What Literary Agents Want

Back in February, I attended the San Francisco Writers Conference.

I was on a panel about nonfiction success stories with four literary agents.

When I talked about a client who had gotten a six-figure deal, one of the male agents cut me off. “Of course, it’s not always about the money,” he said.

Then he proceeded to cut me off, talk over me and directly contradict whatever I was saying for the rest of the time we were on the panel.

He even shoved me at the presenters’ party that evening.

This particular literary agent’s behavior was ridiculous and appalling on a lot of levels. He was obviously being sexist and trying to put me down in front of the writers in the crowd. I was irked by that.

But what really pissed me off was his advice because it was outdated and wrong.

Let me be clear: literary agents want money.

Literary agents work on spec — they only get paid if and when an author they represent sells a project to a publisher. And even then, their commission is only 15%. So while a big advance isn’t appropriate or even warranted for every project, literary agents want to get the best deal for their client.

Personally, I’ve decided to only take on projects and authors that I believe are worth a…