It’s all part of the dream, isn’t it? Write a book, secure a literary agent, get a publishing contract, and then retire on the proceeds.
But that second bit, securing a literary agent, isn’t straightforward. It can take years. I first began approaching literary agents back in 2008 and finally signed with an agency some seven years later.
So the thought of having to do all that, all over again, can terrify authors. Yet, it’s more common than you might think. I remember when I sat on a literary festival author panel with four other writers, and an audience member asked us about how to get an agent. As we each gave our advice, it soon became clear that I was the only author still with their original agent. The other four writers were on their second or third!
Changing Circumstances
There is a myriad of reasons why an author-agent relationship ends. Typically, it’s because of a change in business circumstances rather than any dramatic fallout between both parties.
Agents may retire, although many continue working well after the normal retirement age because they enjoy their job so much, with some continuing until they die.
Authors represented by small agencies or individual practitioners feel the impact of a literary agent’s death the greatest. Larger agencies often move affected authors onto other agents’ lists within the company.
Agents can, and do, move around, sometimes joining larger agencies to further develop their career. Typically, authors can transfer with the agent, stay with the agency and join a different agent, or start again from scratch and find a new agent.
Sometimes, an author’s career can outgrow the agent, especially if the agent is the sole agent in that agency. Alternatively, if an author decides they want to write in a different genre and their agent has less experience in that market, it can make sense to part ways.
Allie Reynolds was once a freestyle snowboarder who grew up in England but later moved to Australia’s Gold Coast. Having written a thriller, she then began looking for an agent to represent her.
‘It took three months for me to secure an agent the first time round,’ Allie explains. ‘I used the excellent resources on the Jericho Writers website, including their Agent Match tool, to browse for agents who are open to submissions in my thriller genre. I submitted my query letter, synopsis, and sample chapters to four UK agents and got swift rejections, which was devastating!’
‘I did a brutal round of editing,’ she continues, ‘cutting out every single unnecessary word in my manuscript, particularly in the first few chapters, to make my work as clean and lean as possible, then I submitted to four more agents.’
Agent Action
What happened next is every writer’s dream.
‘To my amazement, four hours later, I received an email from Kate Burke at Blake Friedmann, saying she’d love to read the full manuscript. I emailed the other three agents to say I’d had a full request, which is standard practice, and they all rapidly requested the full manuscript too!’
But things were about to get even more frenetic for Allie.
‘The next day, I received a request for a phone call from Kate Burke, so again, I let the other agents know, and two others also requested a phone call. After speaking with Kate and the other two agents, I accepted representation from Kate in March 2019.’
For Allie, that’s when the hard work began, as her agent helped her knock her manuscript into shape.
‘Kate Burke is very hands on editorially, and gave me extensive editorial help for my first two thrillers, Shiver, and The Bay.’
It worked well, and Allie’s first thriller, Shiver, was published in 2021, following a ten-way auction resulting in a joint publishing deal with Headline UK and Hachette Australia. It also sold in twenty-four other territories, and it was even optioned for a TV series.
Her second thriller, titled The Bay in the UK and The Swell in the US, was published in 2022.
Diverging Dreams
But then the market changed.
‘By 2022, I became aware that our tastes had diverged,’ Allie reveals. ‘She gave me extensive help with book three, but the thriller market was over-saturated by this point, and not many thrillers were selling. She recommended making drastic changes that I didn’t feel able to make. For a year, we remained in limbo. I considered leaving her but decided against it.’
‘After a year,’ Allie continues, ‘she suggested parting, saying she felt she’d taken me as far as she could, plus she was looking to reduce her list and take more of a managerial role at the agency. We parted very amicably.’
This meant Allie was now looking for another agent again. However, this time, she wasn’t approaching agents as an unpublished author, but one with a track record.
Despite that, it still wasn’t easy securing a new agent relationship. It took an entire year for Allie to find a new agent, and she eventually signed with Stephanie Glencross at David Higham Associates.
‘I’m currently editing book three with her,’ she says. ‘Our tastes are so similar, I’m on board with all her suggested changes and feel hopeful the book might eventually sell.’
Allie is now hopeful for the future again, but the time when she was without an agent was challenging at times.
‘I felt absolutely lost during my year without an agent,’ Allie admits. ‘I missed being able to get up-to-date market advice and run ideas past someone. My debut, Shiver, had sold in twenty-four territories, so I didn’t expect it to be so hard to find a new agent. But fiction has trends, and thrillers weren’t as on trend in 2024 as they were in 2019.’
Creative Crash
Parting company with her first agent and then trying to secure another one also had a creative knock-on effect. Allie even questioned her decision to become a full-time writer.
‘I felt really blocked creatively, unsure what to work on, and didn’t know if I’d just wasted two years. I’d quit teaching in 2018 to be a full-time writer. As a single mum of two young boys, it was terrifying not knowing when or if I’d ever make an income from writing again. I tried to return to teaching, but after so long out of the profession, I couldn’t find regular work. My confidence was shattered. I felt devastated—like I’d failed.’
In hindsight, Allie wished she’d done some things slightly differently.
‘I wish I’d had a bit more confidence in myself. Self-doubt is a killer of creativity. I received some early full requests from prospective new agents, which gave me hope, but I then waited months for them to get back to me. One of them still hasn’t got back to me on the full manuscript, to this day, two years on! I wish I hadn’t waited so long. I should have submitted to more agents instead.’
Allie’s Advice
What advice does Allie have for writers searching for an agent, now that she has secured a literary representative not once, but twice?
‘Edit your manuscript brutally, especially your first chapters in the submission package,’ she advises. ‘Typos and grammar mistakes will put agents off and distract from your story. I recommend the books The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King for editing.’
‘Many writers submit to agents before their work is ready. Agents often work editorially, but they are busy people and don’t usually have time to fix a ton of basic mistakes. Ideally, get beta readers to read your work before submitting.’
It’s important to keep abreast of current publishing news, in particular the type of material that agents are currently selling. Publishing is a slow business, with sales to publishers happening a couple of years before the books are actually published.
‘If querying UK agents,’ Allie continues, ‘The Bookseller is fantastic for up-to-date news on the market: what’s selling, what’s trending, what’s getting the big deals, and which agents are making those deals. You have to pay to subscribe, but look out for special deals, e.g., sometimes they offer specials like 18 weeks for £18. If querying USA agents, Publishers Marketplace is a similar publication.’
‘I don’t recommend writing to a trend, but it’s good to know what the trends are. That way, if your book has any elements of those trends, you can highlight them in your query letter.’
Finding a first agent is incredibly challenging, so the thought of finding another one can be even more daunting. But people move on in all areas of publishing, and changing agents is a lot more common than we might first imagine.
As Allie’s experience shows, although changing agents can be stressful, hopefully, it can be the start of a whole new chapter in our writing business.
Business Directory: Changing Agent Checklist
- If you wish to leave your agency, check your contract. Most require a notice period of between 30 and 90 days. Typically, agents continue to receive commission on all contracts they negotiated on your behalf.
- End the relationship professionally. Always remain calm, considered, and factual. Thank agents for what they have done for you.
- Consider your future needs. When looking for a new agent, be clear about what you want from them. Do you want to change direction to a different genre, or take your career to the next level?
- Look for agents who represent your genre or authors at a similar stage as you in your writing career.
- Be upfront about the past. When approaching agents, begin by explaining who previously represented you and why you moved on.
- If you receive an offer of representation, don’t rush to accept. Consider carefully. Better to wait for the right relationship, than accept the first offer and later regret it.
© Simon Whaley