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Do I Need an Agent

Do you have any preference with working agented or unagented authors / illustrators, or does it all depend on the actual personalities involved?

Its about the personalities, and the skill sets.

If youre the kind of person who has little hissy fits throughout the bookmaking process--hissy fits you feel you must share with your colleagues (as opposed to the more recommended sharing with your friends/family), you need an agent. Agents can offer you a sympathetic ear if your process involves venting before finding a way to compromise.  Your publisher will get tired of you quickly if THEY have to babysit.

If youre the kind of person who is always, always behind deadline, you need an agent.  An agent can keep reminding you, cajoling you, nagging you, whatever you need.  Again, this is just part of some peoples process.  But your publisher doesnt have the time to do this, and so your book will be late, and the publisher will be unhappy.

If youre the kind of person who thinks youre just going to show the contract to your husband, who is a lawyer, you need an agent.  There are as many different kinds of lawyers as there are doctors.  Bringing a publishing contract to a tax or estate or criminal lawyer is akin to taking your foot problem to a cardiologist.  YOURE GOING TO GET BAD ADVICE.  The frustration this will cause your publisher is not worth it... to the publisher.

If you are the kind of person who doesnt know how to negotiate, and ends up agreeing to a crappy first offer, or alternatively thinks youre going to negotiate a $10,000 advance up to $100,000, you need an agent.  An agent knows how to negotiate and whats reasonable to expect in the market.

If you want to be published at any of the houses that dont accept unagented submissions, or even at many of the ones that do, you need an agent.  An agent knows not only the publishers, she knows the individual editors and which ones will respond best to your manuscript. 

And lets not forget that if you want a guide through the booby-trapped and pathless jungles of a publishing career, you need an agent.

However, if you are an intrepid explorer yourself, of a patient and workmanlike nature; if you enjoy the research involved in plotting your own path through publishing, and are flexible about learning more as you go along, then you may not need an agent.

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Does the Gold Medalist in Swimming Need to Know Gymnastics

Do you think editors and agents have different (lower) standards for writing thats submitted by an author-illustrator as opposed to someone whos "just" an author?
As you can imagine, I am a writer who cant draw a cube.
Some of the feedback I get from my agent has really challenged me to reach for something a lot higher with my writing. Then I see some books that are being published, and its like they got some kind of pass. I feel like if I sent my agent a story like that, hed send it right back to me and wouldnt even consider showing it to publishers.
Are the standards different for an author-illustrator if the art is good enough to sell an otherwise lackluster story?

If a submission wins me over partly with writing and partly with art, should I think less of it than the submission that won me over solely with writing? Both verbal storytelling and visual storytelling are talents, and both are strengths in a book.

So the answer to your question is yes, in some cases its ok that the writing isnt as wonderful as in other manuscripts since theres such strength in the art.

Its not ok to feel these people got a pass-- they still had to submit something powerful. Just like you do. If you sent me a manuscript whose development of setting was non-existent but whose plot-development and characters were wonderful and made the manuscript worthwhile all by themselves, it would be ridiculous for me to reject it, right? Just because your strengths arent what some other peoples strengths are?

Dont think of yourself as being in the same race with author-artists-- think of yourself as being in the same Olympics. If you both end up on the winners stand, it will be for different skills, but your accomplishments will both be worthy of the honor.

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