How to Become A Literary Agent
Hello Creatives!
The publishing industry is vast and complicated yet full of opportunities when it comes to career options. One career choice I’ll be talking about today is how to become a literary agent.
What is a Literary Agent?
A literary agent is a publishing professional who represents a writer or author in the negotiation process with a publishing house. Literary agents are the gatekeepers for traditional publishing. While you don’t need a literary agent to get published, if your dream is to have a coveted Big 4 publishing house contract, then you need a literary agent to get there.
What Does A Literary Agent Do?
Literary agents are a combination of talent scout, editor, and sometimes subsidiary rights manager. Day-to-day they pour over what’s called a slush pile: the never-ending email or snail mail pitches sent by aspiring authors asking the literary agent to represent them. If they like a pitch, then they’ll ask for a few sample chapters or maybe even the whole manuscript. Six to eight weeks later they’ll either reject the writer or decide to move on to the next stage which is…
Contract negotiation. The literary agent and author sign a contract stating the agent represents the author under certain circumstances, usually for a specific project but sometimes for a set amount of months or years, usually no more than 24 months if they can’t seem to sell the manuscript to publishing houses.'
Which then leads us into the dynamic between literary agents and publishing houses. Literary agents are your key to get into the pearly gates of the publishing house world who otherwise doesn’t accept unsolicited offers from random writers. You sign a contract with a literary agent because (hopefully) they have the right contacts in the publishing world to get your book published under the publishing house that will best serve the book you are writing.
Before you send out the book proposals to publishing houses though, a literary agent may work with you to polish up the manuscript itself. And maybe help you do research into better understanding the market for which your book is best suited to be in. (Shameless plug: a marketing professional can help with this too).
Once the book proposal is sent out and an editor finds it worthy of a contract, then the literary agent represents the author in negotiating the terms of the publishing contract. I’ve written about this before here.
Sometimes, a literary agent even helps you negotiate subsidiary rights and other types of intellectual property rights contracts associated with your work.
How Do You Become A Literary Agent?
So, how exactly do you become a literary agent? While it may seem like you need a law background to be successful, you don’t. Actually, most literary agents have a degree in the humanities and fine arts, but there’s really no specific degree requirement.
In college, you’ll need to find a rare internship or apprenticeship in hopes that will open the door for an assistant literary agent position after you graduate. After a few years working under a literary agent, you’ll start taking on clients for yourself either in the agency that hired you or at some other agency or for your own practice.
How do you find these jobs? Here’s a few places to look.
A Twitter Search for #MSWL (which stands for Manuscript Wishlist)
How Do Literary Agents Get Paid?
Ah, the age old question. So, how do literary agents get paid? I mean, you go to college and need to pay off all those loans right?
Like many talent scout type roles, it’s based on commission. Usually a 10-15% commission of sales for the book-to-be. This means the literary agent will do a lot of free work upfront for the writer they’ve signed a contract with in hopes of cashing in on their future success.
This also means that the more authors you sign on and place in solid publishing houses the higher the likelihood of you earning a higher salary. The salary range for literary agents early in their career is $25k-$35k while mid-career professionals can expect $50k-$75k if they score the right deals and build a solid client list. Some literary agents do eventually make six figures.
Do you think being a literary agent is right for you? Let me know in the comments below!
Until next time,
Rochele