Blogger: Wendy Lawton
My chapter for this morning was Exodus 20–The Ten Commandments. I took time to write each one out in my journal since my mind always connects better when my hand is engaged. The practice got me to thinking. If literary agents had ten rules, what would they be?
Here’s what I came up with:
I. We work for the client. This would seem to go without saying but recently we’ve seen an uptick in the number of blog posts and blog comments that suggest that agents are somehow “in publishers’ pockets.” Nothing could be further from the truth. You need only ask some of the editors with whom we’ve recently negotiated contracts. 
II. Our clients come first. Agents, like everyone else, are pulled in so many directions—writer’s conferences, reading queries, looking at the work of potential clients, and even doing office and bookkeeping chores. We always remind ourselves, our clients come first. It’s one of the reasons literary agents are notoriously tardy getting back to potential clients. Reading queries and manuscripts of those not yet agented has to take a back seat to client work.
III. To best serve our clients’ long-term career goals we must craft win-win solutions. An agent who “goes for the jugular” will not help the clients’ long-term career. The best agent is the one who makes sure that both the publisher and the author win, so that the relationship can grow over time. An agent who squeezes the publisher for a wincingly high advance stands the risk of killing a career if the author does not “earn out” in the first year.
IV. We must be willing to make decisions in the client’s best interest even when it may not be in our best interest. If an author’s career is on an upswing, an agent who insists on a mega-multi-book deal is doing his client no favors, even if it brings in a hefty commission on the front end. It may lock the client into that agent for several years to come– which an insecure agent might want– but with each successful book that client could have gotten better and better terms.
V. We need to be mindful of our relationships within the publishing industry. A good agent builds strong relationships in the industry. These will stand him in good stead when he has to ask for concessions, negotiate a contract, or deliver tough news.
VI. We need to keep abreast of all that is happening in a changing industry. Having an ostrich-like agent with his head in the sand does no one any good. A wise agent stays one step ahead of the curve. It takes a fair share of reading and networking but it is time well spent.
VII. We must be careful not to jump too soon or hang back too long. When changes come, the prudent agent understands that time is of the essence but is also careful not to jump precipitously.
VIII. We must be, above all, truth tellers. It is too easy to focus on the marketing side of what we do—shopping manuscripts to publishers—and *wink, wink* justify inflating numbers, twisting details or omitting negative statistics. A good agent will steadfastly stick to the truth. Truth matters. Also, when it comes to giving feedback to the client, the agent must speak the truth in love.
IX. We need to be creative. Finding new ways to serve our clients and approach the industry becomes increasingly important in a climate of change.
X. We must be people of integrity. The agent handles money, relationships, proprietary information and confidences. Integrity is essential.
Like the ten commandments, it’s a list against which we can clearly see our shortcomings
So, Your turn. What did I miss? If you had a similar list, say The Ten Tenets of Authors, what would you include?
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Fascinating post, Wendy. Eight and ten stick out at me as necessities in any business, but definitely in a situation where an one person is seeking direction and guidance from another.
As for The Ten Tenets of Authors, I hope it would at least include: We should not take rejection personally; we should be open to constructive feedback; we should surround ourselves with people who support our dreams; and we should never forget who gave us the gift of words.
Yes, words as gifts. Wrapped lovingly with the same fingers who hold the pen. It’s a privilege to write His answer.
Simply and beautifully said, Jenni.
Good reminders, Cheryl.
Sounds a lot like motherhood to me, Janet. The names may change, but the role remains the same.
Hear, hear! Well said, Norma.
Never thought of it that way, Norma.
I love these. What a blessing it is to authors to have someone in there corner like that 🙂
A couple of my commandments: Pray that my words offer hope and encouragement. Don’t give up, even when I really want to. There is no space for impatience in my writing journey.
Good words, Lisa. You are so right– if you are an impatient person this profession will kill you. (Or change you.)
I love this Wendy. I love when God’s word spurs me to application in unexpected places. 🙂
Let’s see a couple commandments for writers: For Christian writers, pray before writing for God’s word and vision for the story. Be diligent to do your best work. Keep open communication with your agent, if you have one.
There are more, I am certain, but I’ll stop there for now. 🙂
Yep. Communication. Diligence. For me as well.
Love this! Every point demonstrates a Christian spirit.
I think this list could easily be flipped for writers. Basically–let’s keep a humble, confident demeanor. Work with integrity. Not make knee-jerk decisions based on our feelings.
Basing decisions on knee-jerk reactions to feelings gives one the reputation of a “shoot first, ask questions later” type of person. No one wants to work with someone like that if the choices end up burning those in the perimeter.
I never thought about it also applying to the writer but most of them do.
I’d say numbers one and three, and the seeming contradiction there, is probably what most of those folks who say agents are in publishers’ pockets are talking about: when the writers are asked to give away the rights to their work, and to most earnings of their work, the “win-win” approach seems to either be an insult to the business savvy of the author, a lack of not understanding things from the authors’ perspective, or preferring to keep ones-self in the good graces of the publisher over the best possible return on the investment the agents client put into their work (and number five might appear to some to all but state this).
If an agent is worried about how the contract might “negatively” affect a publisher, then to be quite blunt, they are not working just for their client. And it is a shame, because the agent is not getting paid for the work they are putting in as part of the publishers’ accounting team! 🙂
I’d say in this new era of the publishing world, there are some new “Ten Tenets for Authors” :
1. I will keep the rights to the work I have made.
2. I will keep the majority of the earnings for the work I have made.
3. I will not have my work be defined by the arbitrary publishing choices of acquisitions editors and CEOs who cannot actually publish books the public wants to read in the first place.
4. I will only create jobs for those who understand that we, the authors, are the job creators of this industry. I will not hire those to represent or publish my work who do not realize they work for me and my work.
5. I will only buy books from publishing houses which treat their authors with respect, both personally and professionally.
6. I will support libraries and their goal and purpose of providing knowledge to the public as a necessary purpose of civic responsibility.
7. I will speak out on behalf of authors who have not realized they are the reason this industry exists, and have been forced to scrape and bow to the arrogance and absurdity of the traditional industry.
8. I will work to show that the best “platform” isn’t the number of “friends” one has on Facebook or other social media, but actually good writing.
9. I will work to speak out on what the industry can do to improve, to allow for better books for readers, and better relationships for writers: but if the traditional industry chooses to self-destruct, I will not lament it.
10. I will try to let my writing honor He who gave me words.
I think you should add “I will remember that life is full of compromises and that to further my career I will make them when necessary.”
Larry life does not always go the way you want it to neither will your writing career.
Indeed.
As you said yourself, Lori, writers must always make compromises between work, family, and tinkering away at the keyboard.
I think writers make plenty of compromises just getting to the point where they can actually write a novel.
Everything after that?
Just subjective business practices.
Of which, perhaps, publishers might need to realize they need to compromise more on if they want to stay in business.
Based of the tenets you wrote above, it sounded to me that you were not a writer who was willing to make compromises.
As a full time professional writer who is actually getting paid I’m glad of the compromiase I have made.
Larry, do you have a blog? This is basically a blog article worthy of tweeting. I can’t retweet this off of Wendy’s blog. You’ll do a service to the writing community with a blog — you have much to offer, believe me. Try Weebly. Your free blog could be up and running in 5 minutes. http://www.weebly.com/themes/
Thank you for your kind words!
I don’t blog, mostly because with my novel coming out I don’t want potential readers to get one idea of my writing style from my blog, and then get confused when they read a different style in the novel.
Or vice-versa: don’t want readers who read the novel to expect similar writing from the blog, and then feel less interested in me as an author because they feel I don’t write stuff that actually interests ’em outside the novel.
Fantastic Larry! I especially appreciate 5, 6 & 10.
Thank you also! Tried to make sure I included readers in the list, and the role writers have as writers, as well as the reason for why we write in the first place.
Oops…meant to say, “the role writers have as readers”, but “the role writers have as writers” also is something that I wanted to address, so it’s not technically a typo, I suppose. 😉
Larry, I think you and I will just have to agree to disagree on so many of these points.
When I see some of the successful traditional careers in my client base and compare those to the writers who are adamantly “keeping their rights,” I have to say, there’s no comparison.
I know we hear what seems to me to be hugely inflated numbers (or numbers based on one fabulous month or one outstanding promotion) from self-e-pubbers but we’re following several self-e-pubbers and test pubs and let me tell you, the numbers of e-books sold by traditional publishers compared to self-publishers are far different. 25% of tens of thousands of books sold, or even in a couple of cases, hundreds of thousands of books sold is far superior to 70% of the numbers we see with most self-pubs. And that doesn’t take into account the amount of work and money a writer needs to get his book edited, with a good cover and promoted.
That could change, I’ll admit. Tomorrow may turn it on its head but for now, if I were a writer and able to run the numbers (and I realize you can’t because they’re proprietary), I’d choose traditional publishing over self-publishing.
I’m just saying. . . Until the numbers bear out what you’re saying, I’m sticking to this.
And if you follow your commandments and are wildly successful I will be ecstatic for you and will commit to studying how you broke through.
Indeed, I believe you are correct about agreeing to disagree on some points.
Where I do agree is that the overall royalties earned by a traditional author through e-book sales may be much larger than that of the average self-pub e-book author: though if one considers that traditional publishers nowadays are worried that authors cannot even earn out a five thousand dollar advance on their novel, and use that as the bar for self-pubs to reach, it doesn’t look so bad from the perspective of a self-pubber. And then there is the question of just how representative different authors are; the traditionally published author with decades of building a fan base, or the celebrity author, certainly would tip the numbers of analysis of the earnings and earning potential of various authors.
I’m not sure if I disagree entirely about the cost factor of getting a book edited, a good cover, and promoting the novel: I would say those are certainly valid, but only if a writer needs an editor, and doesn’t know much about marketing (the cost of gas alone just driving to a national book tour at outlet malls or independent book shops which I have heard some self-pub authors think they need to, or should, do always surprises me with how little many authors, even traditionally published authors, seem to give though to marketing). Cover artists can be found for relatively cheap (the general cost is around three hundred dollars, and depending on the artist one could probably get it cheaper than that), which is easily how much one could have spent in postage sending their novel to publishers or agents in the days before the digital era. 🙂
And if I make the big bucks on my novel, I’ll order some of Jennifers’ Canadian chocolate for everyone to share. 🙂
Was thinking of delicious Canadian chocolate and made a typo!
Should read, “how little thought writers give to marketing.”
Since the numbers from publishers are proprietary, there’s no way to know if those numbers are inflated as well, is there?
I just think that tradpub authors and selfpub authors can coexist and be nice to one another. There is room for everyone, whether one chooses to sell their pottery at county fairs or gets to display them at Saks Fifth Avenue. I think that if James Scott Bell can self-publish, there is hope yet for many writers.
It’s not always about the money or sales or profits or numbers. Not all authors write to make money. Some write for the joy of writing, and to them, that is enough. Some write to fulfill a calling, and it might not come with a berth in the NYT bestseller’s list or any list, but that’s not their goal.
Speaking from the viewpoint of an avid reader, I read both tradpub and selfpub books. I have to wade through all sorts of poor writing in both realms just to reach the best novels, but I’m a reader, so I forage for that gem! And I have found that there are bad apples in both tradpub and selfpub novels… because they’re all written by humans LOL.
As a writer, I’m excited about ALL opportunities and all the open doors. I’m doing my best to produce the best mss I can, and then we’ll see how the Lord leads me. I’m one of those who just love to write. “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold…” – Rhea Miller
Wendy
XI – I will remember that as a person I need to have balance in my life. My life can not be just all about work. When my life is just all about work, I am no good to myself, my family, my clients, future clients, or any publishers I work with.
Oh Lori! You got me. I’m sitting at my computer, trying to finish up a ton of work while my family, visiting from the East Coast is waiting for me to finish so we can take a promised ride.
Are you taking a country ride to a roadside cherry stand? 🙂
“An agent who squeezes the publisher for a wincingly high advance stands the risk of killing a career if the author does not ‘earn out’ in the first year.”
IMO this is true for most midlist authors. Throw in shrinking bookstores, competition from indie authors, a rough economy, and we see that those advances would probably not earn out quickly.
Readers are pretty choosy these days, and they’re quick to move on to another author if the writing is not stellar. OTOH they are very loyal when the author produces good work. Speaking for myself as an avid reader, anyway.
I think an agent is critical when it comes to contract negotiations. As a writer, I wouldn’t think of even signing a contract with a publisher, big or small, without an agent!
It does take a team to keep ahead of all the changes.
For me, I would add the critical importance of accuracy in research. Whether the story is set last week or 400 years ago, or on another planet, the writer needs to be an authority on his or her subject.
An author is the creator of a whole new experience, possesses the control of that experience and therefore must know and be able to answer for whatever happens to the characters. If an inaccuracy is detected, that undermines the author’s control, therefore displacing the authority to the reader and thus ruining the credibility of the author.
A minor inaccuracy is easily forgivable, but something such as “Pearl Harbour was bombed on December 8th, 1941” will not only ruin the writer’s reputation, but the editor and publisher as well. Creative authority starts and finishes with a writer who is bent on getting every little detail as perfect as possible.
Excellent point, Jennifer
Thank you!
Jennifer, as an historical writer myself, can I give a resounding, “Amen!” Nothing pulls me out of a story quicker than a wrong detail. It doesn’t help that I’m also a fashion historian. And toy historian. (For instance, did you know that there was no such thing as a teddy bear until about 1910? They came about because of Teddy Roosevelt saving a young bear cub on a hunting expedition. Teddy bears in a Victorian nursery drive me up the wall.)
Amen back at you! Yes, I did know about the teddy bears, and yes, it drives me nuts to read about Betty Lou Whoever cuddling her teddy bear while on a train ride across Hawaii in 1802.
They should toss in a phone call while they’re at it.
Love the thoughtful “job description” you’ve created. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if all literary agents agreed to abide by these “commandments?”
I was thinking about what Jesus said when he summed up all the commandments with just two. He told us in Matthew 22:37-39“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. …..39 And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Succinct, direct, and do-able…wondering if authors and agents could sum up their relationship with two commandments…and what would they be?
I think they would be the same two our Lord gave us, right?
Wonderful list, Wendy, and I love the picture. I would agree with many of the others on Ten Tenets of Authors.
Pray.
Study the Word.
Study the craft.
Read.
Write consistently.
Be teachable.
Be a friend.
Be available.
Smile.
Eat chocolate. 🙂
Fabulous summary! Love it.
Perfect.
Love the chocolate!
I believe I will X into practice this very afternoon.
Number four is interesting. What are the most positive reasons for a client and an agent to be ‘locked’ together, especially in light of the value of a writing career?
Wendy, what’s the longest amount of time that you’ve been in partnership with an author?
As far as tenets of authors, I’m reminded of the time you said “when we write, our backs are to our families”. This is an area I need to work on, especially under my self-imposed deadline.
There are many of positive reasons to be “locked together.” I was thinking of a negative situation where one writer was locked into a bad relationship for a long time to come because she signed a nine book contract. Her new agent worked on her career for a number of years while the other agent collected the commissions.
I have several of the first clients I ever signed– eight years ago when I began agenting.
Jenni and Wendy,
This point stood out to me, too. I’d always thought signing a multi-book contract was the BEST OPTION POSSIBLE, but the way you’ve spelled it out here has me reconsidering that. I was a little taken aback when my agent strongly suggested we NOT promote my book as a series, but as a stand-alone book. Yes, we let the publishers know there were other books in the imprint, but not that it was a must-sell series. I honestly thought they lacked confidence in me, but they explained that this would leave the door open to a better deal on the second book, but I still wasn’t sure why that made sense. Thank you for explaining it this way – this clears it up even more.
I’ve been very impressed with the agents at Books & Such. You all work hard to keep these Ten Laws for Agents. I appreciate every law you’ve listed. As an author, these are the things I strive for: I must keep my priorities straight, I must trust God and his perfect plan, I must keep communication open with my agent, I must stay on deadline and I must enjoy the journey. 🙂
And hopefully we admit it when we fail, because we do .
I appreciate the sentiments in this blog. I’ve met several agents of whom this does not apply. It’s kind of scary when one is searching for a good agent, to find one who is a solid Christian, as well. At conferences, I’ve seen some very unChristlike behaviors (not often, but still there). One agent I’d waited for a long time to pitch to, was rude and extremely curt to person after person in front of me. By the time I sat down, I was petrified. While he wasn’t rude to me and requested I submit my work to him, I could help but overhear him eviscerating the woman who came after me. I scratched him off my list; I don’t want someone who behaves like that representing me or my work. I’m sorry, but even in rejecting a really bad piece of writing, there’s always room for graciousness.
Those pitch sessions are true tests of stamina and possibly our hearts as well. I sort of cringe when I hear something like that and worry that, overtired, I may have been curt and dismissive as well. (It’s why I’d much rather interact with writers in a natural setting, like meals together and bumping into each other.)
…that would be “couldn’t” help but overhear…
What a God-inspired share from your morning Bible study, Wendy.
That two-way street parallels not only the author/client relationship, but the personal relationship we each have with the Author of life.
I am definitely printing this out and keeping it on my desk. Many convicting reminders to keep myself accountable, my integrity in check, and the One I write for, first.
Larry’s #10 speaks volumes.
Thank you, Wendy for setting a Bible-based honorable example.
I am blessed to be one of the stones being built on the Cornerstone. One word at a time, carefully chosen, written, and researched until the body of those words are read.
Thank you, Kathy.
Thank you also for your kind words!
I wanted it to serve as a foundation, and a reminder, for why we write, and of Whom all the other “tenets” would be meaningless without.
Hi Wendy! Loved this article. It’s great to see integrity in action. I agree with each and every point you made.
As for a writer’s commandments, I only have one:
Follow God’s lead.
Everything else will fall into place if we can accomplish that one thing.
Blessings,
Andrea
wow, you guys are like the ‘bird by bird’ of blogs…timely and useful!
I don’t have all ten, but I know one of them is “To be my agent’s best client and my publisher’s preferred writer.”