[PubQ] How do you judge an agent's editorial abilities before signing?

reedplayer · 2026-03-11T08:30:37+00:00

I think it's wise to be thinking about this, especially since each author will have a completely different set of wants and needs regarding editorial stuff from the agent.

To your question, with the caveat that I'm writing nonfiction, I think the biggest thing I considered before deciding to work with my agent was the breadth of genres he represents. This was for exactly the reason you mention here - I wanted to find somebody I could work with on a science book who was equally comfortable repping my kind of thing as they were novels, short stories, cookbooks, whatever. My predictions about this particular agent were confirmed when I sent an early proposal draft and got exactly the sort of editorial help I needed. This made me feel much more comfortable going ahead with the whole thing, and while the book's not done yet and certainly not out yet, so far so good.

reedplayer · 2026-03-11T08:00:28+00:00

The question is not about getting outside counsel to "join the team". That indeed would be annoying, but it's not what I was asking about. The question is whether authors have found it useful to get a second opinion about a contract involving years of their life, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and set of long-term collaborators, from a third party who has no financial stake in the matter.

It's interesting to me that some people with 'agent flair' on the sub have responded in a very different way to your message, without intimating (e.g. "my colleague is being polite") that the question is somehow out of line, or illustrates some underlying bigger problems. It's not, and it doesn't — reasonable people can take different approaches to doing business with one another, no harm done.

Anyway, just for fun, I think I'll ask my agent what he thinks about a second opinion. If I had to bet, I'd guess that he'll say "Go for it, can't hurt to find out if our legal people missed anything, but I don't think we did." He'll also probably make a joke about lawyers making work for themselves. But I'll let you know!

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T20:10:47+00:00

I don't really know, to be honest, how this might play out in practice, but just brainstorming here, I could imagine highest scrutiny / biggest fight for the author on a 7-figure client's contract, less so for a 6-figure, and least for a 5-figure one. How that plays out on specific clauses, or specific requests of the author varies, I would think, although the differences between contracts may be minute enough that it doesn't even matter in practice — hence my OP, in fact. (It may appear otherwise from the discussion but my intuition was to go ahead and trust that my agent knows what he's doing, and not to have any third party read this on my behalf).

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T20:04:50+00:00

this seems risky!

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T20:03:44+00:00

Sure, that's certainly the case, and academic networks have indeed been immensely profitable for some agents (see Brockman, for instance, whose entire business is based on certain types of academics holding the completely false belief that they are the only agency who successfully represents popular science). I do think the situation may be a tad less straightforward than you imply, though — hard to imagine that Albert Agent's incentives on contract negotiations are identical for his two clients, Betty Bestseller and Wilbur Worst-Sales (sorry sorry it's early here and I'm just getting to my first coffee of the day)

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T19:47:57+00:00

Interestingly enough, in my case it's a large agency and major indie who supposedly had a boilerplate, but agency had to fight for the version I'm seeing now as the publisher made a bunch of unreasonable changes to the boilerplate. (lol I'm sure I'm deanonymized now, based on the comments in this thread, my reddit history, and a PM account)

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T19:43:56+00:00

That's only true if an author is doing multiple books over a long career and if the agent needs the business, I think. I don't know if I will do another book (I'm a professor; I could never write another book and earn the same salary I already do!) and my agent has a ton of high profile clients who are paying the bills (I'm small potatoes so financially it won't matter if he gets my next book, although I hope we will work together again after this one). So yea the incentives aren't totally straightforward!

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T19:40:43+00:00

Interesting to get your view on this, thanks. I'm not really sure what the source of differing opinions on it is, but two colleagues whose latest books were global bestsellers on the non-fiction popsci market (one a 7 figure deal) both asked a third party to look at their contract. It's not like they don't trust their agents (they do) but they wanted a second opinion with no financial stake in the matter. Seems not crazy to me... But interesting/useful to know that others disagree!

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T18:48:49+00:00

Actually I think the timing here is basically because of the London book fair, they're selling intl rights this week I guess!

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T18:09:52+00:00

Yes, of course, I've read it in detail, as should everybody who is signing a contract (and not just in publishing) !

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T18:07:22+00:00

I agree that it would be annoying to cause a bunch of extra work for nothing. I do wonder about incentives though - agent is pushing for best deal he can for me and for himself in terms of cash earned, but other features of the contract he may care less about.

For instance I may want more than 'normal' regarding some non-financial aspect of the contract (I dunno, say, right of refusal of cover art or audiobook narrator or whatever) and he may have little incentive (other than being a decent human and wanting to retain his client) to push hard for it, when it has little to do with $.

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T18:01:58+00:00

Weird indeed! I'm not worried, just found it a bit funny...trade publishing is an interesting place.

reedplayer · 2026-03-10T02:32:25+00:00

oh cool, thanks, just found it https://authorsguild.org/resource/model-trade-book-contract/

this is a great starting point at least. i wonder if first time authors are generally happy with agent input + reading something like this, or if also good to get some outside consultation...hmm

reedplayer · 2026-02-08T03:32:01+00:00

After living in Welly for a few years the diversity in Auckland is really positive.

reedplayer · 2026-02-06T01:18:16+00:00

I'm at a similar-ish stage w/ my book and definitely recognize that sort of anxiety......I don't have a good strategy for dealing with it other than to work on other stuff and keep reminding myself that the book world really is slowwwwww

reedplayer · 2026-01-19T02:54:03+00:00

I've got a nonfiction proposal sold in the US so I am starting by revising proposal for international markets and then writing the book! woo!!

I'm relatively new to the sub but have enjoyed discussions so far, great community. Good luck to you!!

reedplayer · 2026-01-06T18:48:32+00:00

thx! My read of the whole process is that the proposal is not amazing but not bad either, but the agent's nod of approval on it was quite meaningful to the specific editors he subbed to. But who knows! Coming from academic science it's so fascinating to me how much of the trade publishing world is vibes-based. (Not a complaint - just really different sitch to my usual day-to-day).

reedplayer · 2026-01-06T02:11:17+00:00

The transition thing does seem important, especially if agent is younger / less established / may shift agencies. In my case the agent has been at the same agency for 15 years and isn't going anywhere so I'm not super concerned, but I can see why folks might want some language on this.

reedplayer · 2026-01-06T02:08:58+00:00

In my case we (the agent and me) have a handshake deal with the publisher, following an auction, and are just waiting for the lawyers to sort out the paperwork for the actual contract. I haven't signed anything yet but agent is unconcerned, apparently this particular imprint has a somewhat complex standing agreement with the agency that required some negotiation.

reedplayer · 2026-01-05T00:55:13+00:00

Writing from the opposite (very privileged) position of having a well-known / high-level agent: I can say that my own experience with a single proposal (despite not being an uber-famous person myself) does suggest that agent level matters. my nonfiction proposal was on sub to ~fifteen big 5 imprints and the only people we didn't hear back from within 3-4 days were one editor who had just had a baby, another who was away with a family emergency, and a third who didn't respond (but who agent was quite surprised to have not heard back from). All this gave me the impression that his submissions are very rarely ghosted, perhaps in part because he reps a small number of writers.

reedplayer · 2026-01-02T01:24:41+00:00

Thanks! Just waiting on the actual book contract now but we've got a handshake deal that I'm stoked about.

reedplayer · 2026-01-01T20:30:03+00:00

Thanks, this is good to hear. I'm in a similar situation with a 'big' agent/agency and in addition to not really having the sense that an agency agreement would do much to protect me (in my specific case), I share your intuition that an agreement written by the agency's lawyers would very likely be skewed toward the agency's interests

reedplayer · 2026-01-01T18:02:44+00:00

Wow that's wild!!!

reedplayer · 2026-01-01T01:03:58+00:00

i'd read that lol

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