What Should I Ask A Client About Their Agent?

Author Ishta Mercurio offers some important topics to consider when researching an agent. ​Part of your research should include speaking to clients of that agent. This usually happens when an agent has expressed interest in representing you. It's common practice to ask if you can speak to a few clients and the agent should always say yes and offer a few names. Or you can find the clients yourself (#research), and reach out. 

​This information originally appeared as a Twitter thread and has been compiled by Threader. 
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Ishta: Okay, writers. Let’s talk querying.

You should always—ALWAYS—ask clients of an agent what that agent is like to work with.
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I find “do you like your agent?” to be an unhelpful question, because the vast majority of ppl DO like their current agent. But there are helpful questions.

Some helpful questions:

“How long does it take your agent to read manuscripts after you send them?”

“How editorial is your agent? Do they give detailed line edits, or not?”

“How does your agent communicate with you: mostly email, mostly phone calls, mostly texts...?”

“Does your agent jump into potentially difficult conversations with your editor, or do they ask you first, or do they wait for you to approach them?”

“Does your agent send you a list of editors who are considering your work when you ask?”

For illustrators:
“Does your agent arrange pitch meetings for you?”

For picture book writers:
“Does your agent typically query one project at a time, or multiple projects?”

Data. You aren’t gathering opinions; you are gathering data.

Remember that ten perfectly legitimate, perfectly good agents may all do these things differently.

The purpose of researching agents is to find out which agents do these things in the way that will work FOR YOU.

Research agents. Period.
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Please consider following Ishta on Twitter @IshtaWrites and visiting her website at www.ishtamercurio.com/

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