posted
How many clients does a typical (good) literary agent have signed to himself at any given time? If someone signed too many it would be hard to find the time to properly represent them, I would imagine. Because of that I'd always imagined agents having usually only a handful of clients at any given time. But I heard someone say an agent had over 60. Is that typical?
Posts: 38 | Registered: Jan 2011
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posted
An agent will normally make a small percentage of the money a writer makes (say 10%).
Most writers do not make enough to live on - though obviously there are exceptions. So if an agent is full-time, and so DOES need enough to live on, they need a lot more than 10 writers on their books.
posted
I was wondering the same thing ... along with, how much time does it actually take to properly represent each client?
The question came into my head when I saw some agent marked as "not taking new clients at this time" ... well, they must have enough to make a living, then!
I haven't heard of any numbers when it comes to clients but some, especially among the younger ones, spend more time with the bestselling clients than with the average ones. Some writers very rarely hear from their agents, again the younger ones are the worse at that. And I will be correct if I'm wrong but I think its up to 15%.
But even those who contact their clients on a regular bases probably only do it once a month or so, unless something comes up. So that would allow them to have a large number of clients.
Some of those younger agents hardly do any work for a client. They're not very good at sending back "no" responses either. Of course that doesn't include all newer agents but the numbers of bad or lazy ones seem to be increasing.
posted
Mathematically, if an agent has ten clients, and takes ten percent of each client's income, the agent has an income equal to that of any one client, all other factors being equal.
Which they won't be, 'cause some clients will make more than others, and some will be more work than others, and so on, and so forth.
posted
It's not like your agent will spend a bucketload of time on you anyway, especially just starting out. He/She will only work for you when you have a book to sell.
Posts: 487 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Agents are like any other business. There will be good and bad. Remember the movie Jerry McGuire, I am sure I spelled that wrong. Some agents only keep a handful, so they can work closely with their clients. Others keep a list so long you never see the end. I know a few years back it was 10% but also knew that some were making the move to 15%, with overseas sales taking more than that.
I personally find the agents who respond to my queries as the ones I will keep trying for, even if just a form rejection. It shows professionalism and a commitment to finding new talent on their part. I am sorry, but I refuse to believe anyone's time has gotten so clogged full they cant even send out a rejection card in the envelope I took time to prepare, or copy paste a form rejection to an email.
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