Beware the Publishing Scam: How Legitimate Literary Agents Get Paid

Do You Have to Pay a Literary Agent for Their Preparation Work, Though?

This is a great question. You might notice that agents do a lot of reading and work on a manuscript before a potential sale. And a sale is never guaranteed—even top literary agents are not a magic bullet. So doesn’t that mean that agents work a lot on spec? 

You are absolutely correct. When I was a literary agent for five years, I realized that it was, basically, a commission-based sales job once all the glamor was stripped away. Nothing more, nothing less. If I didn’t sell a book I’d spent a year editing with a client, I wouldn’t see a dollar for that work.

Learning this, some (kind) writers might wonder whether it makes sense to pay a literary agent by the hour for their development work. Ah, to be paid for all the hours I'd invested in various projects when I was agenting would’ve been lovely. But I wasn’t. And that’s why I became a freelance editor—to actually make a living for the editorial and developmental work that I love to do. 

Of course, I’m not even a little bit upset about all that unpaid time. I learned so much doing it—and that makes it impossible for me to be anything other than grateful. It’s also a realistic way to weed out agents who are not going to make it long-term. That sounds mercenary, but it’s true. 

Agents who can’t put five years of (largely) unpaid work into developing their lists and reputations will struggle in an industry where advance amounts and economic fortunes fluctuate. Agents who aren't driven or passionate enough to work almost gratis to get their foot in the door don’t tend to stick around long. (Whether or not these unsustainable payment practices are great for the industry is a different question altogether!)

Unfortunately, currently, the literary agenting part of the publishing industry is set up this way. No wonder so many publishing and publishing-adjacent people get the idea to run a publishing scam. They actually want to make a living. But that doesn't mean that scamming writers is ever okay.

So How Do Literary Agents Get Paid?

Newer agents, in the short term, struggle to provide for their basic needs. A lot of people who work in publishing have generational wealth. (Some young people trying to get into publishing wonder whether that is the real publishing scam!) Agents do a lot and deserve to be compensated for their various responsibilities, such as editing, counseling, advising, and IP development.

But, for an author, especially one that is making their debut, paying a hypothetical hourly price for using a literary agent would be exorbitant. Launching a writing career can cost thousands of dollars and all that hard work may not even pay off (at least when it comes to publishing every manuscript you attempt). The only reward is the experience gained along the way, but for those who have put their life savings and years of effort into the project, it's not always easy to look at it with this kind of perspective.

If agents decided to charge billable hours, the uproar among writers would be loud and clear. Big publishing houses that insisted on only agented submissions would be met with deep unrest. The bond of loyalty between writers and agents would likely suffer, as writers would begrudgingly pay their agents to gain access to publishers, but quickly drop them afterwards to avoid hefty charges.

Established agents with long-standing clients could face a serious predicament if they started charging by the hour. Their marquee clients would already have their own esteemed reputation, thus being able to generate income from subrights or foreign sales, to sell follow-up book series, or to write books based on proposals. 

Consequently, agents would be needed more for negotiating than pairing and introducing, reducing the time they can spend on strenuous developmental editing and mentoring tasks. Their hourly billing for their biggest clients would drop. 

In the current commission model, those big clients are where agents make the most of their money. So is the system perfect? No. But paying agents on commission is the best solution the industry has come up with—and there’s no publishing scam to it.

Muddying the Waters of the Reading Fee Publishing Scam

In recent years, this imbalance of earning potential between newer and more established agents has reached a fever pitch in inner publishing circles. For the longest time, agents were precluded from doing freelance editorial work.

Now, they can, but they must be very transparent and able to navigate the incredible potential for conflict of interest here. I personally left agenting because I wanted to be a freelance editor, and I couldn’t think of an ethical way to do both.

Imagine querying an agent, only to be sold on their editorial services along with your rejection slip. That seems like a publishing scam to me. But now agents—notoriously overworked and underpaid—are allowed to take this approach by the AALA, the association of literary agents. To me, this is too close to a publishing scam for comfort, but I am sympathetic to all sides of the issue.

The takeaway is to be very mindful when anyone in publishing asks you for money. You’re close to your project and emotionally invested in your dream. But if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is. The publishing scam may have a new face (vanity publishing is an unregulated wild west situation), but the stories of the victims are as old as time. Stay vigilant out there.