Publishing a Book and Literary Agents
Yes I know no parts to this one, but something a bit better, a bit more interactive! I’ll be asking a few more questions and… should my computer skills improve add a few pictures and videos about writing. Publishing a book is hard but it helps to have a literary agent by your side.
This brings the next question, if you want to publish a book why do you need a literary agent? I ask this question because I asked Rachel this question a long time ago. Forgive me then if I misquote it, but the jist of it is that literary agents can see things and know things that us writers don’t have time to learn or to know.
I’d love to publish a book one day with say Tor books, but for that I would need a literary agent. Why would I need one? In any case, Tor Books doesn’t accept non-agented fiction. Secondly go to your beloved Writer’s Market, I couldn’t find Tor Books in there. But I know they exist. (see comment below)
How about those wonderful contracts that can run more than 15 pages? Well I certainly don’t have the knowledge or time to fix any problems before hand, but an agent does.
I need help, publishing a book is hard, but literary agents are a big help. So is editing, and yes Rachel I triple checked this post!
My Question For you Today is this: When you plan to publish a book why would you want to have a literary agent?
5 Comments
Rachel Sentes
Tor books does indeed exist under the US Macmillan company as an imprint along with Forge. They are one of the publishers who DON'T want to see a query letter and will only accept by mail! Check out their submission guidelines on their website: http://www.us.macmillan.com/TorForge.aspx
Good post with minimal typos!! LOL
Al
Hopefully an agent would be able to first find a deal and then screw as many dollars out of the publisher as possible.
Anonymous
interesting information about publishers
JS
As far as my raw knowledge about publishing books goes, neef of a literary agent depends on whether the author is a fresher or an experienced book writer with many published books.
In case of freshers, literary agent becomes a must because you never know what publisher might throw at you. The agent acts as a shield and a troubleshooter.
Experienced writers have the liberty to choose whether they need an agent or not, as they know what publishers are up to when dealing with authors.
Christy Pinheiro, EA ABA
I'm a big fan of self-publishing, but I don't think I would attempt fiction without a literary agent. It's just too hard. Although, it is possible that you could get something successful if you jumped on a "bandwagon". Right now, you could write anything and slap a teenage vampire on the cover and it would sell.