Dear O'Abby on what you should expect from your agent

There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter this week about badly behaved agents, so I thought it would be useful to discuss what writers should and shouldn't expect from their agents.

The first thing to remember is that the author-agent relationship is a professional partnership.  The agent only gets paid when they sell the author's work, so in that respect, the agent works for the author.  At no time should an author feel that they can't speak to their agent about anything career related that may be bothering them.

Too often I hear writers saying they feel like they'd be bothering their agents if they email to ask them something.  You should never be afraid to contact your agent.  If you are worried about something to do with your writing career or have questions, you should be able to reach out.

You should also expect a reply.  Maybe not immediately, but certainly within a reasonable timeframe.  Even if it is just a quick note to let you know your email was received, and that the agent has back-to-back appointments for the next three days, but will get back to you after that.

We're all busy.  Most writers are juggling a day job with their writing careers and probably a family on top of that.  Being busy is not a good enough excuse not to communicate.  If your agent doesn't get back to you in a reasonable timeframe, or keeps promising answers to questions that are never forthcoming, it is not acceptable.

Neither is withholding information about what is happening with your book on submission.  Before your agent takes your book out on submission it's important to discuss with her how much feedback you want from the editors she's pitching.  Some writers just want to know if it was a pass or not, while others want to see exactly what each agent said about the book.  Whatever it is you want, your agent should supply.  It's critical you know where your book has been pitched and to who.

Communication - or lack of it - seems to be the biggest issue writers have with their agents, so I believe it's something that should be discussed before signing the agency agreement.  If you're not great on the phone, or on Zoom, make sure your prospective agent is aware of this and is willing to communicate primarily via email or text. It may also be worthwhile to discuss how often you want to be in touch.  Obviously when you have a book on submission you will probably need to communicate far more often than you would while you're revising or editing or writing something new.

When I had an agent, we decided monthly check-ins were fine when we weren't on submission or in the midst of an edit to get the project submission- ready and that worked really well for us.  We also agreed that most communication would be by email because of the time difference between New York and New Zealand.

If your agent isn't communicating with you the way you want to be communicated with, or you feel that they are withholding information or not being transparent with you, then it may be time to consider ending the relationship.  There is nothing to be ashamed of in this scenario.  It is better to have no agent than to have an agent you don't trust or who is not being proactive in providing you with information about what is happening to your book.  

Many writers end up having multiple agents through their careers, and this is not necessarily a sign that they are demanding or difficult to work with.  Agents leave the profession, and sometimes this leaves the author high and dry if there is no one else at the agency willing or able to take them on.  The relationship that seemed so perfect at the start may not run as smoothly as both parties hoped.  Or the writer may just want to move in a direction the agent does not feel qualified to support.

Your agent is your advocate and her role is to champion your work to editors and to help you make the best possible decisions about your career.  If she isn't fulfilling those roles, it doesn't matter how much you like her, or how good she looks on paper, or how much you enjoy being able to say "X is my agent."

I've already said it, but I'll repeat myself:  having a bad agent is worse than having no agent.

So don't be afraid to speak up and ask for what you need.  And if you don't get it, don't be afraid to terminate the relationship before it destroys you..

Why You Should Stop Selling Your Book (and Do Something Better)

Now, repeat after me: selling your book is bad.

Very bad.

“Wait . . . what?” you say. “If I don’t sell my book, who’s going to read it? Isn’t selling my book and making money what authors are supposed to do after publication?”

I don’t know. Is it?

If you want to ensure your book won’t sell, sell your book.

Here’s what I mean:

The on-line world is loaded with authors whining and begging people to, “Buy my book!” They form groups on Facebook, which amount to nothing more than broke writers marketing their books to other broke writers. They tweet purchase links all day and hit up social networks with ads . . . then cry at night because it did absolutely nothing for them.

How do you get a following these days with everyone and their dog writing a book, publishing it and calling themselves an author?

Or how does someone who starts from scratch come out of nowhere and move copies of their work without shoving it in people’s faces? (And we’ve all seen them: those authors whom we’ve never heard of move a gazillion copies.)

To build a following, marketing your book will get you nowhere. Sure, you might catch a few sales and feel like a success story all your own—and rightly you should, to be honest—but to keep those sales going and to build a readership, you need to switch up your game plan.

You need to start marketing yourself.

Some people call this branding. What are we? Cattle? I don’t want a brand for my books. I don’t want my books to be what I’m known for. I want me to be what I’m known for. When I’m dead and gone, that’s the thing that matters, not how many books I sold.

Stop chasing the almighty dollar and start chasing the reader.

You don’t want to be known as that distant author behind a desk somewhere. You don’t want to be that high-and-lofty literary guest at some convention. You want to be that down-to-earth extra awesome person who’s a familiar face at shows and signings. You want to be that friendly and approachable on-line personality who’s a class act and is genuinely interested in interacting with their readers.

“But all I want to do is write!”

Then get out of the business, frankly. Or, if you must write, then don’t publish. As much as I’m an art-first-money-later guy, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to make a few bucks off what I do. The motivation to make cash isn’t to be rich, though. I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to make enough to live on. But I can’t do that selling my book. I have to sell me.

Let me break it down for you in really simple terms:

When you first started writing, you went through a lot of trial and error and a lot of drafts. As you wrote a few books, you noticed your style started changing and at one point you reached that magical book where everything was different and you found your voice. Since then, your voice has been your style. Writing is easier, editing is easier, coming up with stories is easier, too.

This applies to your marketing efforts. You need to find your voice. You can’t just be another author spamming the world. There are ads everywhere for everything. People ignore that stuff. But they don’t tune out unique voices . . . especially if that voice has something of value to say. This is how followings are made and grown. You become known as the author “who’s like that.” Not the author “who’s like so-and-so . . . and a million others.”

I’ve been publishing since 2003, and indie publishing since 2004. I’ve seen it all. People have come and gone. There’s been successes and failures. Ups and downs. Yet there is one thing that has remained consistent throughout all of it: the authors who found their marketing voice are the ones who are still doing well today, who have a following, and have cultivated loyal readers based on who they are and not just their work.

To be clear, I’m not diminishing the importance of putting out good books. Sometimes that can indeed be enough to build a readership (i.e. it initiates word-of-mouth, etc.). But if you’re an author lost to the din of the flooded publishing world, writing a damn good book is probably not going to cut it. You need to get yourself out there and expose yourself to readers by showing them who you are behind the page.

Some writers niche themselves and become known for a certain thing or a certain personality. Others are more broad-brush. Whatever the case, simply blasting ads everywhere isn’t going to do anything for you. But if you meet people, whether on-line or off-, and not just use it as a means to pitch them your book, you’ll be surprised at how many copies you’ll move.

Put the people first, your book/comic/whatever second. This is so important. This about reputation and, at least for me, I never, ever buy books from people who blatantly shove it in my face. I don’t care how good the cover is or what the synopsis is about. As a reader, I want to be cared for. I want to know this isn’t just a money game to the writer.

Art first, book(s) second.

And if you’ve somehow missed the point of everything above, all I’m saying is be yourself, share yourself, then share info about your book after that.

Connect with readers first, then point them to the page.

We good?

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About the Author: An independent writer and cartoonist, A.P. Fuchs has been part of the underground publishing scene for twelve years. He is the author of more than forty books, loads of comics, short stories and poetry, and has a weekly newsletter called The Canister X Transmission, in which he currently discusses publishing and marketing tips, past work, indie creator spotlights and whatever’s on his mind that week. Heck, he’s so passionate about writing and publishing he even wrote several books on the subject, one a collection of the first year of his weekly newsletter, another called Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. Plus a few others. Sign up for his newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs and get a free thriller e-novelette out of the deal, and be sure to visit him on-line at his main hub at www.canisterx.com