What To Ask An Agent On The Call

Things To Consider, and a List of Questions To Ask an Agent On The Call

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For all the thinking and research I’d done about the querying process before embarking on it, when an e-mail came—saying that an agent loved my book and wanted to talk with me—I felt completely unprepared.

In my previous post, Why I’m Glad My First Book Didn’t Sell, I talked at length about how my process of choosing which agents to pitch had changed from my first querying experience to my second.

But even though I felt very well educated on the topic of what kind of agent I wanted and why—in terms of who would be a good fit for my book genre, who had a good sales track record, etc—I still had limited knowledge and information about the business side of what agent does and how their work flow might look with writers.

So, apart from vague understanding that this would be the call during which the agent will likely offer representation, I didn’t know what to expect. What should I ask them? And even if I got an answer to the questions I still didn’t know I should be asking—what sense would I need to make of the answers?

Because, let’s be clear. While you were the one chasing after agents as you were querying, the moment an agent tells you they love your book and want to talk, the tables have turned. Now, you are the one interviewing them for the job of being your best advocate.

And yes, this is true whether you end up having multiple agent offers, or if there is only one agent interested in working with you. The process is the same, even though the stakes are not: if you only get one offer, and the agent ‘fails’ the ‘job interview,’ you are in the querying trenches again. But, like I said in my aforementioned post—it’s better to have to continue querying until you’ve found the right advocate for your work, than to get an agent that’s a bad fit, in which case you’re just delaying the heartache that will inevitably happen later, when it’s much, much more painful.

Thankfully, I have awesome writing friends, and as always, they came through for me with their treasure trove of knowledge. One of them sent me a list of questions to ask the agent on The Call. I have no idea who drafted this list originally (if you find who they are, please let me know so I can credit them!), or if it was a group endeavor of multiple writers adding to the list over the years, but I’m so truly and immensely grateful for their effort.

The document was delivered to me as a plain list of question, but to make it more manageable for my call, I ended up parsing the list into three categories of questions, as seen below. I’ve tweaked and padded questions where needed to reflect my own needs, and experience going through three calls with the offering agents.

1. THE PROJECT

The first set of question refers to your WIP. You want to know exactly how your agent sees your book. Even if they say they loved it, maybe they loved it because they misunderstood it, in which case, you will not love the way they will ask you to edit it.

In other words, you want to make sure you and your agent have the same creative vision for your book, agree on where you see it sitting on the shelf, what the comparable titles are, what edits need to be done before going on submission, which editors might might be a good fit, etc.

So here’s what you want to ask:

1. What did you like about my manuscript? What resonated with you the most and attracted you to the story?

2. What is your editorial vision and strategy for this project?

3. What would you say is the manuscript’s biggest strength, and conversely, its current greatest weakness?

4. What if, during revision and getting the book sub-ready, I don’t agree with some of your feedback? Would this be something we could talk about, or is your feedback prescriptive?

5. How close to submission-ready do you think it is? How many rounds of edits do you think the book will need?

6. What is your timeline for submission? When do you hope to go on submission with this?

7. What editors or imprints came to mind as you were reading? I know this might change, but could you send me a preliminary list of editors you might want to approach with this project?

8. Where do you see my book fitting into the market?

9. Are there any comp titles, aside from the ones mentioned in the query, that came to mind as you were reading?

Obviously, you probably won’t get the chance to ask all of these questions, but they should be your guiding light in terms of what to pay attention to. For example, if the agent says the manuscript’s biggest weakness is the one thing you feel you’ve been building your whole book around, then it is safe to say they will ask you to revise the one thing you find non-negotiable. If they are using Thriller comps when you want to be writing Literary Fiction, then it means they see your work differently than you want it to be seen (even if it’s not quite hitting the mark yet). The list of imprints and editors also gives you a clear sense of where they see your book sitting on the shelf, and also how they see your career going forward. If you want to be published with Big Five, and see yourself as the next Stephen King or Kristin Hannah, but they are suggesting to go with smaller, independent publishers, university presses, etc, you need to be aware of the misalignment and see if your expectations are unrealistic, or if the agent simply doesn’t see you where you see yourself.

2. THE RELATIONSHIP

The second thing you need to be thinking about is the relationship between you and the agent. Know thyself, said Socrates, and this is so very true when you are considering what type of a relationship you want to have with your agent.

For example, you may be the kind of writer who has no problem coming up with original ideas and high-concept premise, but needs a lot of editorial support—as you always end up paying for multiple rounds of developmental edits, or use multiple beta readers and critique partners to get the story on the page. If this is true for you, you might want an editorial agent—someone who will know how to manage the craft side of your projects as well as the business side.

If you are the insecure type who requires a lot of hand holding, you might want to make sure your agent is responsive, and will check in with you regularly during challenging times, such as manuscript revisions, or the submission process.

Here are some question you could ask:

1. What is your dynamic with your clients? What is your personality style: tough love, encouraging, straight shooter, all business, etc?

2. How responsive are you in your communication with your clients? What is the longest I would go without hearing from you?

3. How do you prefer to communicate? Email, phone, Zoom, texts, Slack?

4. Generally, how do you decide that the MS is ready to go out on submission? Is it your decision or something we decide on together?

5. Will you share editor and/or imprint information with me? Will I get a complete list/pitching materials before submission? If not, can you share your philosophy as to why not?

6. How do you approach submission rounds? How many editors will be in the first round, second round, etc.?

7. How often do you communicate during submission? Is this something that’s negotiable (ie. if I want more/less communication, to see rejections/not see rejections, would you be willing to accomodate?)

8. What happens if we don’t sell this book?

9. How many editors do you try to before giving up?

10. What percentage of your projects that you sign do you sell?

11. Do you have a written agency agreement? What does it look like? Would I be able to see a blank copy?

12. Is the contract on a book by book basis? Or overall career basis?

13. How are do you/your agency handle subrights (film, audio, foreign rights)? Do you handle these rights in house, or are they outsourced—and if so, to whom? If subrights are managed by another agent, how involved are you in the process?

14. When we go out on submission with my book, do you plan to sell North Americal rights only, or world?

15. What are the subrights commission percentages?

16. Will I ever work with an assistant or intern, if so, under what circumstances?

17. Under what circumstances would you part ways with a client? What rights do I have to part ways?

18. What happens to me if you move agencies or leave agenting?

19. What are the traits you are looking for in an author that you sign?

20. What are you biggest pet peeves with authors? What do you wish they did more or less of?

21. How can I ensure our relationship is positive and successful? What do you need from me to be a good match?

What these questions aim to get at is to show you how it would be to work with this agent. Mind you, there are no right or wrong answers, there is just a better or poorer match.

3. LONG-TERM COLLABORATION

Presumably, you do not want to find yourself querying again after this book either sells or dies on sub. So you want to make sure you and your agent are compatible to work together during the publishing process, and afterwards, across multiple projects. You want them not only to represent this book, but you as an author—to help you launch and sustain the type of writing career you want.

So here’s how to gauge that:

1. How do you manage the client/editor relationship after the book deal?

2. Do you stay involved in the communication with my editor—would you want to be present during our phone calls, and copied in our email communication?

3. What happens if my editor and I disagree? How would you support me or advocate for me? Do you have any examples when you advocated for one of your clients?

4. How involved are you/the agency in marketing/publicity? How would you handle a potential situation when my publisher isn’t putting enough legwork into marketing and publicity for my book?

5. Regarding future projects, at what point do you want to see new ideas, and how? Do you want to see a pitch? Synopsis? Partial? Full? Do you review multiple drafts?

6. How prescriptive are you with future work?

7. How quickly do you expect to see future works? Is there pressure or expectations to produce at a certain rate/time after the first book deal? Is there a “timing out” on a contract if I do not have the next book by a certain time, or are you more interested in the longer life span of an author?

8. If I have ideas that aren’t fully fleshed out, is that something you would want to/be willing to discuss to see if they are viable/salable? Do you offer direction early on prefer to be given written work to review?

9. Are you an editorial agent? Do you do developmental editing, line edits, copy edits? How much of a role of a freelance/developmental editor do you take on? Will I need to hire an outside editor in the future?

10. What is your average turnaround time for reading/notes? How do you deliver notes?

11. Will you submit to editors everything I write/want to sub, or will you veto projects?

12. What happens if we don’t see eye to eye on future projects?

13. If I wrote in another genre, would you agree to represent that?

A lot can be gauged by the agent’s answer to these questions. And again, there are no wrong or right answers, you are only looking for someone who is, overall, a good fit for you and your work. You are looking for someone you see yourself working with closely for many years to come.

The last, but not least, you need to ASK TO SPEAK TO THIS AGENT’S CLIENTS.

It may feel uncomfortable to ask this, but (respectable) agents know they are being vetted for a serious job here, and they too want to ensure that they are a great fit for you. When they put you in touch with some of their clients (usually, two), you will ask them the same questions you asked the agent: how was it for them to be working with the agent on this particular project; how did they handle revision, what happened if the client disagreed with some of the agent’s feedback. How well do they feel supported by their agent? How long does it take for the agent to answer their email? Was there ever a time the agent advocated for them and how?

This is not only a great way to get a feel of how it would be working with this agent, but also a great way of connecting with potential agent siblings.

Lastly, it is very difficult for us writers to switch from the beggar mentality (which querying inevitably puts us into) into the mindset of an employer overnight—but this is exactly what you need to do. And don’t worry that your asking questions will irritate the agent. If they are truly professional, they can only see it as an asset. They understand that this is a business decision and that a lot goes into finding the right fit. They actually want to see that you are approaching this process in a prepared and business-like manner.

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Hope this was helpful. Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments!

Until next time, may your reading and writing be joyful!