(This question is part of a larger subseries called Perpetual WIPs: Mid-Career Authors. For the remaining questions, see here.)
Any advice for agents looking to sign mid-career authors looking for new agents that you might not have found space to mention here?
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We’re not debuts anymore! Please talk to us and ask us about our whole career, what we want not just for the book in front of you at the moment but two, three, five years down the line. And also trust that we have some (varying by author, YMMV) experience in publishing too. Some of us want to be involved in more of the process than others, but none of us–at least no one I’ve spoken to–want to be dismissed at this point with, “Agent knows best.” If that were true, we wouldn’t be looking for new representation.
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I think any author looking to change agents in the middle of their career is probably unsatisfied with something about their career. They’re stuck in the midlist, they can’t break into foreign markets, they want to switch age groups or genres. Find out what the author is unsatisfied with and then have something to offer in that area.
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It helped that the agent I signed with was really familiar with my work so far, and interested in the next phase of my career. It’s not really possible to read an author’s entire back catalogue before offering representation, but in general, I think mid-career authors are as interested in future (or simultaneous) projects as they are in the current book, and how to continue to build and improve upon what they’ve already achieved. Not that debut authors don’t have goals for the future or other WIPs to discuss, but it’s just a different journey for mid-career authors, and it’s good to familiarize yourself with where they’ve been, in order to discuss where they want to go next.
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I don’t know if I can speak generally, but I do know I was looking for someone who was interested in me for all of the different things I wanted to write. I was in the middle of a contract, and I wasn’t going to sell a “new” project with my new agent for some time, so they also had to be interested in playing maybe a slightly longer game.
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As a general rule, authors at a midpoint in their career aren’t thinking of the agent search as looking for representation for a single book, and I think a lot of agents who get traditional queries from mid-career authors lose sight of that fact and treat them like first-timers who only care about that one title. But that isn’t likely to be the right approach for authors at this stage; when you’ve already split from one agent, the last thing you wanna do is find yourself in that position again, so you’re much more likely to make sure all bases are covered. I was really surprised at how many agents were apathetic when it came to talking about what else I want to do beyond the book I queried, and it was easy to strike them from my list.
I also found it really offputting when agents focused way too much on their other clients on their calls with me, but again, that told me how it might feel to work with them and it was easy to strike them too. I’m not that self-centered, but if you sound way more excited about other books on a call that’s supposed to be about why you’re the person to represent mine, that’s not gonna leave me with a great feeling.
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Don’t make assumptions. Authors who come to you from…..less than stellar agent relationships might not know as much as you think. It’s worth it to take some time to set expectations together and get on the same page.
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The Daily Dahlia 