Contracts and nothing but contracts

Do literary agents look at just one book contract without the author having to sign up with them, a one-off deal? I'm asking because an author may have a contract but want someone to look over it, etc? Do you know if literary agents do this?

Yes, they do - at least, Australian agents do. I can't/won't/don't enough to speak for agents from other lands.

Most agents receive the occasional request to look over a contract and, if we have the time, we will do it. Some agents will want to take on the author as a client but some - including me - don't do that even if the author asks. If an author already has a contract then I tend to believe they're past the point of me being able to do much for them - the existence of a contract signifies that the negotiation of advances and so on is over, so my usefulness extends to reading and negotiating the contract. I also don't like to take on clients unless I believe in their writing - the fact that they have a contract is not enough. But that's me. 

The only way to find out if an agent will look at the contract as a discrete action is to ask them - just don't ask all of them at once. Pick one and ask; it's a quick answer for an agent to give so you should hear back within a couple of days at most. If you don't hear back, move on to the next agent.

When agents give contract feedback as a one-off activity, they usually do not also negotiate that contract with the publisher - that responsibility falls to the author. But if you'd rather have the agent also negotiate the contract, you should raise that at the same time as you ask them to look at the contract.

Contract, no agent and questions

I have a contract with a publishing house and no agent. I’m very happy with the publishers and should they offer another contract after this one, I’d say yes without hesitation. But publishers are extremely busy and spread very thinly indeed and so I’d like an agent to help me sort through various issues that arise – some of them pretty trivial, but important to me. I am floundering around in the dark sometimes.

As far as I can make out, the best way to find an agent would be to wait until this contract is fulfilled, see if they want more, submit any manuscript that the publishers are interested in to an agent, who, if they like the manuscript, would take me on and then deal with the publishers for me. I would not be interested in shopping it around, as I like the publishing people I work with.

Would this be the best way to go about it?

Your instincts are correct ... it would be difficult to find an agent for the contract you have now. This is for straight-up business reasons - there's no commission to be made on a contract that's already done, and none of us can afford to work for nothing.

If you're a published author with a second contract being offered, you will probably be able to find an agent without much trouble, but I don't think that's really the issue: what you're looking for is advice, not necessarily someone to negotiate for you. Which brings me to a small soliloquy on the nature of agenting.

Agents manage the business of writing so writers can get on with writing i.e. being creative. Sometimes agents are involved in the creative side - when writers ask us for input on ideas and manuscripts - but generally it's the business that we take care of. We give career advice, we sort out problems, we do contracts, we negotiate deals. You may not need any of these things - not all authors do. You may just need someone to answer your questions. You may wish to pay someone commission to answer your questions, and that's legitimate too. I suspect some authors have agents just so they have someone to talk to about their writing who is not a friend or family member; again, that's a perfectly legitimate reason to have an agent. But you may also find someone else who can answer them - a fellow writer who's been through the publishing process, or your local writers' centre. Of course if neither of these is available to you, an agent can certainly answer your questions and would, one hopes, be happy to do so. Getting published can be a confusing process the first, third, tenth time.

Here's another idea: ask your publisher, editor and publicist. Yes, they're busy, but it's their job to give you information, amongst other things. Sometimes those of us 'on the inside' can forget that people who are new to the publishing world don't know the same things we know. Sometimes we just need them to ask us and we'll be eager to spill. Go on, give it a try. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Don't worry about a contract when there is no contract

I’ve heard that the publication process can allow for the author to promote his/her own work—I’m curious where ‘promotion’ ends and ‘potential contract violation’ begins. Specifically, what are the limitations for an unpublished author who is ready to start submitting to agents, but has had no contact with an agent yet?

Can an unpublished author submit his/her stuff (following the agent’s guidelines precisely, of course) and additionally refer the agent to a website/blog to see more about that submission if they wish, during the review period?

I’m worried that a referral like this: ‘…Please visit xyz.com, where I have provided you with samples of other material/artwork/resources relevant to the completion of this manuscript…’ would actually be read as this: ‘…Please visit xyz.com, where I will single-handedly void any claim to have never-been-published, by posting my entire manuscript!’

Are such sites/blogs irrelevant, and avoided by agents? Or are they helpful?

I think this question refers to what is commonly known as 'putting the cart before the horse'. Where there is no contract, the author cannot be in violation of one. Thus, an author who promotes his or her own work on a website when submitting to agents or publishers cannot be in violation of any contract and, in fact, is more likely to be looked on favourably because he or she already has a web presence.

What that author shouldn't do is direct the agent or publisher to the web for the submission itself. I.e. do not say, 'Dear agent, instead of sending you a proper submission I'd like you to go to my website.' That just looks lazy. And you know what I think about lazy authors? PASS.

Do I or don't I?

I have been absent from the blog due to an eye-watering amount of reading - which I'm still trying to get through - but this question came in so I felt duty bound to answer it ...

Q: While I was finishing Version Two of My Tome, I was fortunate enough to attend a pitching panel where a senior editor at a prominent publisher said she would read it when it was finished. Fortunately she acknowledged that it might take me a while to get back to her. It did. I engaged a professional editor to do a structural report and consequently wrote Version Three. The editor reread My Tome and declared it ready. Okay, so it's now one the desk of an editor at a prominent publisher. They've had it for about two and a half months. I am waiting patiently. Yeah okay, not so patiently, though I don't even want to imagine what their workload looks like. So my question is this: should I be looking for an agent? No offence, but I considered that if a publisher said 'Yes!' that they would have a standard contract and therefore there wouldn't be much for an agent to do. Reading your blog, however, alerted me to the fact that perhaps this is not the case and give the time frames involved in these endeavours that perhaps I should begin my agent search sooner rather than later.

First things first: you did the right thing in finding an editor for your manuscript, as it increased your chances of a publisher paying attention - you'd be surprised how many authors do not take such a step and it usually means they don't ever get published.

Now to the agent thing. There are a few little issues here ...
1. In my experience the contracts offered to agented authors are substantially different to those offered to unagented authors at most (not all) publishing companies. You could ask an intellectual property lawyer to look over your contract if you're concerned, although that may end up costing more than an agent's commission. You may also feel that you're really happy to manage the business side of writing as well as the creative - some authors love doing it. Those who don't usually have agents.

2. If your novel is fantastic, maybe more than one publisher would be interested in it. Just because this particular publisher is keen, are they necessarily the right publisher for your book? The right publisher is not always the first publisher who says, 'I love it!' or the publisher who offers you the most money. If you've written historical romance, say, and the editor you've been dealing with personally loves it enough to persuade everyone else at the Acquisitions meeting to publish it but the company has never done historical romance before - they specialise in thrillers and crime novels - are they really going to do the right thing by you? What happens if the editor leaves and your champion is gone? (This does happen and can have a huge effect on some authors.) There may be another publisher who is better for you.

3. For me, at least, taking on a new client means managing their career, not just one book. If you're a first-time novelist, it's crucial to get things right - or as right as possible - for that first book or your career can be over before it begins. (If you don't intend to write more than one book, though, you can ignore this bit ...) You may be able to get advice from someone you trust and that person can play the same sort of role I do for my authors - which is, truthfully, more about giving advice on career/writing/life than negotiating contracts - so you wouldn't need an agent. It is important, though, to have someone to talk to about the business of writing and things that come up in the creative process, regardless of whether that person is an agent or not.

Fundamentally, it can't hurt you to submit to agents at this stage - and in your cover letter you should mention that your manuscript is being seriously considered at a publishing company (name the company). If an agent wants to take you on then you can still say 'no' if you ultimately decide you don't need one. The one thing I will stress is that you need to put aside the excitement of thinking you may get published and look down the long road of your potential writing career. Think about what you need to do to have a career - what will be required to keep you happily productive for years to come. If handling the business side of things seems like it would be too much work and would distract you from your writing, you need an agent. If not, you don't.

How publishers can tie authors up in knots

Is it reasonable for an anthology to expect first publication rights when a) 'all rights remain with the author' is specified in the submission guidelines and b) they are not paying you anything? It seems from what I read that first publication rights are something you specifically sell in a contract. A short story of mine was recently withdrawn from an anthology at the last minute because it appeared in another publication (I wasn't aware of the latter until after I okayed the former). Neither of these publications asked me to sign anything. I understand the courtesy, but isn't the onus on the publisher to specify what 'previously unpublished' means?

It does sound as if you've ended up in a tangle entirely not of your own making. (And for clarity let's call the first publisher you mention - the one who ended up saying no - Publisher A, and the other is Publisher B.) It's hard to know exactly what to say without knowing the specifics of each publication, but it does seem a bit draconian of Publisher A to withdraw your story. The idea of 'first publication' rights would be for the first publisher, whoever that is, to have the commercial advantage - but unless your story's presence in Publisher B's anthology was going to mean that no one would buy Publisher A's anthology, there was no commercial reason to pull your story. Especially when, as you point out, they're not paying you and you haven't assigned any rights in a contract. And I'm presuming Publisher A didn't say 'you cannot submit your story to anyone else while you wait for our decision'. So they're being churlish. And there's not much you can do about it.