Last week I moved one step closer towards my dream of becoming a published writer when I signed an agent agreement with Dawn Dowdle of Blue Ridge Literary Agency. Having an agent doesn’t guarantee your book will be published. However, there are definitely advantages.
There have been so many changes to the publishing industry over the past few decades that I can’t even begin to list them all. However, here are a few of the key changes:
- Mergers of publishing houses
- Self publishing increases
- eBook publishing increases
There are now five major trade book publishers in the United Sates:
Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins
Macmillan Publishers
Penguin Random House
Simon & Schuster
Why does any of this matter to a writer?
Here’s a word problem. If Penguin had contracts with 1,000 authors and Random House had contracts with 1,000 authors, now that the companies have merged, Penguin Random House now has 2,000 contracted authors. How much would the resources (money, editing, publicity, marketing) need to increase so that all of the authors get the same attention as before the merger? Answer? Who knows. That’s not typically how mergers work (and I went through a lot of mergers when I worked for a CPA firm). Twice the work does not translate to twice the employees to handle that work. Instead, staff is often cut and each employee takes on more work. I’ve seen articles that publishing mergers resulted in cuts to editorial staff. So, limited resources are spread out over a larger pool of authors. For a first-time author with no proven track record of success, the result is often that publishers are less inclined to offer contracts to newbies.
However, getting published by a major publisher is still the dream of many writers, including myself. So, Why get an agent? Most large publishers will not accept submissions directly from an author. Agents act as the first line of defense between publishers and authors. They establish relationships with publishers, read through slush piles of submissions and provide a filter between editors and authors. Some agents (like Dawn Dowdle) actually edit the manuscripts they represent prior to submitting to a publisher.
For me, getting an agent meant finding an advocate, someone who believed in me and was able to help me navigate the crazy road to publication. An agent will focus on selling my manuscript and allow me to focus on writing. The road to publication can be long and winding with multiple turns. I’m thankful that I have someone to help steer me through the maze.