Some things have changed since then and some have stayed the same. Eudora
Welty, of course, became one of our great novelists, thanks to her magnificent
writing and also, in part, to Russell's hard work. But publishing has changed,
and that means that an agent's role isn't that of an "added extra"
anymore, but often critical to the publishing process. In an era when mergers
and acquisitions have gobbled up large publishing houses and created ever
larger (and fewer) ones, the economics of publishing have changed. As you'd
expect, there are fewer editors to go around; that means every editor has
less time to read book proposals and either accept or reject them. They
rely on agents to send them the proposals they're likely to find
interesting. In most large publishing houses, book proposals and manuscripts
that arrive unsolicited and without an agent are rejected unread as a matter
of policy.
That's one reason to have representation. Another has to do with the things
an agent can do for you that you might not know how to do otherwise. It's
true that authors usually earn more from their books when they're represented
by agents than when they go it alone; but there's more to that equation
than just good salesmanship. At best, a literary agent helps guide projects
from the idea stage to fruition, provides advice when you have questions
about the publishing process, helps you shape a successful proposal, reads
your manuscripts-in-progress when you want some feedback, and (almost proverbially)
gives you moral support when you feel you just can't write another word.
In a more prosaic sense, your agent handles most of the business aspects
of your life as an author so that you won't have to, and so that you'll
preserve your rights and receive the compensation you deserve for your work.
Your agent interests editors in your work, receives competing bids from
publishers (helping you to select the right one), and, perhaps most importantly,
negotiates the specifics of your publishing contracts--complicated documents
whose subtleties are tremendously important. If your publisher refuses to
publicize your book, it's your agent who demands that the marketing get
done. If your royalty payments are short, or late, or simply don't arrive,
your agent polices the statement and demands corrections.
And an agent keeps the long term in mind. Who are you as an author? What
about your next book? Sometimes, as in Russell's day, an agent helps a writer
look into the future a little and see an author who can make a difference,
over many years and many written works to come.
Writers sometimes express frustration that ever fewer books are published,
seemingly over and over by the same bestselling authors. In fact, the opposite
is true! More books are published in the U.S. each year than the year before,
and every bestselling author had to start somewhere. Publishers are constantly
on the lookout for the next bestselling author--without whom their
catalogues would be very dull indeed. But with all that competition, it's
harder and harder for an author working alone to find editors who will pay
attention--either before or after the book is under contract. Your agent
can help you get noticed and keep getting noticed. And if your first book
doesn't quite make it onto the bestseller lists, your agent will be there
encouraging you to write the book that will. There is no prouder moment
for an agent than when a client's book first reaches bookstores, starts
selling, and begins to get great reviews. That's one of the real rewards
of the work we do, because we know how much work it took behind the scenes
for an author to reach this happy moment.
Writing and publishing a book can be a long process, but it's still an
exciting one, and agents are here to help writers get through it--and enjoy
it!
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