By Paul R. Reynolds.
The work of the literary agent in the building of a book may be
roughly divided into two parts, first, in relation to the author, and
second, in relation to the publisher. When the author has finished his
manuscript, he brings it to the literary agent to be placed. The
literary agent reads it and decides what house is most likely to
publish such a book. He does not offer a book on Nervous Disorders to
a house which never publishes that kind of book. He does not offer a
sensational novel to a conservative house. He offers a book on
Political Economy to a house which publishes that class of book and
which is in touch with the people who buy books of that order. Among a
number of houses which bring out books of any definite class, he can
select the house that is most energetic in pushing its books, that has
behind it a prestige and name which will help its publications, and
which possesses the requisite skill to lay its wares before the public
advantageously. The success of many a book has depended more on the
shrewdness of the publisher in laying it before the public in
attractive and seductive guise than either the public or the author
often realize.
If the publisher accepts the manuscript offered to him by the literary
agent, the latter arranges terms with the publisher, making as good a
business arrangement as all the conditions justify. He draws up the
contract with the publisher, and after the book is published, he
collects the royalties from the publisher as they fall due. He enables
the author to avoid any house that has a reputation for sharp
practices. Knowing the personnel of the different houses, he knows the
proper man to approach in offering his book, and he is of aid to the
author in blowing his trumpet for him, telling what his previous work
has been, in a way that the author, sensitive as he often is, cannot
properly do. In short, the agent takes off the author's shoulders all
the business end of publishing, leaving him free to devote himself to
his own proper vocation without the vexatious business worries which
he finds all the more vexatious because he has not had any training or
experience in coping with them.
I think the literary agent can be, and as time goes on, will be, of
increasing use to the publisher. The literary agent, if he understands
his business, takes up no manuscript in which he does not believe.
When he brings the publisher a manuscript, it is because he thinks
there is money in such manuscript for the publisher, for the author,
and as far as commission is concerned, for himself. While it is an
advantage to the author that he should have the judgment of the agent,
because the agent looks at any manuscript from a cold-blooded business
point of view, it is also of advantage to the publisher to know that
the agent, free from the confidence and perhaps the bias that the
author has about his own wares, is offering him any individual
manuscript because he (the agent) believes it will sell. The result is
that the publisher gets to know that the agent won't offer him a
manuscript that is not up to a certain standard, and which, even
though it should in the end not prove suitable to this publisher's
special list, must receive careful consideration. In this way the
agent becomes of use to the publisher because he tries never to offer
him anything that is mere trash or that simply wastes the publisher's
time. Some time ago a publishing house wrote to an agent telling him
they wanted a certain kind of novel for the next season, and
describing, with a good deal of particularity, the kind of book they
wanted. The agent, after thinking the matter over, submitted two
manuscripts. The publisher considered them and accepted both. In such
a case the agent had certainly been of great use to the publisher. He
had given him what he was looking for, and had saved him the nuisance
and the actual expense of reading through a large number of
manuscripts before finding the right one.
It may be admitted frankly that the agent is sometimes accused of
asking more for his wares than they are worth. In reply to this
accusation it may be said that asking is not getting, and the agent
who asks more than the market justifies, and thereby spoils the
chances of a satisfactory arrangement, is not serving the best
interests of his client. On the other hand, he will get the best price
obtainable in the market, taking into consideration the character of
the publishing house, its prestige and ability in pushing books, and
as he is offering and selling every day he can generally obtain a
better price and make a better arrangement than the author can.
Realizing that the author and publishers are partners in an enterprise
whose success depends upon a frank and clear understanding, he will do
his best to make such relations friendly and harmonious and to the
mutual advantage of both parties to the contract, never forgetting,
however, that his especial client is the author, and that it is his
duty to represent the author's interests.
One of the notable features of the times is the growth of magazines.
The arrangement for the serialization of a long story in a magazine,
the placing of short stories and articles in magazines, the selling of
stories, articles, and books in England, and arranging the
simultaneous issue in both countries,--all this involves an immense
amount of detail which one has to encounter fully to realize.
Sometimes, where an author is putting out a good many manuscripts, the
complications are numerous and perplexing. In the case of one author
living abroad whom we will call Smith, a book was arranged with a
house A, and a second with a house B. The author was taken ill, could
not finish the first book in time so that A had to postpone it till
the next year, and this meant that B had to postpone his book. Then a
publishing house took a story which the same author had sold direct to
it for magazine publication, without reserving book rights, and
brought such story out in book form. This meant another complication.
After B had postponed his book twice the author produced another book
which he thought better than the second book, and wished published
before B's book. Four times B was asked to postpone his book and each
time agreed to, though not without certain _quid pro quos_. All these
matters the agent had to straighten out, while the author was living
three thousand miles away.
The agent can also be of use to the author because he looks at any
manuscript in an objective rather than in a subjective way. The
author, who has toiled and striven over the child of his brain,
regards it as fathers generally regard their children. Sometimes he
cannot see its faults, sometimes he misjudges its virtues. It is too
much a part of himself to be regarded coldly and calmly. When the
publisher makes an offer for a book the author may with hasty disdain
wish to reject it as entirely inadequate, or he may wish to accept it
with eager haste, so glad is he for the chance of seeing the book in
print. In this state of hasty acceptance or hasty rejection, the agent
can look upon an offer calmly and dispassionately, to be accepted or
rejected as the author's best interests shall dictate. Then again, as
time goes on, more and more authors must live at a distance from the
great centres. Some of them live in the uttermost parts of the earth.
One author wrote recently to his agent from the wilds of Africa,
saying, "I have found a nicely secluded spot, surrounded by gorillas
and chimpanzees." To such authors it is essential that they should
have an agent who is in touch with the publishers who are publishing
their works.
Then again, the agent can be of use to the author in sparing him some
of the bitterness that the author feels when his manuscript is
rejected. Who that has read it can ever forget the story of how
Hawthorne, while still struggling for success, submitted a collection
of short stories to a publisher, and of how the publisher, not having
much capital, laid the manuscript aside, intending to publish it when
things were a little easier; and how Hawthorne, after months of dreary
waiting, wrote an angry letter to the publisher, and when he got the
manuscript back, in bitter, hopeless rage burned it up? Years
afterward the publisher admitted that the manuscript contained some of
the most exquisite work Hawthorne had ever written. This story
emphasizes the intense sensitiveness of the author about his work.
Often after two or three rejections he will give the manuscript up as
hopeless and of no value, while it may be that he has only failed to
find the house that is looking for that kind of book. An agent, if he
has once taken the book up, does not drop it so quickly. Only recently
an agent sold a book which had been declined by fifteen houses to the
sixteenth. He is willing to persevere with a manuscript and with an
author, in spite of rebuffs and discouragement, if he believes that
the author has merit; and if he is willing to persevere with an author
in the day of small things, he will reap his reward later on.
In conclusion the writer believes that the agent, as he has tried to
indicate, can perform a definite and valuable service to both author
and publisher by helping the author to bring his wares to the man who
will publish them most advantageously, and by obtaining for the author
the prices that such wares are worth in the open market, and he can
help the publisher by acting as a sifter and bringing before the
publisher and editor manuscripts that are really worthy of
consideration.