Agency – WordServe Water Cooler

If your agent leaves an agency, several issues may crop up that, as an author, you may find surprising. If you follow Christian publishing circles, recently an agent made a change between agencies, and several authors had to make a decision about what to do.

Stay with the agent or the agency.

Several details may play into your decision. What have you done for me lately? Perhaps you’re not on the best of terms with your current agent, and you want a fresh start. Staying with the agency may be a good choice. Or, you have a great working relationship with your agent and can’t imagine not moving forward with him or her. What’s the reputation of the new and old agency? Does it matter to you?

But the decision may not be as easy as just those questions.

Here are a few things I learned that surprised me.

1. You may not be able to leave. This sounds strange, so let me explain further. Your agent may not be able to take you away from the agency. This depends on the contract your agent signed with the agency when they developed their partnership. So, if you love your agent and never foresee parting ways, this may be an important piece of information for you to know. Personally, I never thought about asking this. Though, my agent is president of his agency, so he likely won’t leave himself.

2. Your contract will stay. Even if you leave the agency with your agent, the contract he/she negotiated will probably stay with the agency. This presents an interesting situation. It’s likely you’ll be working with both parties for the duration of the contract. The agency may handle some aspects, and your agent may handle others. Be sure you’re clear on these details.

3. You may have to reorganize. Perhaps your only social media presence was through your agency. Your picture was only on their web site. You blogged only through their outlets. This speaks to not having all of your eggs in one basket. Remember, your name is your brand. This should be developed separate from what your agency does. So, be blogging in multiple places. Have your own web site. The more internet presence you have, the less likely a change like this will affect your ability to get your message out.

What about you? Do you think you’d be more loyal to the agent or the agency?

Getting an early morning call from your agent can lead to adrenaline induced heart arrhythmias. Working in the ER, I’m trained to assume and prepare for the worst case scenario. That’s the nurse in me. But, what do you do when you get a cryptic message from your agent?

Me—assume the worst. What could he be calling about? Is it an issue with my publisher? Is he dropping me? What could it possibly be?

Not only am I an ER nurse but a suspense author—so I may lean toward the dramatic.

Quick dial back.

The news was not anything I expected. An agent was leaving the fold as Greg mentioned in late December as part of the agency news. What did that mean? The reason for the call was to discuss what would happen to this agency blog when several contributors were leaving.

The WordServe Water Cooler started in the middle of last year as an agency blog with the focus of helping authors a little further back on their writing journey navigate the publishing road. Since it is an agency blog, professionally, it needed to be maintained as such. Those authors choosing to go with their agent to the other agency would not be able to participate.

Problem was—we had become a family along the way.

Initially, when the blog was set up, a Facebook group was started as a communication tool to facilitate signing up for posts. What it morphed into was a true community of authors supporting, encouraging, and praying for one another’s triumphs and difficulties.

Personally, I didn’t want to lose touch with those who were leaving. It felt like my family was splitting up. Greg had tasked me and another author to take over administrating the blog. We began a conversation with the current overseers about how to handle the change.

How this multi-author blogging group handled this agency change has been humbling and inspiring and I believe has some lessons that can be learned by all—both on a personal and professional level.

Here are a few I’d like to highlight.

1. Do not gossip. On our group Facebook page, there would have been ample opportunity to gossip about the situation. Who was leaving? Why were they leaving? What do you think of such and such agency? Agent? I can honestly say this did not happen. Everyone was professional and supportive and prayed over those having to make tough decisions and over those who were most affected by the change.

2. Your decision is personal. Whether or not you decide to stay with a particular agent/agency is a private matter—not a group discussion. Only a few trusted people should be privy to the reasons. This is handling it professionally. Airing grievances publicly, particularly on social media, will come back to bite you. The world of publishing is small, and people will remember how you acted.

3. Create a neutral meeting ground. To meet the need of maintaining those relationships that developed via the Facebook group—a new private group was created where those who left could still interact with those that stayed. Of course, I can’t tell you the name. It’s a secret.

4. Be open to new opportunities. Change is part of life. The choice you make is how you handle it. You may be presented with opportunities to grow and stretch. Don’t be shy about stepping up and learning new things. This month, you’ll see several new talented authors contributing to this blog—including superstar agents Greg Johnson and Barbara Scott. You’ll learn more about marketing and social media from publicity expert Ingrid Schneider. Ever wonder what it’s like to intern at a literary agency? Check out Sarah Freese’s posts.

Question for you—what’s been the biggest change related to publishing/writing you’ve had to deal with?