Got an agent, didn't get a publishing deal

[everythingcrossed]

Just that really - I thought that getting an agent was the hardest part but turns out I was wrong . I've seen a few people on other threads in a similar position, does anyone want to join this one for a bit of mutual moaning, consolation, support getting the next book done?

I've just done it the other way around. I got a publishing deal and that has gained me the agent I've always wanted.

How long have you had your agent and are they still your agent?
I ask because my friend got her dream agent with an excellent manuscript. Unfortunately the manuscript failed to sell. Friend wrote a second manuscript. Agent didn’t like it. Friend wrote a third manuscript. Agent quite liked it, but said it wasn’t right for a first novel. Friend wrote a fourth manuscript and it was published within 18 months of starting to write it. Each book was approx 60-70k long so that’s a lot of writing and editing over a couple of years.
My friend so nearly gave up after her third book and sheer bloody mindedness kept her going.
Do you have any ideas for your next book? Don’t give up!! You obviously have a lot of potential. I’m also a writer and at times have been very close to getting an agent. My problem is that I can only seem to manage about 10k words a year..

It hurts, doesn’t it. I thought, like you, that getting an agent was the hard bit. But when my first novel failed to find a home, and the second one she didn’t like, I was let go. In a way I was relieved…. I had never found the agent relationship easy. Perhaps that would have been different with a different agent, who knows. Fast forward a few years and my first book is out in September. With no agent!

Hi @everythingcrossed - I am probably one of the people you have seen moaning on other threads! Happy to share commiserations, as it is a lonely place to be and I have met hardly anyone else in this position. Like you, I thought getting an agent was the main thing. I guess we can still console ourselves with the fact that we breached that barrier - appreciate it’s really hard though!
Have you talked things through with the agent in terms of where to go from here? If I could go back, I would have asked explicitly when signed what would happen in this scenario. As it is, after implying we would keep going my agent has drifted out of contact (though not officially let me go…) so I really should have been more assertive in finding out where I stand. On the other hand, there is little an agent can do with no book, so I have been working on my second book, hoping to get a submittable draft by the end of this year. If she’s still interested, fine, if not will try elsewhere - guess it’s a learning process, and it’s encouraging in a way to hear stories like the one @Moonlaserbearwolf has posted.
What are you doing now? Have you started on something else and is the agent still involved?

Me. My agent (whom I signed with in 2019) was excited about the novel and anticipating a lot of interest, and I was gutted when it didn’t sell. I started another novel while it was being sent out (just before first lockdown) but it’s taken forever because of various complex life things, so I’m just about to send it to her. Feeling very tense about it all.

hello, my book is currently out on submission (been out for three weeks now) and has received 4 rejections. The main thing editors say is they love it but already have something very similar coming out. It's pretty gutting, and I'm just hoping that one (just one!) takes it. I don't want a bidding war or any of those ridiculous things you read about in the Bookseller. Although I do daydream.

I just want to sell my book. I find it so sad that other similar things are coming out, and sometimes feel angry/bitter, especially when I saw a book just published by a celebrity on a similar topic, and picked it up to flick through. I felt like I had worked so hard and the celeb had jsut waltzed into her deal. So so bitter.

I love my agent though. I had a truly horrible experience with an agent before this and I trust and like my current one so much more. She is kind, respectful and happy to answer questions, and she is passionate about my work.

I guess the answer is to keep writing, but I feel so so jaded. (This is my second book, as the first was with the other agent, and it means so much to me. I ache to sell it.)

Hello - I'm so glad you've all found me (just wish the circumstances were different, etc etc). My agent kept trying but made it clear after a couple of months that none of the people she really thought would take it had and it was sad but the only way forward was to write something else... which I have been trying to do but without great success (I just can't get the new one to fly and feel quite sick when I sit down in front of the laptop sometimes).

Well done @celestebellman for slogging on - if it has been a slog, you may well be more disciplined than me. And @StellaOlivetti for just getting on with it and not getting hung up with the whole agent thing. @waterhorse123, can I ask, was it a fiction or literary non-fiction book? Congratulations on the deal and the agent.

@theotherfossilsister - three weeks is very early days, it can take months for a publisher to bite and, yeah, I went from imagining a bidding war to feeling that one - just one! - offer from the most insignficant, run-out-of-a-spare-bedroom publishing house would be enough. I also felt extremely at some of the big names being signed up - but I think we should allow ourselves a little bitterness .

@Moonlaserbearwolf, I do not think I have your friend's stamina...

@everythingcrossed - hello. To answer your question. I entered a lot of competitions and won one with the prize being a publishing contract (I think for the series). In the USA. Plus money. So I then approached some agents over here and got snapped up on Friday. I have other books too so I'm hoping now I have an agent it might get easier to get them read and possibly published. Not holding my breath. And my book is a historical romance with emphasis on the historical side more than the romance.
Thanks for the congratulations.

I watched a seminar held by my agent and she said they sell about 75% of what is submitted to editors - I always thought like you did that once you have the holy grail of an agent then the rest is plain sailing. But she said that those books are still there and sometimes she will be chatting with an editor who says they are looking for x, y, z and she can sell it later. Its not like your agent has given up on it just because no one wants it at the moment. Pitch some ideas to your agent and she/he should know what is likely to be easier to place then you know what is your best bet to write.

Pre-emptively rolling into this thread as my book has now been out on sub for TEN months and although there is still one lone editor who says she loves it and keeps asking for more time, I feel like at this point that’s probably going nowhere either.

I have since written a second book and am a third of my way through another, and trying to keep motivated through months of silence while I keep hearing about other people getting deals here there and everywhere. Depressing.

Glad to have found my people, though I wish it were in happier circumstances!

Feeling great sympathy and fellow-feeling with everyone on here. I’m about to send my agent my second novel tomorrow, and I feel sick rather than excited as I did last time. She really thought the first one would sell, and I suppose I believed in her belief, and that’s more than a bit shaken. Good luck to everyone else who’s keeping going, especially to those getting a subsequent novel out there.

I have literally waited all my life for this and I'm not young! I have queried every agent or publisher (not so many of them as most only accept through agents) in Writers and Artists Yearbook. I've entered every competition going (with reasonable results). I'd given up on writing a third part of my series as no one wanted book one, and moved on to children's books - which again, I couldn't get anyone interested in although quite a few said they were well written. You have to be determined and keep going. I think the thing I've learnt from this is that if you hit the right person at the right moment with the right book - they love it. I have just been monumentally lucky with my book. I knew it was good, but finding someone who thought they could make money publishing it took forever. I think I wrote book one at the start of 2018, and book two in 2019. Now I'm on to book three, first draft, more than half way through, and likely to have more books in the series.
The moral here is NEVER GIVE UP. It'll happen one day. It did to me.

What a relief to stumble across this message. Story of my life- I have had various agents who have all done a little bit for me and then given up. Most recently have had one who despite loving book couldn't sell it. The worst thing is seeing books sold that aren't very good by established writers or celebrities.

@CakeRage - you started the other (tour de force of a) thread! That was such a support when I was looking for an agent so thank you. I wish you'd got a deal but, in the meantime, welcome. I can't believe that you're on your third - that's awesome.

@FittedSheet - have you kept in touch with your agent? Does she know that you have been working on another book or that you're ready to submit? I left things on very friendly terms with mine but I'm not sure how she's going to take my second novel (if it ever gets written) - it is very different from the first and that's partly because she told me that I would be expected to write iterations of the first if it were successful and I wasn't sure I wanted to.

@waterhorse123 - you're living the dream! That is really fantastic - HR is, I understand, massively competitive.

@LouisaMayAlcott - I remember you from other threads. You are always incredibly generous and encouraging

Yes, @everythingcrossed, I’ve kept in touch periodically with my agent, but I haven’t let her see this MS (possibly a big mistake) en route, and as it is utterly different in every way to the first novel she signed me for, was excited by and couldn’t sell, I’m very nervous. If she couldn’t sell the novel she was so excited by and thoroughly believed in, I’m not sure whether this one has any chance…

To anyone else working on a subsequent novel after the first didn’t sell, did you show it to and discuss it with your agent as you wrote?

I did, @FittedSheet, but when she signed me it was for my second book which was then only a quarter finished so that was the kind of working relationship we had from the start. I did find it helpful, though, and I’m someone who like to work alone so it was a shift for me. For the next book I sent her the idea and synopsis up front and then checked in again after 2 chapters, and then again around 30k words.

It is demoralising, especially when you see something which has got a deal and it’s very similar to yours, when you’ve been told yours wasn’t marketable enough (had that happen!). I often wonder if it’s ME that isn’t marketable.

But, like @waterhorse123 says, you just have to keep plodding on.

I'd focus on a second book, but would talk to your agent in great detail before starting it. It's not unusual for a first novel to be accepted as the second novel in a two book deal. Talk to her - she obviously has faith in you and can be your biggest ally.

@HollowTalk

I'd focus on a second book, but would talk to your agent in great detail before starting it. It's not unusual for a first novel to be accepted as the second novel in a two book deal. Talk to her - she obviously has faith in you and can be your biggest ally.

I think I deliberately didn’t talk to my agent while writing my second novel because I wanted to be as free as when I wrote my first, and to please only myself. That may turn out to be a mistake, but I also couldn’t let myself start second-guessing myself, my agent or the market.

@FittedSheet

Yes, *@everythingcrossed*, I’ve kept in touch periodically with my agent, but I haven’t let her see this MS (possibly a big mistake) en route, and as it is utterly different in every way to the first novel she signed me for, was excited by and couldn’t sell, I’m very nervous. If she couldn’t sell the novel she was so excited by and thoroughly believed in, I’m not sure whether this one has any chance…

To anyone else working on a subsequent novel after the first didn’t sell, did you show it to and discuss it with your agent as you wrote?

To answer your question (sorry, don’t know how to only quote part of a previous message) I didn’t show my second to my agent as I wrote it, but that was mostly because contact with her was very very sporadic after the first one failed to find a home. She very clearly lost faith in me. And eventually severed our relationship, which felt horrible as it had taken me literally YEARS to find an agent. But the good thing was that the whole being dumped thing took ages to actually be finalised, so by the time I was agentless again, I had almost finished my second novel. People who don’t write don’t realise what a soul-eroding process getting published is!

I think I deliberately didn’t talk to my agent while writing my second novel because I wanted to be as free as when I wrote my first, and to please only myself. That may turn out to be a mistake, but I also couldn’t let myself start second-guessing myself, my agent or the market.

I hear ya. In retrospect - and perhaps even at the time - I felt my agent was trying to push my book into a slot that it didn't quite fit with rewrites and edits so, at this stage, I don't want lots of input, I just want to write the novel I want to write. Like you, I worry that this could prove to be a terrible mistake. There were a couple of occasions where I thought my agent really had my back but, at the same time - and this could be lack of confidence - I also wouldn't want to "bother" her with a work barely in progress. I've never met her in the flesh (lockdown signing) and I think those days of long literary lunches have been consigned to history, if they were ever a thing for those who weren't the Julian Barneses, Martin Amises, Margaret Atwoods of the publishing world, so the whole relationship feels more transactional and remote.

I have no idea if she will like the new book - if it is ever completed - but I'm hanging onto the fact that at least I have someone I can show it to who will recognise my name and won't throw the manuscript straight onto the slush pile. Good luck, @FittedSheet.

And I'm really sorry, @StellaOlivetti. that must have felt incredibly undermining

@fittedsheet I think I deliberately didn’t talk to my agent while writing my second novel because I wanted to be as free as when I wrote my first, and to please only myself. That may turn out to be a mistake, but I also couldn’t let myself start second-guessing myself, my agent or the market.

The thing is that publishing isn't like that. Your agent should be a huge source of knowledge and ideas. She'll also be able to tell you if your idea has actually been written already! She wants you to be published. She should be your biggest supporter.

@StellaOlivetti that sounds horrible for you. I hope you place your second novel.

[quote HollowTalk]**@fittedsheet* I think I deliberately didn’t talk to my agent while writing my second novel because I wanted to be as free as when I wrote my first, and to please only myself. That may turn out to be a mistake, but I also couldn’t let myself start second-guessing myself, my agent or the market.*

The thing is that publishing isn't like that. Your agent should be a huge source of knowledge and ideas. She'll also be able to tell you if your idea has actually been written already! She wants you to be published. She should be your biggest supporter.

@StellaOlivetti that sounds horrible for you. I hope you place your second novel.[/quote]
She is supportive and knowledgeable, @HollowTalk, but the fact remains that she signed me for a very, very different novel — a mildly experimental, very stripped-down, narrowly-focused take on a historical novel based on the well-documented relationship between two real people. That was the novel she was excited about, and the one she thought would sell easily and garner attention. It didn’t. I know she was taken aback and disappointed too.

This one couldn’t be more different. They’re both literary fiction, but that’s about the only resemblance. I suppose I wanted to write it without feeling nudged, even in the most knowledgeable and well-intentioned way. I recognise that this may be an error. She has it now, so all I can do is wait to hear her thoughts.

And have hysterics in the interim.

OK literary fiction is different - I'm in the crime genre.

Your first book does sound really interesting. I hope she loves your second book and hope that she can get you a two-book deal using both books. Best of luck!

Sorry, OP. It's really tough, isn't it? I always thought getting an agent was the hard part, too.

I've had this happen to me twice, once with a non-fiction book, and once with a novel, so I feel your pain.

... two different agents.