Agent Panel: From DIY to Traditional (Wrapping Up)

The agents agree: Once you have an agent or publisher interested in your work, don’t get caught up in the initial excitement and immediately say yes. Take a day or a couple of days (up to a week is usually acceptable) to thoroughly consider whether or not this is the best decision for you and your book, especially if you’ve already invested the time, money and energy into self-publishing it. This is one of just a few moments of power you’ll have in the author-agent-publisher relationship. Embrace it.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine

Agent Panel: From DIY to Traditional (Cont.)

Attendee question: If you move from self-publishing to traditional publishing, does all the momentum you created in marketing your book come to a screeching halt while it goes into production?

Agents: “Yep.”

The crowd laughed. But the agents went on to explain it will take 9-15 months minimum for a major house to publish your book—yes, even though it’s already written. And usually the publishing contract will specify a date when you need to stop selling your self-pubbed version. This is worth considering if you’re thinking about approaching traditional publishers with your self-published book.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine

Agent Panel: From DIY to Traditional (Cont.)

One attendee just raised his hand and asked why earlier today, some agents on a different panel said they don’t mind e-mail attachments, and this particular group of agents just said they think submitting your work via attachment is a big no-no. He says this may seem like a minor detail, but it’s the kind of contradictory information that frustrates writers.

The response from Miriam Kriss: “That’s why we have submission guidelines.”

Point taken. Agents’ preferences differ, and that’s why they have guidelines specifying how to submit your work—previously self-published or otherwise. Always, always, always check the guidelines before submitting. And be sure to follow them to a T.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine

Agent Panel: From DIY to Traditional (Cont.)

Candid observations from the agents on most of the self-published books out there:

--They need professional looking designs—including both cover packages and interior layouts.
--They need professional copy editing.
--They need better titles, which make just as much of a first impression on potential buyers/readers/agents as the designs do. Miriam Kriss observes: “People who can pick good titles generally can write.”
--They need to be able to demonstrate better sales figures. At minimum, Jenny Bent says, agents want to see a regional success story—meaning the book has sold strongly in the author’s region.

The key takeaway: If your book is well written, if there’s a market for it, and if it can stand out from the pack in these four areas, you have a better chance of getting agents interested in your submission of previously self-published work.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine

Agent Panel: A Tangent About Book Cover Design

Kind of a tangent here, but agents on the “Moving From DIY to Traditional Publishing” panel are telling interesting stories about the controversial incidents of publishers changing covers at the last minute because buyers at Barnes and Noble didn’t like the designs that were originally released/featured in the publisher’s catalog. Jenny Dunham has an interesting anecdote about one novel she represented in particular. B&N said they’d order (to place in stores nationwide) only a small number of the book as is (with a cover that both Jenny and the publisher loved), but would order more if the publisher changed the design—so, the publisher did, in order to accommodate the buyer and up that initial buy. Interestingly, now that the book is being released in paperback, it has a new cover that is very similar to the publisher’s initial cover. Even though the hardcover sold respectably (12,000-15,000 copies in trade sales alone), the publisher now thinks it could have done better, and is looking at the paperback as a sort of re-launch.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine

Agent Panel: Moving From DIY to Traditional Publishers

The room is full of great energy for the agent panel assembled to discuss “Moving From DIY to Traditional Publishers,” featuring these all-star literary reps:

--Jenny Dunham, of Dunham Literary
--Jenny Bent, who just left Trident Media and founded her own agency, which you can learn more about at www.thebentagency.com (and who expressly invites everyone to follow her on Twitter!)
--Miriam Kriss, of the Irene Goodman Agency
--Diane Freed, of Fine Print Literary Management

Jenny Bent kicks off the panel with a great success story: One of her clients started out as an aspiring author who spent seven years collecting agent and editor rejections before deciding to self-publish her chick-lit novel. After self-publishing with some success, she decided to submit to agents again, and landed representation from Jenny, who sold the book to Random House. The previously self-published book debuted at Number 7 on The New York Times bestseller list.

All agents acknowledge this level of success is not typical. What does Jenny say was the author’s key to success?

Timing.

Seven years after the author wrote her book, it happened to hit shelves at the height of the chick lit boom and became an “overnight success.” Would the response have been the same at any other time? Probably not.

POSTED BY JESSICA STRAWSER, Editor, WD magazine