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Every week I check my website stats, and every week I see that people hit my website by searching some variation of "Is it easier to get an editor or an agent?" But I don't have an article specifically about that -- so I decided to write one.
As with everything else in the publishing industry, experiences with getting an agent vary wildly. Some people never get a rejection letter. Some people try forty agents before finding one they fit with. Some people never get an agent. Some people get an agent and stick with that agent for a while, but find that they don't really get along, and so they switch (and, like that old saw goes, it's easier to find one if you already have one). Some people never get an agent, or eventually give up having an agent entirely, finding that their career is stable enough that having an agent isn't worth it. Honestly, I think the number of people doing that last thing is dwindling in this era of fighting tooth and nail for every slot on every list, even in category/series romance.
It's a similar situation with editors -- some people find the right editor right away. Some people get a new editor for every book. Some people never find an editor, and decide to hire a freelance one and self-publish.
It is pretty much equally difficult to get either one to take your book on. You've heard my advice about how to get the attention of editors and agents a million times: Write a good book. (For value of good, you can also insert: timely, marketable, scandalous, rare, edgy, personally appealing to the particular editor/agent.) Write a decent query letter. Be professional.
I know what your next question is. You want to know: Is it better to get an agent first?
No one can answer this for you -- you have to make your own decisions based on what you know, and what you think is best for yourself, your manuscript(s), and your career.
If you submit your book to publishers and one likes you right away and takes the book on, that's pretty awesome, and you're set -- your book now has a 98% (ish) chance of being published. (There are things that can happen between signing a contract with a publisher and getting your book on the shelf. They're rare enough that I wouldn't worry about it happening to you, as long as you're working with a reputable publisher.)
Once you have a publishing contract in hand, you can then make a list of your dream agents, and go down it, contacting each one and saying, "Hi, this is Sydney Bristow, and I've written a book called My Life With Spy Daddy, and I have an offer to publish it from Alliance Publishers as a hardcover in their Livres Disparus list. I'd like to know if you'd represent me for this deal, and possibly future ones." Plenty of people get agents this way. In fact, I can even think of a couple of people who called agents who'd previously turned down their manuscripts, and the agents agreed to take them on once they had the contract in hand. I know that seems shady/annoying, but it's just business.
(I will pause here to say that I really do think the majority of authors need agents, especially once a house has made an offer. Agents provide a number of extremely important services to authors. Agents act as go-betweens, helping to smooth the way for authors and editors, especially when there's conflict about something. Agents are knowledgeable about the way publishing contracts work -- if you're taking the contract to someone not familiar with the industry, there's every chance they'll miss something, even if that person is a lawyer. Agents are skilled at negotiation, and know how to get the most out of the wheeling and dealing. Agents organize the money and keep track of the royalty statements. Agents can put pressure on a publishing company to live up to the spirit of its agreement with an author. Agents have connections -- not just in North America, but also in other hubs of the publishing world, and even smaller markets! Hey, don't knock being translated into Russian, German, Japanese, Spanish... A sale is a sale, and agents are uniquely equipped to make these sales. Agents have their down sides, too, don't get me wrong -- but I am of the firm belief that the up-sides outweigh those down-sides.
If you disagree, that's okay! You can write a blog post at your own blog about it!)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- publishing is subjective. Sometimes an agent falls in love with a book that zie can't get an editor to take on for love, money, or favors. Sometimes an editor loves a book that three hundred agents turned down. Heck, sometimes an editor loves a book that she can't convince her publisher to take on, and she mourns it even ten years later. Uh, not that I have any experience with that last one or anything!
The flip side of this is that if you get an agent first, a lot of doors open to you that may have previously been shut. Some agents have a lot of clout and/or know editors and publishers really well. Those agents can take your manuscript and say to an editor, "Remember when you told me you wanted a science fiction novel set in the near future featuring a female CIA agent who falls in love with a female Russian SVR agent? I've got that for you." Agents spend a lot of time cultivating their relationships with editors and publishers -- partially for this exact reason. For sure, when I was acquiring, there were agents who'd send me manuscripts, and I'd pretty much drop everything to read what they sent, because usually it was exactly my taste and exactly what I was looking for. No one's 100%, but the agents who pay attention can come pretty damn close.
Of course, there are also agents out there who don't know the editors, who don't have the same taste as the editors, who don't pay attention to what the editors and publishers are looking for, and who don't have the influence or relationships to make a scenario like that work. I certainly have met more than my fair share of agents who sent me Western historicals with notes about how they were sure I'd want that book for the romance list; once, an agent counseled her client to send me lingerie with the author's version of the manuscript's "cover" screen-printed onto it. Make sure to do your research on the agents before you submit to them, and use your brain and common sense -- that will, hopefully, help you have a much smaller chance of running into those agents.
Something to keep in mind when making your plans is that many agents will be reluctant to take on a project that's already been sent around to the major New York houses. If you've already been rejected by nine out of eleven of the editors an agent immediately thinks of when reading your manuscript, that agent's job has just been made a whole ton harder. Even if that editor never personally looked at your book -- the assistant read it and rejected it, or the editor sent it out to a reader or got a report from an intern and rejected based on that -- the editor will very likely remember at least the title, and be annoyed to see the book again, especially if it's within a year or two of the first submission.
I hope this helps people who are starting to think about where to send their manuscripts! Feel free to ask questions in the comments; as usual, I will not talk about specific agents by name and I ask that you don't name names in your comment -- but I'm happy to give you advice on your specific situation (and I know a lot of readers of this blog would be happy to jump in with advice, too!).
As with everything else in the publishing industry, experiences with getting an agent vary wildly. Some people never get a rejection letter. Some people try forty agents before finding one they fit with. Some people never get an agent. Some people get an agent and stick with that agent for a while, but find that they don't really get along, and so they switch (and, like that old saw goes, it's easier to find one if you already have one). Some people never get an agent, or eventually give up having an agent entirely, finding that their career is stable enough that having an agent isn't worth it. Honestly, I think the number of people doing that last thing is dwindling in this era of fighting tooth and nail for every slot on every list, even in category/series romance.
It's a similar situation with editors -- some people find the right editor right away. Some people get a new editor for every book. Some people never find an editor, and decide to hire a freelance one and self-publish.
It is pretty much equally difficult to get either one to take your book on. You've heard my advice about how to get the attention of editors and agents a million times: Write a good book. (For value of good, you can also insert: timely, marketable, scandalous, rare, edgy, personally appealing to the particular editor/agent.) Write a decent query letter. Be professional.
I know what your next question is. You want to know: Is it better to get an agent first?
No one can answer this for you -- you have to make your own decisions based on what you know, and what you think is best for yourself, your manuscript(s), and your career.
If you submit your book to publishers and one likes you right away and takes the book on, that's pretty awesome, and you're set -- your book now has a 98% (ish) chance of being published. (There are things that can happen between signing a contract with a publisher and getting your book on the shelf. They're rare enough that I wouldn't worry about it happening to you, as long as you're working with a reputable publisher.)
Once you have a publishing contract in hand, you can then make a list of your dream agents, and go down it, contacting each one and saying, "Hi, this is Sydney Bristow, and I've written a book called My Life With Spy Daddy, and I have an offer to publish it from Alliance Publishers as a hardcover in their Livres Disparus list. I'd like to know if you'd represent me for this deal, and possibly future ones." Plenty of people get agents this way. In fact, I can even think of a couple of people who called agents who'd previously turned down their manuscripts, and the agents agreed to take them on once they had the contract in hand. I know that seems shady/annoying, but it's just business.
(I will pause here to say that I really do think the majority of authors need agents, especially once a house has made an offer. Agents provide a number of extremely important services to authors. Agents act as go-betweens, helping to smooth the way for authors and editors, especially when there's conflict about something. Agents are knowledgeable about the way publishing contracts work -- if you're taking the contract to someone not familiar with the industry, there's every chance they'll miss something, even if that person is a lawyer. Agents are skilled at negotiation, and know how to get the most out of the wheeling and dealing. Agents organize the money and keep track of the royalty statements. Agents can put pressure on a publishing company to live up to the spirit of its agreement with an author. Agents have connections -- not just in North America, but also in other hubs of the publishing world, and even smaller markets! Hey, don't knock being translated into Russian, German, Japanese, Spanish... A sale is a sale, and agents are uniquely equipped to make these sales. Agents have their down sides, too, don't get me wrong -- but I am of the firm belief that the up-sides outweigh those down-sides.
If you disagree, that's okay! You can write a blog post at your own blog about it!)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- publishing is subjective. Sometimes an agent falls in love with a book that zie can't get an editor to take on for love, money, or favors. Sometimes an editor loves a book that three hundred agents turned down. Heck, sometimes an editor loves a book that she can't convince her publisher to take on, and she mourns it even ten years later. Uh, not that I have any experience with that last one or anything!
The flip side of this is that if you get an agent first, a lot of doors open to you that may have previously been shut. Some agents have a lot of clout and/or know editors and publishers really well. Those agents can take your manuscript and say to an editor, "Remember when you told me you wanted a science fiction novel set in the near future featuring a female CIA agent who falls in love with a female Russian SVR agent? I've got that for you." Agents spend a lot of time cultivating their relationships with editors and publishers -- partially for this exact reason. For sure, when I was acquiring, there were agents who'd send me manuscripts, and I'd pretty much drop everything to read what they sent, because usually it was exactly my taste and exactly what I was looking for. No one's 100%, but the agents who pay attention can come pretty damn close.
Of course, there are also agents out there who don't know the editors, who don't have the same taste as the editors, who don't pay attention to what the editors and publishers are looking for, and who don't have the influence or relationships to make a scenario like that work. I certainly have met more than my fair share of agents who sent me Western historicals with notes about how they were sure I'd want that book for the romance list; once, an agent counseled her client to send me lingerie with the author's version of the manuscript's "cover" screen-printed onto it. Make sure to do your research on the agents before you submit to them, and use your brain and common sense -- that will, hopefully, help you have a much smaller chance of running into those agents.
Something to keep in mind when making your plans is that many agents will be reluctant to take on a project that's already been sent around to the major New York houses. If you've already been rejected by nine out of eleven of the editors an agent immediately thinks of when reading your manuscript, that agent's job has just been made a whole ton harder. Even if that editor never personally looked at your book -- the assistant read it and rejected it, or the editor sent it out to a reader or got a report from an intern and rejected based on that -- the editor will very likely remember at least the title, and be annoyed to see the book again, especially if it's within a year or two of the first submission.
I hope this helps people who are starting to think about where to send their manuscripts! Feel free to ask questions in the comments; as usual, I will not talk about specific agents by name and I ask that you don't name names in your comment -- but I'm happy to give you advice on your specific situation (and I know a lot of readers of this blog would be happy to jump in with advice, too!).