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pretty much the only things that are really important are the last two points >A real agency is highly unlikely to email or phone you out of the blue with an o
by bryanrasmussen 2y ago
pretty much the only things that are really important are the last two points
>A real agency is highly unlikely to email or phone you out of the blue with an offer of representation or a claim that a traditional publisher is interested in your work (real agents don’t pre-shop manuscripts for authors they don’t represent).
>A real agency will not require you to pay anything or buy anything as a condition of representation or publication. Other than the agent’s commission, there should never be a cost associated with rights acquisition.
highly unlikely is politespeak for never going to happen unless your self published work is making tens of thousands of sales already.
- api 2y agoSame goes for angels and VCs emailing you out of the blue with serious offers. It can actually happen but it will only ever happen if you have a product with real traction already. It will never happen for an idea, a half baked MVP, or a just launched thing unless it’s blow off the paint incredible… in which case you will see traction likely before any investment offers.
- KittenInABox 2y agoA real agency is unlikely to, but can definitely email/phone our of the blue to talk about representation. This is in a few cases: have you gone viral for some reason? Did you win an award somewhere for unagented fiction (short stories, a one-off poem, etc)? Do you have a large existing following in the field and have publicly said you're unagented/working on something an agent can represent you in? Do you already have a significantly successful literary career in the indie/self-published space? But generally yes, an agent is not going to contact you randomly.
- bryanrasmussen 2y agoI mean it's true I said tens of thousands of sales, but I supposed people could understand that as hyperbolically meaning "having a significant level of success already, without an agent", which it seems to me all of your examples are just variations of that particular magical 50-shadeish type of thing.
- Finnucane 2y agoAgents don't sit passively in their offices waiting for projects to come in. They network, scout for talent, poach other agents' clients. But they are not randomly emailing unknowns. That doesn't happen. Established agents may have younger, less-established agents working for them who are hungrier to build their own lists, but even they have enough coming to them they don't have to do scammy things like this.