Agents and Editors In the Creative Writing Business

Above all else, let's address an assumption the member made, which can be summed up as: they are on salary or commission to help with how to sell a book idea and promote the books for their clients. This is true and false. True when it comes to "sell," false when it comes to "promote." In the creative writing business, the literary agent’s main job is to identify talent, get the manuscript ready for submission, and obtain rights and subrights deals for the manuscript in as many markets as possible. Agents sell those rights—that's their primary form of income, as well as their client's livelihood.

In the creative writing business, a publishing house employs an editor to acquire a property that has the potential to be sold to resellers (bookstores, libraries, etc.). The editor's job is also to shape the book, gather all of the components necessary for its release, and do a limited amount of promotional work. An art director or designer’s job is similar, but concerns the visual elements of the property. 

Publishing houses do have their own book marketing departments, but how much those marketing departments actually move the needle—and how much heavy lifting they do versus assigning promotional tasks to the writers—is a matter of some heated debate.

Promotion in the Creative Writing Business: Who Is Responsible?

It is a common misconception that it is a publishing employee’s job to promote a book, when it really falls on the author. Publishers in the creative writing business only provide limited assistance in promoting a book, even though it would behoove them to make sure the product sells a lot of copies. (This is incredibly frustrating, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Instead, the burden falls on the author. Their existing marketing or social media platform for writers (or way of connecting potential customers) is an essential part of any acquisitions discussion, and I hear this from both agents and acquiring editors. Agents, editors, art directors, etc. have the task of getting the book to where it needs to be in its publication process, though they are not responsible for selling it once it is released. 

That duty goes to the marketing department and resellers who purchase the book for customers (and the bookstore workers who hand sell the book, or the websites that do it for them). Everyone involved benefits from the success of the book, but ultimately marketing is in the author's hands in the creative writing business—emphasis on business.

It is important to remember that agents and editors must be fair when dealing with the various clients and authors on their lists. They will support a book when it is acquired and about to be released, if there are updates with the author or exciting subrights deals, or if there are new formats or versions of the book available. But they also have many other books to look after. In the creative writing business—and this is a harsh truth—nobody cares about your book as much as you do, not even the editors who paid money for it.

Balancing Everyone’s Stakes

Think about those agents and editors themselves. They all gravitated to the creative writing business, I would imagine, because they love writing and reading. While those agents and editors love working with books, they might also love writing them, and they have easy access to the industry. When they publish, they aren’t agents and editors, they are authors, and they have to do their own promotion.

I have met a few agents and editors who don't want to produce their own books, but they are a rarity. Agents and editors are plentiful, making it easy for anyone to get into the business. How do they stand out? How do they make themselves visible to potential submitters? They help with how to promote a book, which gives them increased visibility and encourages more people to send them manuscripts.

This makes them just like all the other authors who are trying to get their message out. They want to promote the work of their clients and books they’ve edited or sold, but they also want to promote their own. They are always doing a balancing act of diplomacy in the creative writing business. 

Is something timely occurring with the project? Should they tweet to avoid appearing like they are spamming? Who is listening? Are they being fair to their other clients by not tweeting about this project and others? The agent and editor are not marketers, and it’s uninformed to expect them to act like one. What they tweet about is also their own decision—they don’t owe anyone anything.

Conflict of Interest in the Creative Writing Business?

Our member finds this reality to be challenging. Self-promotion is commonplace in the creative writing business today, not just with authors but also agents, editors, and art directors. I used to be part of the “agents who write” club when my book, Writing Irresistible Kidlit came out, so I understand the blurry line between self-promotion and client promotion. 

As long as an agent/editor/art director is making an effort to back up their clients' projects when it is appropriate to do so, then they have freedom to advance their own career in the creative writing business. 

Almost anyone entering the publishing industry can learn from this example that self-promotion is necessary, even for those on the inside. That need for marketing never goes away, and our member could do well to embrace it.

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