What Happens After You Get An Agent
There are a lot of information out there about where to find agents, how to submit to them but not so much about what happens after you’ve signed with an agent. Before I go further I just want to clarify — all the below information is about authors represented by UK agents with the UK as their primary market.
Agent Edits
Yes, more edits!! The first thing your agent will do is send you their editorial notes to get your manuscript in shape before it can be sent out to publishers. You should have discussed those changes in broad brushstrokes when you meet your agent so it’s not brand new information. Depending on the shape of your manuscript, the length of the notes can vary. It can be anything from a complete rewrite from one to multiple POVs, structural changes, improving characterisation, developing or dropping characters, adding contents, etc… Once you’ve finished your edits you’ll send the manuscript back to your agent for their feedback. You will go through as many rounds of edits as necessary. For my manuscript, we did two rounds of edits, my agent mainly wanted to me add a few more red herrings, as well as develop further the relationship between the main characters. I loved the editing process with my agent. She had great questions and suggestions that made me re-evaluate my work and showed me ways to make the story and the narrative even stronger (yes, I’m part of those strange people who like editing).
Getting ready for submission
Once your agent feels the manuscript is ready to be send out on sub to publishers, they will send you their sub list — the UK publishers they will approach and specifically which editors at each publisher. They will also share their pitch for your book if they haven’t already. My agent had already given me her pitch and comp titles during our initial meeting and the follow-up email she sent me afterwards.
One important thing to discuss and agree at this stage is how you want your agent to communicate with you during the submission process.
Do you want your agent to contact you each time they receive an answer regardless if it’s a yes or a no?
Do you prefer an email update once a week even if it’s just to say “no news this week”?
Do you want to know who passes and why?
Do you just want to know the no’s but not the reason?
There isn’t one option better than the others, you have to choose the one that works for you. In my case, I couldn’t bear staring at my inbox refreshing every ten minutes, wondering when there would be news so I asked 1) a weekly email update 2) being told about the no’s but not the reason why.
I also prepared myself that we might not hear anything for the first couple of weeks as editors are usually busy, plus we went on sub during the lockdown so editors had to juggle working from home, plus looking after their family also stuck at home.
Being out on sub
I thought submitting to agents was a real rollercoaster but it was nothing compared to being out on sub to publishers. If the UK is your primary market then the process with publishers is as follow:
An editor comes back to your agent and say they like your novel.
Next step is for them to share it with their team
If their team likes it then they will take it to the next acquisition meeting
Acquisition meeting is a company-wide meeting which normally includes the sales department, publicity, marketing, finance where the editor pitches the novel they would like to buy to get approval at all level. So having the interest of an editor is like getting a request for the full manuscript from an agent — it’s not a definite yes.
If you are lucky to have several editors interested who have had positive results at their acquisition meeting then you are heading towards an auction.
Auction
Your agent will give a deadline for all editors interested to get their opening bid in. The bid normally involved the following info:
Size of the advance
What kind of book deal (for debuts it is a normally 1 or 2-book deal, series or standalone books, if your agent pitch the first in a trilogy then it can be a 3-book deal)
Rough publication date (for example summer 2022)
Format covered by the deal (hardback, paperback, audio, e-book)
Rights (UK & Commonwealth, World English Language or World rights)
Once all opening bids are in then your agent will ask for next best bid, and following those then the top three/four bids will be selected for the next round which involves meeting the editors and possibly people from other teams as well (meetings are face-to-face or online depending). This is your chance to meet the editor you could be working with. Meeting editors was an overwhelming experience, I suddenly had those industry professionals telling me how much they love my book, the characters, how they wanted to market it, talking publicity. The attention can feel flattering, but remember that you are choosing them too so don’t get side-tracked, ask plenty of questions about their vision, their editorial notes, how much are they expecting you to get involved in publicity, what’s their marketing plan, etc…
Then your agent gets their final offer. Now this is where getting the right agent for you is so crucial. Mine called me straight after the three meetings to talk through how I felt, did I have any preferences, any questions. She never told me what to do but she shared her knowledge at every turn. She also allowed me to have the time I needed to make any decision. I felt she had my back at every step of the way.
Pre-empt
If an editor is desperate to publish your book and doesn’t want to gamble in an auction, they might offer what is called a pre-empt, which means offer a substantial amount of money to bypass the auction and sign the author straight on. The pros of a pre-empt is that it can mean more money than an auction (but not always) it makes the sub process much shorter and less stressful. However the cons are that you sign without knowing what the editorial notes would be, not meeting the editor you will be working with before signing or knowing what their marketing plan for your book would be.
Foreign Rights
At the same time your agent will sub out to the UK, they will also sub to foreign territories. Depending on the size of the agency representing you it might be handled in-house or your agent will use co-agents. There is no hard rules about foreign deals, a few can come in while you are out on sub, they can trickle in over a period of several months, they can happen after your book has been published depending on how successful it is. Your agent can also use one of the book fairs to speak to foreign publishers and make more deals for your book.
Being out on sub is a rollercoaster whether it goes fast or over a longer period of time. During that stressful time, your agent will be your biggest ally, hence why I can’t stress enough how crucial signing with the right agent is. I hope this series about the path to publication has been helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
