Demystifying the Different Types of Literary Agencies
HIT PLAY OR READ THE POST BELOW:
If you're currently looking for a literary agent to represent your book to publishing houses, you likely have been navigating dozens of different agency websites trying to figure out who might be a good fit for you and your book. But between all the agency sites you're checking out, you may not be able to tell how the types of literary agencies differ.
In this article, I'm going to walk through the four main types of literary agencies and how they're structured. With this knowledge, you can have a deeper understanding of the literary agency business and how the role the agency will play in your publishing journey.
What Are Big Talent Agencies?
The largest of the literary agency types are the big-name talent agencies. These are companies and organizations that have a large number of agents. On average, there are upward of 15 individual book agents, a handful of junior agents underneath them, and a group of assistants underneath them all.
These big talent agencies go beyond selling just book rights, as they will often represent musicians, comedians, athletes, and actors. They serve as an overarching talent agency with these different divisions, books being just one of them.
Because of that, these agencies are a bit more corporate in nature and in terms of how the agents get paid. These agents may be paid a salary and receive a commission bonus based on the rights they sell. One example of a big talent agency is William Morris Endeavor. WME is a well-known major talent agency that makes a lot of waves in the book industry.
What Are Mid-Sized Agencies?
The next type of literary agency is a bit scaled down: the mid-sized agency. They will have around around 10 agents of differing levels. They pay their agents in one of two ways, either by salary or by commission, which is a percentage of all of the book sales they sell to publishers.
One example of a midsize agency is Inkwell Management, which is pretty well-known in the industry.
What Are Boutique Agencies?
The third type of literary agency is what is known as a boutique agency. These are smaller in scale, typically with fewer than 10 agency partners. The usual set-up includes senior literary agents who are the founding members of the agency, then a couple of junior agents. In total, the agency might have one or two assistants.
A boutique agency runs quite differently from the big talent agencies, as they are operating as a small business. They usually are running on those founder and partners’ personal investments, and so the agents on the team are typically paid primarily on commission versus a salary. That means their income is dependent on all of the book rights they sell, after the agency takes their cut.
One example of a boutique agency is The Book Group, which is actually where I worked as an assistant.
What Are Individual Agencies?
The last type of literary agency is an individual agency. This is just the agent themselves operating the business on their own. They might have an assistant that works with them, but they have no partners or junior agents.
These agencies are easy to recognize because the agency will typically have the same name as the agent themselves who is running it.
Which Type of Literary Agency Is Right for You?
So between these four different types of literary agencies, which one should you go with when querying?
Overall, it’s much more important for you to determine which specific agent is the right match for you over the agency as a whole. You're going to be primarily (if not entirely) interfacing with the agent themselves and you're not likely going to be involved in any of the corporate or organizational aspects of the agency. Most of your discussions will be one-on-one with your agent. So it is more important for you to have a connection to an agent versus liking the agency overall. Focus on reading each agent's individual bio, review their client lists, and determine who is a good fit for you that way.
With any agent, you should do your research and also make sure the agent you want to work with is affiliated with a legitimate and reputable agency. It's also worth mentioning that editors at publishing houses have relationships on an individual agent basis over the agencies at large. They won’t necessarily only buy books from agents from certain agencies. Of course, agencies have certain reputations and some may be more well-known than others. But ultimately, editors discuss book deals one-on-one with the agent rather than with the agency they work for.
It's also not uncommon for agents to move between agencies. When they do, they will often take their clients with them and continue to do deals with the same editors.
In general, the size of the agency shouldn’t influence which literary agents you query. But, if you’re interested in what type of agency a certain agent works for, it's pretty easy to determine what type of agency they are through their website. Just by looking at the team page and seeing how many agents there are, you should be able to determine if they’re a big corporate agency or a boutique agency.
I hope this helped demystify the different sizes and types of literary agencies out there. Remember to do your research and ensure any literary agent you query is working for a reputable agency, no matter which type of agency it is.
Thanks so much for reading and happy querying!