Dear O'Abby: What questions should I ask on The Call?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm kind of reeling!  After over a year of querying my novel and numerous requests for fulls, I have three agents wanting to have a call with me.  I'm excited, but also terrified.  All three are agents I'd be interested in working with, I think, so I'm wondering if you have any ideas on questions I should ask to make sure I pick the one that's best for me and my work.

Any ideas would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks so much!

Called

Dear Called,

Firstly, congratulations!  Getting to "The Call" is such and exciting moment.  And yes, terrifying. 

In terms of questions to ask, a lot of it depends on what you are personally most concerned about and what is most important to you in an agent.  So here are a few broad categories of questions you may want to ask, depending on what you are wanting to find out.

1. Stuff about your book - why they like it, how submission-ready they think it is, how many rounds of revision they think it needs.

2. Questions about their editorial process - editorial strengths, the style of their edits, how they like to do edits, who decides when to stop editing and send out.

3. The submission process- do they have an idea who they want to submit to, how many editors they will approach, whether you get any input into which imprints/editors they sub to, how many rounds of submissions they will do, if they will share their submission list.

4. Communication - ask about their preferred method of communication, how often they will be in touch, how long it will take for them to respond to questions, if there are any periods where they won't be communicating.

5. What happens after a book deal - how involved does the agent want to be, what happens if there is a dispute between the editor and the writer, does the agent/agency help with marketing & publicity.

6. Subsequent books - when do they want to see new projects, do they want to see projects even if they are not in a genre they usually rep, can you self-publish some books, if you have other completed manuscripts, are they especially interested in one over another?

7. Sub-rights - who handles them, how much say you get in these sales, commission percentage for sub-rights.

8. Any other questions you might have - maybe the number of clients they have, ask if you can see their agency agreement, where they stand on AI in writing, what their future plans are etc.

There are obviously a lot of other things you could ask. A good list of potential questions can be found here.

Hope this helps!

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: What about older books?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm so freaking excited!  I have a call with an agent who says she loves, loves, loves my book!  I've been in the query trenches for so long, with several different books, it feels like this might finally be my shot at getting published! I know, I know... I shouldn't be too excited.  It may turn to custard.  But I am prepared for that.

Anyway...  My question is about those other books I've queried in the past.  I still believe really strongly on some of them and hope that by getting an agent with this new book, I might have a shot at getting one of these older books published.  Is this something I should mention on the call?  Or would it be better to wait until I have signed with the agent before I bring these up?

Kind regards,

Cautiously Optimistic.

Dear Cautiously Optimistic,

Firstly, huge congratulations on getting to "The Call".  It's a huge step and you should be excited.  Good luck. I hope it works out for you.

In terms of mentioning your other books, my suggestion would be to wait and see if the agent asks.  In my experience, agents are very interested to know what you are working on and what else you might have available.  Agents are usually looking for authors they can work with across a career, not just on a single book.  So knowing you have written other books, and are planning on writing more, will be music to their ears.

That said, if those other books have been queried widely and never got anywhere, there may be a reason.  If the agent is an editorial agent, she may be willing to work with you to get these books to a point where they are ready to be submitted to publishers, but it may be they will require too much work to get to that point and the agent may encourage you to focus on something new.

Either way, the work you did on those other books is not wasted.  They taught you how to write a book and no doubt made you a better writer.  And even if you don't publish them, there may be scenes or characters or just single lines in them that can be used in future stories.

I hope this is helpful and I have my fingers crossed that your call goes well.  Do let us know!

X O'Abby 

Dear O'Abby: Multiple agents offered. How do I choose?

Dear O'Abby,

I've been querying a new book for about six months and finally got some agents interested enough in it to schedule some calls.  I wasn't expecting it, but three of the four agents I talked to made offers of representation.

So now I have to choose which one to go with.  And I have no idea how to do that.  They're all good agents - I wouldn't have queried them if they weren't - and I would be happy to work with any of them.

Do you have any advice on how to handle this situation?

Best,

Over-Agented

Dear Over-Agented,

Firstly, congratulations on having written a book that generates this kind of response.  This level of agent interest is a really positive sign!

I understand how difficult this decision is, but you're right - you have to make it.  And it's an important decision.  You are going to have to work with this agent very closely and you need to make sure your decision is a sound one.

In your calls with the agents I'm sure you talked to all of them about revisions and their plans for the book going forward.  Think hard about the comments made.  Which agent's vision for your book most aligned with your own?  Which revision suggestions really resonated with you?  This is always a good place to start.  If an agent's vision of what your book is differs from your own, it might point to problems down the track.

Think about other things you spoke about during the call.  Did the agent's communication style gel with you?  Did she explain her process when taking the book on submission?  Did she answer your questions in a way that satisfied you?

If you've got that far through and you still don't have a preference, look at the larger picture.  Does the agent work for a larger agency which will support her when her workload is large?  What books has she already sold?  Is she just starting out on her agenting career or is she experienced?  If she's new, does she have a more experienced agent mentoring or supporting her?

And don't be afraid to reach out to any of these agents other clients to ask about working with them.  If she's a good agent, she has nothing to fear from you doing this and it's an excellent way to learn from someone who is already working with them whether she responds promptly to emails or if she's good at hand-holding during nerve-wracking moments.

At the end of the day, it's decision you have to make and be happy with.  Don't ignore your gut feelings, but do your due diligence as well.  If you're lucky, this will be a long and successful relationship!

Good luck!

X O'Abby

What to do when an agent wants to schedule The Call

Hello all! As you may have seen on Twitter, I am now represented by Christa Heschke of McIntosh & Otis!

Hooray!

When I was trying to navigate The Call, I really struggled to find info on the internet, so I thought I’d write today about what all happened once an agent contacted me to schedule The Call and everything that came after.

Getting the First "The Call" Email

I was first contacted by an agent who had my full manuscript after they’d had it for about three weeks. I'd never gotten that far in the query process before - with my previous manuscript, I did have an agent email me to get more info but they said "no" once I told them my plan - so it was an exciting but also really scary time! I didn't want to mess it up.

The agent and I set up a time to chat on the phone. I did some research about the agent, looking up other works they'd represented and such, and also researched what to ask. I recommend the list of questions found here. I also found that it was helpful to ask how the agent would prefer to work on the manuscript (Google Drive, Word, etc.) because I have strong feelings about Google Drive. But that's just me.

When we got on the phone, the agent told me what they enjoyed about my manuscript and why they wanted to represent it. They even gave me some suggested edits, which I was surprised about; however, I'm glad they did that because some of the other agents I spoke with also gave me notes, and it made the choice easier once I had an idea of their editorial styles. At the end of the call, the agent offered to represent me, at which point I basically lost the ability to speak. It’s a good thing my partner was in the room to remind me to say, “thank you!”

Informing Other Agents

The agent gave me two weeks to respond to the offer. As soon as I’d gotten myself together, I wrote up an email with the subject line "Offer of Representation" for the other agents who had my full. It went something like this:

Dear [Agent],  

I am writing to inform you that I have received an offer of representation. I have until [deadline] to respond, so if you are also interested, could you please inform me by [earlier date]? Thank you.

Almost every agent who had the full manuscript responded within a day or so and let me know that they would read the manuscript as soon as possible. (Side note: using the phrase "Offer of Representation" in the subject line is a good idea because agents may do a search in their inbox for this phrase. If they use QueryManager, it's easy to send a notification that you have received an offer.) I asked agents to reply by a week before the deadline in case they also wanted to schedule phone calls, which seemed like a fair amount of time to me.

I also reached out to the agents I had queried but hadn’t heard back from yet. Here’s the gist of what I wrote to them:

Dear [Agent],

I am writing to inform you that I have received an offer of representation. I know you might not have seen my query yet, but if you are interested in my work, I can give you until [earlier date] with the full manuscript. Otherwise, I understand that this is a short turnaround and don’t want to rush you.

About half of the agents who had my query replied. Most of them replied with variations on “thanks, but no thanks,” although a couple requested the full manuscript. I never heard back from the remaining few. It was definitely worth letting them know!

In the end, I scheduled a few phone calls and had some awesome conversations with several agents. Like I said above, almost everyone offered feedback (one agent declined and told me that she'd only give me notes if I signed with her, which was fair). I definitely recommend asking if you can see a copy of the agency agreement before you sign, which agents may or may not agree to do. It's not that any of the agreements were sketchy, but they were all so different with respect to the agent's and my responsibilities.

Making a Decision

The hardest part by far was making a decision. I'm a people-pleaser, so it was really hard to tell anyone "no," even though I obviously couldn't sign with multiple agents at multiple agencies. I chose Christa in the end because I felt like she understood what I wanted to accomplish with this manuscript and her interests were well-aligned with where I saw my writing career going. That's not to say that the other agents weren't also a good fit for me, it's just that I thought Christa was the best fit.

Once I'd signed with Christa, I had to do the tough thing: send an email to the other agents who had offered representation to let them know. Here's what I said:

Dear [Agent],

Thank you for reading [manuscript] and for taking the time to chat with me. While I enjoyed talking with you about [manuscript] and your vision for it, I've decided to work with another agent. Thanks again, and I wish you all the best!

So now here I am! I'm working with Christa on my revisions, and hopefully you'll hear from me again soon with more good news!

For now, this is my life

If you have questions or you'd like more info, drop a comment below! You might also check out the O'Abby post from February of this year on this topic :)

Dear O'Abby: How do I do "The Call" if I'm non-verbal?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm not actually at The Call stage yet, but I am querying, and it occurs to me that if an agent is interested in my book and wants to schedule The Call, I don't know how to handle it.  You see, I'm mute.  I don't speak.  I'm non-verbal.  So phone calls are not something I can do.

How should I deal with this if or when it comes up?

Best,

Silent.

Dear Silent,

 I don't think this should be a problem at all in these days of modern technology.  You just need to be honest with the agent about the fact you're non-verbal.  There are numerous different platforms on which you can converse through text, rather than speaking out loud. 

As someone used to navigating the world without speaking, you probably already have platforms you use to converse with others through text - Slack or Teams or Skype or Messenger (there are probably even more I've never heard of too).  You will just need to agree with the agent what platform you are going to use and arrange a time for the conversation to begin.

So many people, even those who do speak, have anxiety about speaking on the telephone, I'm sure doing The Call this way is not unusual and many agents will have done this before.

So don't fret about this or let it stop you sending out those queries.  If your book is good, and an agent wants to represent it, the fact you can't speak to her on the phone is not going to be a deal breaker.  It's your writing she loves after all!

XX O'Abby.

Dear O'Abby, Do I Need to Pick my Own Editor?

Dear O'Abby,

I was lucky enough to get offers for a call with several agents recently. One of the agents I talked to said she only submits manuscripts to editors on a list made by the writer, she doesn't do any list-making herself. Tbh I hadn't thought that far ahead and if she had asked me I wouldn't have known what to say.

As a querying writer, should I have a list of editors prepared?

Best wishes,

Bemused.

Dear Bemused,

This is not something I've ever heard of before.  In my experience, agents usually put together their own list of editors to pitch any of the books they acquire to.  They have existing relationships with these people and meet with them regularly to keep on top of what they are looking for.  In fact, one of the main reasons you want an agent is because they have access to editors an writer doesn't have on their own.

An author can't be expected to know who the right editor for their book might be.  Sure, you can find the name of the editor of book you love or one you feel is similar to your own, but that doesn't necessarily mean that editor will be looking for a book like yours.  Maybe they already have a similar story on their list.  Maybe they have stopped looking for books like the one you read because they sense the market is cooling for that type of story.  Maybe they don't even work for that publisher anymore.

These are the things an agent should bring to your partnership, the things they are the expert in.  And once you both feel the book is ready to go out on submission, she should be able to show you the list of editors she is going to pitch it to.  She should also explain the reasons why she's choosing these editors and how she's going to pitch the book to them.  This is the point you need to decide if you want to hear all the feedback she gets on your project as it comes in, or if you'd rather just hear if they passed or were interested.

I think there should be an opportunity for you to make a suggestion if you have some information or a relationship with a certain editor, or a very strong feeling about a particular publishing company you feel would be perfect for your book, but the onus should not be on the author to decide who the book is submitted to.  That's the agent's job - what you will be paying her for when the book sells.

So, I see that particular question as being a red flag.  The agent's job is to know the editors at various publishing houses and be on top of their likes and dislikes.  Any agent who asked me to do her job for her, is not an agent I would want to sign with.  If she doesn't want to do this very basic function of her job, who knows what else she might decide she doesn't want to do?

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: An Agent Wants A Call. Help!

Dear O'Abby,

I just got an email from an agent I submitted my MS to saying she wants to set up a call to chat with me.  I'm going to have 'The Call'!

Sorry....  I still can't quite believe I'm at this stage.  I've been dancing around the house like a lunatic for a couple of hours now, but the reality is beginning to sink in and it occurs to me that I have no clue what to say on this call.

Do you have any advice on how to handle this?

Cheers,

Caller # 4

Dear Caller #4,

First up, congratulations!  Getting to 'The Call' is a huge step, and a very exciting one.  But it's also a very important one, so you need to be prepared for it.

This is your opportunity to figure out if you want to work with this agent, if you feel she is the right person to represent your book and any future books you might write.  So pay attention to how you feel while you're talking to her.  When I did my 'The Call', we did it via Skype so I had the added advantage of being able to see the people I was talking to to read body language as well as tone of voice, but you may not have this option.

You should have some questions ready ahead of time.  In the excitement of actually speaking to someone who loves your book and wants to represent it, you are likely to forget a lot of what you wanted to ask, so it helps to have it written down.

Important topics to cover are the agent's experience, what their agency agreement looks like and the terms and conditions, what her preferred method of communication might be and how responsive she is to communications, editorial style and how much editorial work she feels might be needed pre-submission, how much detail you will be given about the submission process and contingencies for things like the agency closing or the agent moving on.

If at any stage the agent talks to you about money for services, that's a red flag.  An agent should only take 15% of any sales she makes.  No money should change hands between agent and client until a book is sold.

If there is anything else really important to you, note it down so you can ask about it now.  There's nothing worse than discovering six months into an agent-client relationship that something you consider non-negotiable is not possible with this agent or agency.

And good luck!  I hope the call goes well and you and your agent have a long and lucrative partnership ahead of you.

X O'Abby