Today it's my absolute pleasure to hand the reins of the blog over to Holly Seddon, author of
Don't Close Your Eyes, with her post for The Write Stuff with... series.
Thank you so much to Sharon for hosting this guest post. I love The Write Stuff series, and have been trying to think about what might be useful to talk about for writers, wannabe writers and curious readers, and I’ve settled on ‘agents’.
Agents are often seen as gatekeepers, the middlemen and women who stand between an amateur author and a book deal. But this is doing them a huge disservice. It’s no lie to say that my agent changed my life, she is in many ways a partner in what I do, and I couldn’t have achieved any of this without her.
So, what does an agent do?
Literary agents pitch your manuscript to editors at publishing houses. But back up a bit. Before this happens, a good agent will give an author critical notes to help improve their manuscript. Many – like mine – come from an editorial background. In my case, my agent wrote me notes in the form of a wonderful essay when she first took me on. The letter talked about what she liked about my debut manuscript Try Not to Breathe, what could be improved and what needed to be ditched. She was absolutely spot on, by the way.
A good agent will work with you until the manuscript is ready. Not only do they know what works editorially, they also have an excellent knowledge of genres, reader behaviour and the industry. They live and breathe books, and it shows.
