How Exclusives Harm Authors
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Jan 25 2022
For anyone who has followed me or BookEnds for any length of time, you know my feelings about agents asking authors for exclusives. For those new to BookEnds and this blog. I hate them. So much that it was one of my first YouTube rants.
What is an Exclusive
An exclusive is a request for your material by an agent on an exclusive basis (don’t you hate when a definition uses the word it’s defining in the definition?). This means the agent wants to see your manuscript, but only if you’ll commit to sending it to them and only them. That means holding off on submitting to any other agent.
Why Exclusives are Terrible
If you watch my video this is really where the rant takes off. Ultimately, an exclusive gives all the advantages to the agent and takes all the power from the author. At a time when the author should have the most power.
Remember, an author is hiring an agent to become their business partner. That means you want to hire the best possible partner and have the most choices. An exclusive takes this away from you. Here’s how and why…
1. We all know how long agents can take with submissions. It’s not because they want to take forever, it’s because other things come up. Contracts must be negotiated or reviewed, an author’s manuscript needs to be read or edited, or lunches with editors must be lunched (or zoomed). All of these things mean the submission pile grows and before long said agent (ahem) looks at her list and realizes she has requested material from last year (sorry about that). This also means that months can go by before you have the ability to seek out other agents.
2. Giving an exclusive, even with a strict time period, means that you’ve already committed to this agent. You’ve said, “yes I want you to read my work and if you like it and offer representation I’ll sign with you because I have no other options.” This is the part about exclusives that tweaks me the most.
When you commit to an agent you are hiring someone to work with you. Repeat this: YOU are HIRING someone to work WITH you. Imagine this. You’re a business owner. You have a vision for your business and you need to bring on a partner to help make things happen. You find about 10 people you’d like to interview for the job, but one of them tells you she wants an exclusive interview, which means that you eliminate the other 9 people without even having the chance to talk to them. Is this really how you want to build your business?
By offering an exclusive to an agent you are giving someone the opportunity to manage your career, your dream career, without the chance to interview the right person for the job. And that’s a big mistake.
When to Give an Exclusive
Rants aside, there are times when you might decide to give an exclusive. Well, a time, the only time I can think of while I’m writing this. And that’s if you’re doing revisions with the agent.
The only time I can think of when you might give an exclusive is if the agent reaches out and offers to work with you on revisions, but on the condition that they will get an exclusive on the revised material. I think, honestly, that’s fair. Because in doing so you’re testing the agent as much as they’re testing you. If the revisions and the process are not working you can choose not to submit because you’ve already decided this is not the best agent for you.
Even in this instance, however, there is a right and a wrong way to grant that exclusive.
How to Give an Exclusive
If you choose to work with an agent on a revision and grant the exclusive I have some tips to help you do so and maintain your power. How you choose to handle this exclusive should be communicated with the agent so you’re both on the same page.
- Give a timeline. Once you submit the revisions to the agent give them a timeline for how long the exclusive lasts. Personally, I think 2 weeks feels right, 4 feels long, but still okay, I wouldn’t give anyone longer than that. Once the time is up, the agent is still allowed to consider the material, but you are also allowed to send the revisions to other agents.
- Allow submissions already out to stay out. In other words, if other agents are currently reviewing the original material they are allowed to continue considering it. If an offer comes in on the exclusive material you have the right to go to the other agents and let them know you have an offer. They however are considering the original material still.
- Trust your gut. If the revisions aren’t working or you and the agent don’t have the same vision for the book it’s okay to walk away. Revisions from professionals are great, but not successful if the visions don’t align.
Thank you. The “whole idea” of exclusive consideration granted to one agent is, in my opinion, not only absurd but also hostile. When I am looking for a business partner I do not “hang around” waiting for her to make up her mind: this must not be tolerated. If any agent asked me to be exclusive, I would assume she is not the business partner I seek.
Regarding query letters, I have seen many of them on-line where the writers clearly do not understand they are seeking a long-term business partner. They appear to expect a publishing contract and a finished product just by throwing a manuscript at the agent.
On Twitter I saw a writer who proudly announced she had submitted her manuscript to “over two hundred agents.” Argh. I patiently and kindly explained to her why that is hostile and ignorant. She, of course, responded with hostility and emotion— the kind of person no agent should work with.
For one of my manuscripts I found approximately (I lost count) 25 agents out of many hundreds that looked like an excellent fit for the project— and that was over a span of about 18 months. To just spew query letters to all of the agents one can find is bizarre behavior. Agents expect authors / clients to be professionals, and writers I have encountered do not know this: nor will they accept advice explaining this to them.
Exclusives for slush pile queries seem completely ridiculous. But there are writers out there who don’t want to put a foot wrong so agree or think it means they are getting special consideration. It’s such a shame because I’ve seen stories of writers who have waited up to 12 months for a response on an exclusive slush pile query (and obviously are never going to get one). What a waste of their time. I hope articles like yours, Jessica, help writers to make the right choices when querying.