just as you would
in an elevator,

you let them know who you are.

You let them know anything
relevant about your background

that they may need to know,
like I'm a published author who

is moving away
from my old agent,

but I won a bunch of awards,
and I'm looking for a new agent

now.

That's relevant.

Or I'm a new author
who is thinking

about trying to get published
by one of the-- the big name

publishers in New York, and
I hear that you're an agent.

May I give you my--

my pitch.

And so you first tell them
who you are and what you want,

and then you launch into
talking about the book.

And you want to make it-- very
much like with a short story,

you want to have
a good hook that

keeps your audience interested
and makes them want more.

So there's one sentence
in there that you--

you are going to have
to do some word smithing

on for a while in
order to make sure

that it's a really good,
attention-getting, interesting

sentence.

That sentence talks about
who your protagonist is,

what your protagonist's
conflict is,

and how they're going
to have to resolve it.

And you've got 30 seconds,
so you really only

have time for maybe
three or four sentences.

So you make them
really good ones.

At the end of that, you
ask for what you want.

You say, I would like to
send you my manuscript,

or I would like to send you
more information about this.

How can I do that.

Can I get a business card.

Something.

At the end of it, you
ask for something,

and hopefully, you get it.

So when you're
giving your pitch,

your pitch needs to sound--

it needs to sound like
you haven't rehearsed it,

even though you probably have.

[LAUGHS] You're
going to rehearse it

because you want to
make sure that it only

lasts for 30 seconds.

You want to make sure
that it's interesting,

so you're going to try and do
it in front of other people.

I mean, you're going
to rehearse it,

but you want it
to sound natural.

So do it until you feel
completely comfortable having

this conversation.

Another thing that
you want to do

when you're giving
this pitch is that you

want to just simply start
with what the book is about,

and that can be
your first sentence.

It's about a
princess who decides

that she wants to hunt dragons,
because dragons constantly

harass princesses, and
she's tired of that,

and so she decides
singlehandedly to become

Xena, Dragon-Eating Princess.

Hunt them all down, eat
them, [LAUGHS] as they would

once would have eaten her.

Vengeance is the
name of my novel.

Please, may I send
you my manuscript.

That's a terrible
pitch, but it's

an example of the kind of
thing that you want to do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Now that you've found
an agent, your agent

is going to do the bulk
of the work of finding

you a publisher.

They will send your
manuscript out to publishers.

If that means that they need
to make photocopies and do it

in physical form, they'll do so.

If they need to format it as
an ePUB or something like that,

they'll do that.

If they need to edit
your novel in advance

and make sure that it
looks as good as it can be,

then they will do that,
and they will work with you

on trying to get that-- that
publication, that manuscript,

ready to be sent to a publisher.

Then, when it comes to
actually negotiating

with that publisher, if
you're lucky, like I said,

you'll have more than
one publisher interested,

and the agent can then
orchestrate an auction, where

they basically play one
publisher against another

to try and get you as
much money as possible.

If only one publisher
is interested,

they'll still fight to get
you as much money as possible,

you just don't have
quite as much leverage

as you would have had otherwise.

But they'll sit down
and have conversations

with that publisher
about typical advances

for this type of book,
for you as a debut author,

for this genre.

They will know all
of that, as far as

what is typical for this field.

They will look at the contract
that the publisher sent,

and they will warn you
about pitfalls in it.

They will send that
contract to you as well.

You should read it yourself.

Even if you're not super
familiar with reading

long, intensive
legalese, you need

to get familiar with that,
because you can't just

rely on your agent to
catch all of the pitfalls.

You should be
watching for that too.

But you can have a conversation
with the agent about what does

right of first refusal mean.

What do these strange
legal terms translate to.

What does this
mean in real terms

about when will I
get my advance check.

When will I get--

when will the book
actually be published.

What happens if I don't
like the cover art.

You need to have all
of these conversations,

and you can have
them with your agent.

One of the great things
about having an agent

is that you can have
conversations with them that

would be uncomfortable to
have with your publisher,

like you want more money.

[LAUGHS] Most
writers probably do.

As a brand-new,
debut author, you

don't want to necessarily
approach your publisher

and demand more money.

You don't have the
clout to do that,

and you could end
up accidentally

offending the publisher if
you ask in the wrong way.

You can have that conversation
with your agent instead,

and your agent will have
realistic conversations

with you about what
arguments will work,

what your realistic chances
are of being able to--

to get more money,
whether your--

your ideas on how much
you should be making

are realistic as
well, and so forth.

So these are all things that
the agent can help you with.