Aishwarya 00:10
Welcome to the BookPeople. I'm Ashley as a writer, book editor, Podcast Producer, and the head of originals at BB. In this heartbreaking podcast, I demystify the publishing and creative industries, and uncover the biggest opportunities and challenges for writers in India today. So one question writers always have is, if they have a completed manuscript, and they want to get it published, which route should they choose? Do they need to first get an agent who will then pitch them to publishers? And then they get published? Or can they go directly to the publishers and get their book published? Now, both of these routes are possible, right? But the question then becomes, what is the best practice? Or what is the best and easiest and fastest way to get published or to guarantee publishing? So in this episode, I'm going to deep dive into literary agents. Who are they? What do they do? How important are they in the publishing journey? And can you still get published without them? So let's find out. So what do literary agents do, just like musicians or actors have agents, literary agents represent authors, so they identify and you know, pick up authors or books that they think have a lot of potential, this could be based on, you know, the quality of writing itself, it could be the subject matter, or the topic that the book is tackling. Or it could be you know, the profile of the author or the expertise of the author. So based on these different parameters, they choose to represent an author or a book, throughout the publishing process. Now, this can be broken down into two things, right, the first thing they do is that they get your book published. So they pitch your book, to commissioning editors and to publishers, in order for it to get picked up. And how do they do this? So literary agents, because of their work, have a lot of connections in the industry. And beyond just, you know, knowing that a book is good or bad, or you know, what potential it has to do well, in the industry, and you know, to get a lot of book sales, you also have these connections with editors and people in the industry. So they are able to kind of identify and say, Okay, this book, you know, will do really well with this kind of a publishing house because it fits with their editorial mandate, or this book fits really well with what this particular editor is looking for, or this particular editors taste, or you know, writing style that they usually pick up. So because they know these sorts of nuances, instead of just pitching your book to everyone, they're able to sort of match your book to the right publishing house, the right commissioning editor, and sort of ensure that it gets picked up. Another thing that literary agents do is that, you know, they might decide to represent a book, and then might still suggest some edits for the book, or might suggest some feedback on the book proposal to kind of make it better and hone it. Because even for them, you're right, the stronger the book proposal is, the easier it is for them to pitch the book, to editors and to publishers. The second important thing that agents do is negotiating contracts for the author, right? So once they have pitched a book and say, an editor says, You know what, I love this book, you know, we want to take this book, and we want to publish this book, as a part of our publishing house. What the literary agent then does is negotiate with the publisher on the auto contract. So this includes details like what royalties is the author getting, what advance? Are they getting, you know, the other rights? For example? Can this book be translated into other languages? You know, does the publisher have the right to do that? Can the publisher go sell this book in like Switzerland? Right? Or can the publisher you know, adapt this to audio or take this to the screen. So these kinds of sort of small details of rights are that are mentioned in the contract and negotiated by the literary agent on behalf of the author to make sure that the author gets the best deal possible? Right. So to summarize, the role of an agent includes, you know, identifying and soliciting good talent or good writing, editorial skills, being able to edit negotiation skills, and you know, being able to pitch and also obviously, understanding of contract, so legal understanding and understanding of rights. So these are sort of the different inputs that a literary agent provides. Or if you want to become a literary agent, these are the skills that you have to develop in order to be a good literary agent. So now, the next question arises, do you actually need a literary agent to get published, or can you get published without one Right, so the first thing to remember is that literary agents give you access to these bigger mainstream multinational publishing houses. So what happens usually, is that in these houses, you know, they're getting hundreds and 1000s of submissions on a weekly basis, and they're not able to keep up with the number of submissions that are coming in from authors. Right. So usually, all these submissions come in, in this thing, and it's called a slush pile. And what is a huge challenge for these editors to do is to kind of wade through that pile and be able to filter it and, you know, identify the really good pieces of writing amongst the writing that they wouldn't really publish or doesn't fit with their mandate. So this is where they find literary agents really helpful, because agents are doing that filtering for them, right. So agents kind of pitch the manuscripts where they are already guaranteeing a level of quality, they're guaranteeing the level of, you know, writing skill. And they also know what are market trends and what these editors are looking for. So that in itself is a huge bonus. So a lot of multinational houses, you know, end up going only with the books, usually, that are represented by agents and pitched by agents. Or sometimes they will, you know, only look at books pitch by agent. So they might not even look at their submission that they're receiving directly, but will only look at agents solicited manuscripts, so that can happen and multinational now, with independent publishing houses or smaller houses, it is usually not the case, you know, their mandate is more about sort of having that variety and access. So they will usually read most of the submissions. And also, you know, they get a lower volume of submissions, so they're able to kind of read all the submissions and pick up people based on direct submissions, rather than through a literary agent. So that, again, is a decision that as a writer you have to make, which is where are you trying to get published, and what is the best two way and the best avenue to reach that particular type of Publisher, whether it's through an agent or directly. Another thing to remember about a literary agent is that they make money when you make money, right, so literary agents work on a commission model. So right now in India, usually they charge about a 10 to 20% commission on the money that the author owns. Right. So the only way that an agent can own money is when an author owns money, which is why they are very motivated to make sure that you get the best deal, you know, the most highest advance you can get, you're getting the most royalties you can get. And then also once the book is published, there are also many agents are invested in, you know, making sure that the book is getting promoted, well, to ensure that, you know, your sales numbers are high, because the higher your sales, the higher the author earns. And the more the author earns, the more the agent wants. Or they'll also pitch the book further right for translations for adaptation. Because again, any time that you know, they make a deal that gets the author money, that Asian makes money, so they will be motivated to sort of, you know, get your books translated and other languages or get into different territories or different countries, or get adapted to audio or screen. So again, that is something where an agent is really motivated and making sure that your book is reaching sort of the maximum potential that it can reach, which is obviously great to have someone in your corner who is doing that. So if we look at the other side, right, so the fact that literary agents are so in tune with publishers also means that a lot of times their mandate of what they are looking for, or what they will pick up is very aligned with what the publishers are looking for, obviously, because it's ultimately a business, and they're ultimately trying to make money, they will align with what already the publishers are looking for. And what they know and can see from industry trends are books that are doing well, or genres or subjects that are doing well. So sometimes what happens is because of this, they will also end up picking up books where they can guarantee a level of success, right, they're essentially betting on books and betting on authors, and they will hedge their bets. And see, this is a book where I know that you know, there is potential there is sort of a very high percentage that the book will get picked up, this book will sell well. And that is ultimately how I will make money. And that can sort of again discourage them from picking up something very experimental or very niche, unless they can look at it identify exactly which publisher would want to pick it up. Right. So that can be a challenge in terms of access for people who are not writing sort of really mainstream or really commercial writing in that sense. The other challenge is that there are very few literary agencies in India right now as compared to the number of authors, right. So India, the number of authors is just booming. And so the new challenge is that often literary agencies themselves are are so bombarded with submissions that they don't have the time to go through all the submissions, and kind of pick and choose which authors they want to represent and take those conversations forward. Also, these agencies usually will have their own limit in terms of how many authors can they represent at a time, you know, how many people can they have on their list at a time based on their own resources and capability? So that, again, becomes a limitation in terms of how many authors can they pick up. And that's why again, getting a literary agent itself has become such a premium thing, right? It's in itself a mark of credibility, because in order to be able to catch an agent's attention and actually get picked up, in itself is now a big deal. Right? And that is because of the slight imbalance that exists right now in the industry. So what are the alternatives? If you don't reach out to literary agents? What can you do? So the first thing is, you can try to reach out to editors yourselves, right? With internet access. And you know, social media being such a great thing. A lot of people, a lot of writers reach out directly to editors, DM them pitch books to them. And I myself know a few writers who have done that and who have succeeded. Like Anirudh, Mahalia, who wrote his LGBTQ dating guide book did exactly that, right, he just sent a DM to an editor and got a book picked. So that is, obviously something that is possible, it's very one off and doesn't happen that frequently. It's a very, very, very rare occurrence. So we should remember that. And also, obviously, at the end of the day, it doesn't match the experience and the kinds of connections that an agent would have. The second thing you can do is obviously reach out to more of these independent or smaller publishers, where you think that you have more access. And smaller isn't necessarily a bad thing. Independent Publishers publish some of the most amazing high quality books out there, because they're really able to curate, and most of these independent publishers have specific niches that they excel in. So honestly, depending on the kind of book it is, you might be better off, sometimes, you know, going to an indie directly in the sense of how they will treat a book versus how a mainstream publisher will treat your book, which is a call that you need to take. Now the third thing you can do is go the self publishing route, right, so now sure is a route where the onus of making sure that the book is edited, printed, marketed, kind of falls on you as the author. And there are a lot of platforms, self publishing platforms that are helping authors kind of through this journey. And if you're curious about this, in the next episode, I'm actually speaking to the CEO of notion press about how Knowshon press does exactly this thing. So you can tune in next week to understand more about exactly how self publishing works. To conclude, do you need a literary agent? Not really, there are alternatives. But does it help to have a literary agent? Yes, absolutely. Especially if you are a new or debut author, who is new to the industry and trying to break into the industry. But I do want to emphasize one thing, that having a literary agent does not guarantee publishing, right? No literary agent will tell you that the moment you sign up with me, you will get published, it is not 100% guarantee. And that is something that you always always always need to remember. Sure getting an agent will speed up your process, your chances of getting published are higher. And it you know overall simplifies the process, because a lot of this hassle or anxiety that comes in with trying to page how to page, what is the best book proposal, all of that goes away, because the agent is kind of doing that work for you. But once again, it does not guarantee publication. And finding that right agent who understands your work, right, who just gets it, who gets your work, who gets you and is able to represent you, in the best way possible, is also a tricky thing. So if you're able to do that, that's great. I hope you found this breakdown helpful. If you're still trying to contact a literary agent, and I'm trying to figure out, you know who exactly to contact. Or if you want to work as a literary agent, right? I've put a list of the best literary agencies in India, according to me in the description below. So you can definitely refer to that. And if you're looking for any other kind of publishing guidance, or publishing services, when bound offers a variety of different publishing services, so we do book editing manuscript evaluation, and you can also book publishing guidance directly with me. So the link for that is in the description. And you can also email me at Aishwarya at bound india.com I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm going to be doing a lot more of these kinds of episodes where I take one thing and break it down completely. So if you enjoyed this or found this helpful please let me know I would really appreciate the feedback and if there is something specific that you think I should cover also let me know I see you next Thursday thanks for tuning in