Agents lost and found
The unspoken commonality of agent-author relationships ending, and what to do about it.
Bookish update: Writing has slowed considerably what with events, health wobbles and other things. But the end of this book has become clear, which is a relief, I was driving blind there for a while! I’m just back from London where I had Ghosts Event No.3, and my last bookish event is in Glasgow next week after which I will retreat under a rock for the forseeable! It’s been spectacular though, and a joy to get to chat with fabulous author friends and readers alike. Having met with my new agent, writing timetable is now looking like:
(rest of) November - carry on with the wip, getting safely into the final stretch.
December - edit Novella2 Chaos Boogaloo and get it to my agent by Xmas.
January/February - edit Salt Oracle and/or Birds tbc…
Now. I threatened to write this a while back, and welp, looks like I am diving in! The reason I’m writing about this is not to air grievances or spill tea, but instead to hopefully shed a little light on an event that is far more common and commonplace than most querying or newly agented authors realise. Parting ways with your agent, however it comes about, is a hard thing to go through and when you go through it alone, under the impression that it’s a rare event, that makes it all the harder. So I’m writing this to perhaps raise a wee flag to let authors know that this happens a lot, it’s okay, and it’s not remotely the end of the road.
A high proportion of the established authors I know are on their second, third or even fourth agent. I’m now on my third (and hoping that’s it for me, thanks all the same). But from the public conversations around this, you’d think it was a rare event that befell a very few cursed souls. Recently there’s been a handful of high visibility agent departures with those agents’ clients sharing their experiences very publicly online. But that’s not how this usually happens, so I want to talk through some of the many and varied reasons an agent-author relationship can end, and what you the author can do to smooth your way forward from that point. I hope it helps…
What goes wrong?
Your agent leaves agenting. This is often newer agents realising it’s not the right career for them, but the recent stepping down of the amazing Jo Unwin shows that even the Big Names can decide it’s just no longer what they want to do. This is how I lost my first agent, and while it was a blow, there was a certain comfort in knowing it really, truly wasn’t anything to do with me. Sometimes, clients will be redistributed amongst other agency staff, but often that’s simply not practicable.
Your agent moves agency. This too happens A Lot. Agenting is a fairly flat industry, with limited potential for upward movement, particularly in smaller agencies, so agents seeking promotion or changes in direction often find them by moving agencies. In this case, the agent will likely invite some of their clients to move with them, but also part ways with others. They need to have capacity to start earning at their new agency and that means creating space on their list for clients who don’t have contractual ties to the prior agency (money from any existing contracts will continue to go through the previous agency). Who stays and who goes will partly be simply about money, but also perhaps about genre coverage, market, and the health of each client relationship. This is tough, but a good agent will do what they can to make the transition as smooth and supported as possible.
Your agent changes direction. Even if they don’t move agencies, an agent might decide that they need to focus their list more - stop representing YA perhaps, or shift their focus to a new area - from SFF to crime for example. This will make it harder for them to maintain the necessary contacts and market awareness in a genre they’ve shifted away from. So if you happen to write in that genre space, there’s a chance they might no longer be able to represent you as well as either of you would like.
You change direction. Authors are forever deciding to switch up the genres they’re writing in, which I as an inveterete genre-rabbit, fully endorse. BUT if your new career path is taking you into a genre space or age bracket your agent simply doesn’t represent, they are no longer your best champion and you or they might decide you need to move elsewhere. As with the above two, if this decision stems from the agent, they should try to support you in this process, perhaps with referrals to other agents.
Your books haven’t sold. Sadly, if an author has a number of projects ‘die on sub’ (fail to sell when the agent has sent them out to editors), many agents will part ways with them. This is generally a practical decision - an agent needs to sell books, and cannot afford to work on multiple books without any monetary return. That sucks, right? Especially when ‘sub’ is so slow and tough right now. But it can also be a kindness - that particular partnership, the editorial vision, the market fit, was clearly not working. Another agent, with a different vision and different contacts, might well be able to sell your writing, so you are better served finding that agent than sticking with one who can’t.
Your working relationship isn’t aligned. This is where it gets tricksy. An agent-author relationship relies on a few key things - that your visions for your career and writing are similar, that you the author trust your agent’s judgement and work, and that your working and communication patterns are roughly compatible. Sometimes those key attributes just aren’t there, or were at the start but no longer are. In a lot of cases, an honest conversation and a good dose of empathy and compromise can resolve friction. It is possible you are misconstruing something, or you can’t see what work your agent is doing behind the scenes. Or perhaps your agent hadn’t realised the impact of a particular working practice and it’s an easy fix. So the first, second, and even third step here should always be to talk things through and seek solutions.
But sometimes with the best will in the world, the dynamic is simply no longer working and one or both of you might decide you need to part ways. This can happen very early on - when you are working on your first book together - or years down the line, and it’s perhaps the hardest to navigate simply because there’s no clean cut off. There’s no obvious line in the sand to signal the end of the relationship, instead it’s months of dissatisfaction and frustration and agonising over the decision.
One or both of you have screwed up. This is, by my estimation, by far the rarest reason for an agent-author relationship to end. It’s the one we tend to see on social media, but it’s really not that common compared to all the reasons above. Screwing up can manifest in the kinds of personal or moral dodginess we see in the online dramaz, but it can also less sensationally be someone - author or agent - just not doing their job properly. There are many and multitudinous ways a person can screw up in the publishing space, and I’m not going to go into them here. Google it, there’s plenty of tea out there for the sipping. I’ll just say that it’s not hard, really it isn’t, to be a decent human being and to act professionally in your professional spaces (note to creepy blokes, that include festivals and cons). If you can’t manage to be professional and decent then everyone around you will eventually find other people to work with.
What do we do when it ends?
Okay, so for whatever reason, you find yourself leaving your agent. How does that happen? And what do you need to do during that process?
It might be your decision, it might not. It might come as a surprise, it might not. It might be done via email, or zoom or a call. There’s no standard pattern here, unfortunately. But however it happens it’s not a fun moment. Take a breath. Give yourself a hug and some chocolate. Then…
Have the termination of contract in writing. Email is fine, but whether the decision comes from you or your agent, make sure you have a paper record of the date the decision was made. This is because you’ll have a contractual notice period, and possibly a contractual tie-in to any publishing deals signed for a period after the contract ends. So you need to be clear on dates.
You can ask if your agent will waive the notice period, but if you have books out on submission anywhere, they are likely to say no to give themselves time to withdraw submissions.
Your agent may suggest you keep books out on submission with them, on the off chance they sell. That’s your decision but bear in mind two things: a) If a deal offer comes in, that is a contractual tie to that agent for many years. You may or may not be comfortable with that prospect. And b) pulling the book from sub doesn’t automatically mean a new agent can send it straight back out - that will depend on revisions, the new agent, editor interest etc.
Make sure you have copies of any contracts you’ve signed - with your agent, but also with publishers, audiobook publishers, etc. Also make sure you have a submission list (of editor & imprint) for any book that went out on sub but remains unsold.
Try to keep things polite and professional. However this has come about, your emotions are likely a little bit frazzled. Your agent’s might be too. Reminding yourself that this is a business relationship, not a friendship, might help keep your communications calm, factual and polite. If you have contracted books with this agent, you may continue to be in communication with them for the duration of those contracts, as they are the agent on record (it might default to the agency that you were with, if the agent departs). Royalty statements and payments will continue to go through them so while you don’t have to be friendly, professionalism will keep things pleasant.
If communications become snarled, you can ask your union (Society of Authors, in the UK) to advise or even mediate. You can also let it lie, and then let your next agent take the lead on resolving things.
Following on from 6. If you have any publication contracts, email each of your editors to inform them you’ve left that agent and ask them to include you in any communications in the future. This will help you keep track of royalties etc. Update your website to remove any rights enquiries contact link to your agent - you want any interest to come to you/your new agent.
Diving back in the pool
You might decide you don’t want to requery, and are instead happier pursuing self pub, or indie presses, or taking a break entirely. All of those options are entirely fair. And none of them are permanent either - after I lost my first agent, I published two books with indie presses before signing with my second. Pathways through publishing are rarely linear.
But if you do want to seek out another agent, how do you go about that?
First have faith in your writing. That you once signed with an agent is proof your writing is above the slush pile average, so however it happened, this fact alone will help catch new agents’ eyes. Putting ‘having recently parted ways with my agent, I am now seeking new representation’ or the like into the top paragraph of your cover letter will be a solid wee hook, not a red flag, I promise.
If you are currently unpublished, you have the advantage of being a debut with no track record to take the shine off! Conversely, if you are published and/or under contract, you have a track record that comes with sales figures, award listings and the like. These, even if you aren’t a bestseller, will catch an agent’s attention for two reasons - you’re a bit more of a known quantity in terms of your earning potential, and you have a backlist or contracted books with (hopefully, depending on your contract) unsold rights a new agent can utilise. Obviously, the better your track record, the more enticing you are and you may have a lot of interested agents very quickly. Yay. (But that then puts even more onus on you to make sure you do your research and think hard about what you are looking for in your next agent. You want the right one, not the quickest one.)
Standard practice in publishing is that authors must part ways with their existing agent before approaching prospective agents. (I have some opinions about the power imbalance here and don’t see why it can’t work the same as normal job contracts, but there we go). It is okay to start speaking to agents while you wait out the notice period though. What you can do even before giving notice is get to work asking around your writer & industry friends. Ask who they’d recommend, ask if they’d refer you to their agent, ask ask ask. Community really comes to the fore at times like this, and a referral or a recommendation from an agent’s client or from your editor can speed up your time in the trenches considerably. It feels a little like cheating, and yeah it kind of is, but it’s also just playing the hand you have in a game that’s stacked against you.
What do you query with?
Ideally, you’ll be querying with a new book that’s nicely polished but has not been out on submission or published. That book, with its untapped sales potential, will maximise agent interest simply because they can start afresh with it.
You can also offer prospective agents information on other projects either published, unpublished, or planned. This last time around, I had a pitch document ready with several drafted or planned projects, and gave the basic specifics of my current deal (no. of books, territory and options clause). I also offered an eARC of my upcoming book. Most agents I spoke to requested both ARC and pitches.
If you don’t have a new project, you may well have a few manuscripts that died on sub and that you want to give a second chance. No project is ever dead, so take heart, but bear in mind an agent will be unwilling/unable to resubmit a book that’s recently been rejected or even just ghosted by editors. Consider whether an older project can be revisited - if it’s been a couple of years, market tastes and editorial staff changes might reopen the door for this book. Also consider which territories a book was subbed to. If it wasn’t submitted to the US at all, say, then US agents in particular are likely to be more interested.
As I just mentioned, if you are published and/or under contract, make sure you know exactly what rights are available for all those books, and what the options clause is on your current contract - an agent will want to know, so they can gauge potential sales.
If you are making contact with an agent through a referral, these tend to be a little more informal and might even start with a call. But have all this material ready, with synopses and pitches as per standard querying, because they’ll most likely still want them.
The mushy stuff.
Okay, that’s all been very logical and sensible, hasn’t it? If you’re in this situation, though, it’s really hard to feel logical about all this. Your confidence has likely taken a knock, you’re likely frustrated, worried and miserable at the set-back to your writerly career. Possibly embarrassed (don’t be), angry (try not to be) and in a rush to get back on track. This latter is the worst, I think. The loss of momentum and powerlessness puts a pressure on you to rush into querying & signing before you’re ready. But you need to take time to breathe and really process what went wrong this time so you can (try to) avoid it happening again.
I had to give myself a while this summer to really think through what I needed of my next agent, and what my priorities were. It was hard, when I could feel my hard-earned momentum slipping away, but I’m really glad I did.
As I’ve written about before, author careers are fragile things, and the wrong agent-author relationship can do considerable damage. So it is absolutely worth the short term pain to make sure you have the right agent for you and your books. That short term requerying abyss is a scary thing to navigate though, and it’s absolutely normal to struggle with this even if you were the one who took the decision.
Remember this is so common. Honestly, you are not alone, and the odds are in your favour. Take your time, feel your feels. Then move forward on the path that best fits you, whatever that looks like. Unless it’s to set fire to all your manuscripts in the garden, maybe don’t do that, it’s bad for the hedgehogs.
I hope in talking through this not-very-talked-about thing, I can make it a little less intimidating to anyone facing losing their agent. And I’m here if any reader who’s struggling with this wants to talk through their own options.
Oh god why do all my posts end up so long? Thank you for your patience and enjoy your weekend!
This is useful and generous information to share. Versions of this story happen so often (don’t even start me on ghosting agents …), and I often observe a power imbalance that doesn’t favour the writer. So this sort of experience and advice gives writers courage in holding their nerve.
Thank you for writing about this! You’re right, it would be great if the industry was more open about how common it is for authors and agents to part ways. It wasn’t something I’d thought much about before it happened to me earlier this year, though afterwards I was reassured by how many authors told me they’d experienced similar.