Publishing Secrets: Having More Than One Agent

​Publishing is an amazing world, full of luck, opportunity, and so much talent. Authors, agents, and editors share quite a bit about the process, and aspiring folks learn a lot through those facts. But publishing also has a lot of secrets, a lot items we don’t talk about.
 
Going through more than one agent is one of those topics.
 
In my newbie days, before I landed my first agent, I thought of the agent/author relationship as a magical and special unicorn that would last a real long time. And for some, they do. But once I “crossed over” so to speak, and got to interact with agented and published authors, I learned a very common fact somehow missed my attention: most authors have multiple agents over the course of their career.
 
The reasons are vast, but the ultimate bottom line is this: writing is a business. An agent/author relationship is a business one, and anyone who’s held a job knows that there are many reasons why they might leave that job: unhappy working conditions, better opportunities, business closes down, etc, etc.
 
I was thinking of all this as I landed my second agent, and thought about the fun blog post I had made when I landed my first, full of fresh eyed innocence and GIFS and excitement for the future. And I knew I could write a post again, my split with my first agent was amicable and I have nothing negative to write. And yet, I hesitated.
 
This is an area we don’t talk much about. We don’t talk about all the reasons why an author leaves an agent, or an agent drops an author. And I realized I wanted to collect some data, confidentially, so that the results wouldn’t link back to any author or agent.
 
So that is what I did. I collected data from 27 authors who have had more than one agent (or at least left their first agent). I don’t know who filled out the questionnaire, I can’t match up any responses. The goal being to create a safe space to share some details that previously might not be shared.
 
Below are the results:

Why did you split with your first (or any previous) agent(s)?
 
Four responders mentioned their agent quit the business, one had two agents quit, another had an agent retire. The rest are below:
 

• Lack of communication.
• They dropped me because we didn't have similar visions.
• Lack of communication, lack of urgency.
• Not selling my book or anyone else's book, lying about who they were under a fake name.
• After my first book didn't sell, I felt like I fell to the bottom of her client list. She reps (and sells) A LOT of middle grade and YA, and I think clients compete for editor space. She was not editorial (even though she said she was), and I felt that subbing to less than ten editors/year on a project was too slow a process. She also did not communicate well/about what was going on unless I asked (after the first book didn't sell).
• She was awful...but officially, I started writing things that weren’t a good match for her.
• We did not see eye to eye on several issues, including transparency. Ultimately she sided with the publisher over me instead of having my back.
• They appeared to have lost interest in me, didn't have time for me, kept changing their mind on my projects.
• First agent initiated parting after 1 year. I initiated parting with my second agent.
• After multiple revisions, being on sub for almost 3 years, and not "falling in love" with any new manuscripts I sent, my agent and I decided to amicably part ways. At that point I still had my manuscript out with a publisher who had it for 8 months. I got the email it was going to acquisitions a couple of days after we parted, and the offer for my debut came a few weeks after that.
• First agent dropped me. Second agent was unresponsive and didn’t seem passionate about my work anymore, plus I did not have faith in their ability to sell my MSs.
• She wasn't clicking with any of my new ideas and didn't feel she could support them.
• Creative differences. Bad communication on her end, lack of career support.
• It's a complicated answer, but much of it comes down to communication, including always feeling worse after interacting with her.
• Miscommunication on my agent's part when I decided to self-publish some of my books.
• I parted ways with my first agent mainly because of communication and trust issues, and also because she wasn't as excited about my second book as she'd been about my first. My second agent, who I loved, left for a position that didn't allow her to take on her own clients.
• First one wasn’t editorial enough when I needed it. Second one only wanted to rep me for one of my 17 novels.
• She didn’t like my writing after the book she signed me for.
• I didn't have enough confidence in my first agent. She was brand new and we were on sub over a year with two different mss. I parted ways and did some indie publishing before querying for my next agent that I have now.
• My novel didn't sell and communication broke down after that. The agent didn't seem interested in any other projects I was working on and was unwilling to develop anything else.
• First agent quit the business. Second agent lost interest in me when she couldn't sell my book quickly, wasn't as editorial as she promised, and didn't do the best job pitching my work.

 
I also asked if there was a specific event that triggered the separation. A few indicated there were, but weren’t comfortable in sharing. The rest are below:
 

• 3 months of not answering an email.
• I emailed her to state my concern about suggested edits.
• With my second agent, I didn't feel like the agent was directing or fully supporting my career. She put out a book on sub that she didn't read. Then, when I received an R&R she wasn't in a position to help brainstorm those revisions and simply told me to send her the revision when it was ready to re-submit.
• A lot of events overall - one avoided me and wouldn't sell my book and the other tried to cajol their authors into going on a pitch cruise where their agented authors would have to pay to attend which would in turn pay for the editors to attend and would in fact be paying to pitch rather than you know just submitting us directly.
• I had written Book 3, and after being a year on sub with book 1 and a year on sub with book 2 and seeing less than 10 editors for each, I didn't want book 3 to be with her. I wanted someone more editorial and with less of a client list so I wouldn't have to compete for editor space.
• I wrote two books she didn’t want to represent, so we parted ways.
• Yes, we had a falling out over a minor dispute with the publisher, which she saw as a threat to her ability to sell the publisher other clients' books.
• Yes. I worked on revisions for an MS for over a year at their direction, after which they decided they no longer were interested in it.
• (pregnancy 😉)
• First agent literally went from exclaiming over an ms and it being ready to sub after one more editorial pass to a week later saying she didn't love my voice anymore (suspiciously around the time my first book debuted and didn't do great in sales). With second agent, she couldn't sell anything and she never communicated. Never told me I was on sub or forwarded editor responses. Took weeks to respond to emails if at all. We started setting up monthly phone calls, but I still had to remind her via email, which she didn't respond to. At one point, we had a scheduled call and she didn't call back until 4 hours later without even an email update. My final straw was expecting an ms final pass from her only for her to say she'd already subbed it without ever discussing it with me or discussing editors (she never discussed editors or told me names).
• I think the main event was that she didn't love any of my new manuscripts and the debut took so long to sell. That meant I didn't have an agent in my corner as I got ready to celebrate my release. It felt awkward, to say the least! The only reason she didn't shelve my book was because I came up with a new list of editors that I said I'd sub on my own to. But I think even if it had sold sooner, we would have parted ways because she didn't love my other stuff and she started repping more YA and adult instead of MG.
• No specific event but a pattern.
• Third rejected idea with some strong feelings associated.
• I worked on a proposal for six months. I was extremely proud of the work. She read it in two days, accused me of writing niche, dumped on the award-winning authors of my comp titles (saying they had day jobs so they were not successes in her eyes), and when I asked for constructive feedback on what to keep/toss, she refused to tell me or give me any direction as to what I should work on next.
• It had been building for a long time.
• I had told my agent I planned to pull a book from sub if it didn't sell by X date. When that time was reached and I asked her to pull it, she pulled a 180 and told me it was unprofessional and we'd part ways if I pulled it, even though I told her several months prior of my plans. Her reply was that she didn't think I was serious at the time. She then apologized, but the damage was done. I had also been thinking for a while that she wasn't the best agent for me, so I didn't fight to save the relationship.
• For my first agent, she sub-tweeted me, and that was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back for me. My second agent got a new job and that was what forced us to part ways.
• First one was after 3 years and 4 books died on sub. Second one had lead me to believe she would rep everything and I left her when the truth came out.
• An editor was interested in me enough to ask for a proposal/pitch. I showed my first agent two WIPs, two completed MS, and four additional concepts/pitches and she wouldn’t send any of it.
• Not a specific incident, but I never felt 100% confident in her, and looking back, I can see the ms she signed me with needed work that she didn't yet have the skill level to identify and help me level up.
• It was a gradual loss of contact. Responses would take longer and longer. Often I would have to nudge 2-3 times over the course of 3 months just to get feedback on a first chapter.
• When she suggested I pay for a professional editor when one of the reasons I signed with her is because she claimed to be very editorial (but meanwhile, had interns/assistants provide more of the editorial feedback).

 
How long did it take to land your next agent?
 

• About a week

• 6 months

• 1 month

• Between Agent 1 and 2 it took 2 months. Between agent 2 and 3 it took less than a month

• A week

• Another agent in the agency took me on, so right away

• 9 months

• Six-ish months

• Less than two months

• Haven't yet

• 3 months

• 3 months for second agent; 3 weeks for third agent

• Nine months

• 14 months

• A year and a half

• 7 months

• More than a year, but I wasn't actively looking/querying

• A few weeks. (But it had taken me years to get the first one)

• 6 months

• About a year to land my second agent, a few weeks to land my third

• 6 months between 1 and 2, about a year for the 3rd

• Two years.

• Four months

• I didn't query again for 5 years, but when I did start again it took 4 months

• No time. The president of the agency took me on for a year, then passed me on to my current agent

• A year

• A little over a year

 
Did you find querying to be harder or easier the second (or third, etc) time around?
 

• Easier.
• Much easier!
• Querying was fast the first time. Just as fast the second time, but I'm now looking for my third agent. It's been 5 months and no luck.
• Cold querying felt the same pretty much every time. However, once I was more established, I relied heavily on referrals from writer friends and that greatly helped.
• So much easier and faster.
• Harder. Agents took much longer to respond, and even though I got full requests, passes didn't have any useful info as to why.
• Both: I knew what to expect, but I put more pressure on myself.
• It was easier, with a huge caveat: My editor offered for my next books in the series, so I only queried a handful of agents with an offer on the table.
• Easier.
• Easier. I knew the ropes. I knew exactly what I wanted and what I didn't. I was a lot more relaxed about it.
• Still hard. Didn't matter that I had a book already under contract. I was lucky enough to find an agent who was looking for something similar to my second book and had mentioned it on MSWL.
• The same.
• Easier in some ways, I had credentials to my name and the interest I received showed that counted. But my genre is also in a down swing, making it harder.
• Harder on stamina, easier in terms of expectations and less agents queried.
• I didn't query the second time. My current agent reached out to me after reading some of my work. Total kismet!
• It was a bit harder in some ways, but I was also pickier.
• The second time was equally hard to the first, though at least I was more knowledgeable about what I wanted and how to craft a query. The third time was far easier, in part because I already had a pending offer from a publisher.
• The process was easier as I had more experience but I found it harder emotionally.
• About the same.
• Easier.
• Much easier because I had experience with expectations.
• It was harder. I had to query 2 books in that time. Shelving that first one was very difficult.
• Easier at first (more referrals, agents who had previously expressed interest) then harder when the quick requests turned into rejections.

 
Any negative experiences, or warnings, you'd like to share?
 

• Not really negative but I had a much better idea of what I wanted the second time around.
• Check absolutewrite.com and query tracker to see if people post warnings about an agent before you accept an offer. Also, talk to their clients, both ones who have sold and haven't sold a book.
• Really know who you want to sub to. Research agents!!
• If you have doubts about an agent, those doubts are most likely justified and shouldn't be ignored.
• Trust your gut, speak up for yourself, ask questions always.
• It was easier to transfer within the agency, but I wish I'd asked for a week or two to query. It's tough to feel like my agent doesn't really want me.
• I would be careful of the Big Name/Dream Agent. My first agent was and is a lot of people's Dream Agent. I think if she sells your first book, you'll be fine, but if not . . . I knew of three other people who left her before I did, which made it much easier to make the decision. I would say that, if you're in a relationship and having issues, reach out to other clients to see what's going on. I doubt you're the only one facing issues. Once you know it's not "just me," you'll have the knowledge and confidence to leave and/or approach your agent with your issues.
• If an agent makes you uncomfortable or is mean, leave them. A bad agent is much much worse than no agent.
• Only go after agents whom you really want to work with, who have happy, long-term clients, a proven sales history, with a reputable agency. Talk to their clients, find out about communication and subbing process. Make sure they are in it for the long haul, not just this book. If red flags come up after signing, don't feel like you're bothering them. Be professional, but call them out. This a partnership, authors don't work for agents. If you don't feel like they're pulling their weight or holding things from you or neglecting you, talk it out and if it doesn't change, don't be afraid to walk out. No agent is better than a bad one. With these first bad agents, I was doing so much work that they should've been doing.
• I won't lie, it's not easy being dumped by your agent just when you're about to give up on the manuscript you'd worked on for years. It makes you feel like you will never land another agent, especially when my agent didn't like my other stuff. There's no easy way to get through it but to get back out there, keep revising, keep querying.
• If you’re querying and an agent takes months to read your full, don’t assume it’s because they’re prioritizing clients. My old agent loved to say their slow response time to queries was because they prioritize clients, yet they took months to read client stuff too and weeks to reply to emails. After that experience I take it as a flag when agents take more than four months to read a full.
• You need to feel like you can talk to and approach your agent. They are your equal, working with you, and if there is a power play situation it's not a good sign.
• If an agent gives you only two days to accept her offer of representation, that is not the industry standard, and almost certainly a red flag. During a call with a prospective agent, don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions. An agent is your partner, an equal, and an advocate; you should feel comfortable talking to them. If you don't, that says a lot about the relationship you have or would have.
• Always talk to clients apart from the ones the agent refers you to, and always talk to a client whose book hasn't sold yet.
• Talk to as many of the agent's clients as possible before signing
• A bad, or just wrong-for-you, agent is worse than no agent. They can stall your career, leave you with a mess of a contract that you'll be stuck with for the life of your book, or worse. Don't stay with an agent out of desperation or fear. Also keep in mind that even if an agent is a rock star and does great work for other authors, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the best agent for YOU.
• I’d always make sure you and the agent are in the same page before you sign. Discuss communication habits, what you can expect editorially and how the sub process will work.
• Agents can seem very competent at first and then start ghosting you.
• Be careful of newer agents. Make sure they are part of an established agency with a good rep and have mentors on staff to help guide them because they don't have enough experience to be going it alone, which means the writer is disserviced.
• Being inherited by an agent is an odd situation. They didn't pick you from the slush, and you didn't pick them to query, so you have to feel each other out in a way that can be awkward. Hopefully it clicks.
• Be prepared for people to stop talking to you if you don't land a new agent right away.
• Even if the agent is seasoned and has a good reputation, even if you speak to happy clients, you may not have the best experience with a reputable agent.

 
Any positive experiences to share?
 

• I talked to several other authors before sending a single query the second time, and everyone was very open to sharing their experiences with their agents. Made it much easier to choose who to query!
• Joining Pitch Wars and other online pitch contests taught me a lot and helped me find authors going through similar experiences.
• Agents tend to really take care with their feedback and passes when you're open about your work and what you want your career to look like. This is amazing!
• I am very happy I took the plunge to leave an agent who wasn't the best fit for me, rather than wait months and years to pull that trigger. It's been a much more positive experience with an agent who shares my vision and passion for my work.
• My current is worth all the trouble.
• I do think having been agented is a plus with most agents. They know your work was good enough for someone before, and they know you'll know the ropes. I feel that I got more requests because of it, but who knows?
• A good agent’s support makes the job of writing easier, on the whole.
• My new agent is a much better fit for me in both communication style, personality, and mutual respect. Very happy that I switched!
• My third agent is like a ninja-angel. She's everything an agent should be: fast, responsive, intuitive, team-player, keeps me in the loop without me even having to ask most of the time, updates me with subs and edits and even if she's going to be out of office. She doesn't push her editorial views on me, is perfectly fine when I write 3 books a year or sub 3 books a year or don't have anything for an entire year. She goes to bat for me if I don't feel comfortable with an aspect in contracts or edits or negotiations. She ALWAYS tells me about subs, passes, discusses potential editors, has time to listen to my many emails about various things. And she's super quick with turn-arounds. She also gets me and my books and loves them, but will also be honest if she doesn't like something or thinks something is an issue.
• My second agent seems more supportive and responds much more quickly than my first, so hopefully it has all worked out for the best.
• Be picky - you’ll find the right agent! Don’t settle! My current agent is wonderful!
• I consider my split from my first agent amicable, and I learned so much from her, as well as met so many people. Even though I was sad to see the relationship end, it was also a good experience overall.
• My current agent is insightful and enthusiastic about my work, and always open to discussing any questions I have, and helping focus my efforts on the projects most likely to succeed. It is night and day from my first agent.
• There was absolutely no negative feedback from agents when I re-queried about having parted ways with the first agent.
• As careers change, needs change. An agent who is great for you at one stage is not necessarily your best advocate later. I'm in a much better place with my current agent, so it all worked out for the better.
• There's nothing like a good partnership with the right agent! It's an open, honest, communicative relationship, and they can seriously do your career (and your mental health) so much good. My second and third agents, both of whom have been fantastic, have talked me down off so many metaphorical cliffs, protected me from shady publishers, aggressively negotiated on my behalf, and helped me spot opportunities I wouldn't have found on my own.
• The whole process has made me stronger and I’ve learned so much about the industry.
• Having a query support group the second time around was highly beneficial in that you could see how common rejections were. Knowing what to listen for when getting that agent call the second time around is also a huge perk in having already been in the query/sub trenches.
• Pitch parties like PITMAD really helped me stay in the community and create buzz about my work.
• Strongly consider doing an R&R, because it may make your book a lot better

 
Anything else you'd like to add?
 

• No matter how successful you were with other agents, how quick the turnaround is, how much experience and book deals you have, finding an agent will still vary. Finding your match takes time. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes slow. It has nothing to do with your talent. Be patient, keep writing.
• Don't give up EVER.
• I would caution that no agent is perfect. I have some issues with my current agent, but she filled the need of being editorial, having a sub strategy, and being a good communicator. Sometimes her edit notes are cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and I wish she was more enthusiastic about my work (If she wasn't my agent, I'd have no idea she liked my work), but don't over obsess. This is a business relationship, and if your agent is doing her job, then you don't need to be best friends, etc.
• Be careful out there. Publishing can be cut throat and deceptive. But also know your worth. Don't be afraid to speak up or move on. Always do research. Always.
• As a midlist author, I'm constantly on edge that my second agent won't love my next manuscript enough to invest the time and effort it takes to send something out on sub. But I realize this is all part of the business and unless you're a bestseller, it's hard to feel secure. There's no guarantee the next book will sell no matter how hard you work. Navigating the publishing industry including agents can be daunting, and staying positive is always a challenge. You just have to focus on the important stuff, the joy you find from writing and the need to express yourself that propels you forward in a climate of uncertainty.
• Don’t give up!
• It's just such a normal thing, to have multiple agents. So don't feel like you've failed or done something wrong or have a black mark against you. You deserve a partner who has your back in this business.
• You should be able to trust your agent, and they should be reasonably communicative. If something feels off, have an honest conversation, and if you can, privately ask other agented authors for their advice too--they can help you understand what's normal and what's fishy. And remember! Parting ways with an agent doesn't make you damaged goods or any less likely to get another agent that's a better fit for you, and it's really not that uncommon at all. Keep the parting amicable if at all possible, and don't leave on a whim, but if you need to go, go.
• Good luck to all!
• I think it's important for writers to get feedback from agents' clients who have actually had their book sold before signing, otherwise it's the blind leading the blind.
• Don't just go after the star agents. Consider more junior agents at established agencies, who will be actively looking for clients and be able to give you more bandwidth while still getting support from more seasoned professions. Cast a wide net. If you believe in your book, don't give up after 50 rejections, or even 100. Consider agencies outside of your native country, even.

I want to thank all the authors who participated. To anyone out there who is finding themselves between agents, or unsure if their current match is the right one, I hope this helps give you some hope and guidance. This is all a normal part of the business.

As for me, I happily have my second agent and I'm excited to see where our relationship goes. My journey in between was on the longer side of those surveyed above, which is daunting and full of stress. But I knew more about what matched me as an author and what I needed and that helped me search for the right potential matches. And it was just as GIF worthy when the offer came around!

Ultimately, we each never know what the future will hold, but we all deserve to have a good agent/author relationship.