Questions You Might Not Know to Ask a Literary Agent

The best takeaway for me is that I should be comfortable talking with them about awkward or straightforward topics

As a first-time author, I'd like to know what an agent's expectations are of me.

So many great nuggets of wisdom here. I've just submitted my queries off to agents this week, and I'm definitely hoping to eventually have these conversations with agents (if things go well). So I found this guidance to be very helpful and timely. Found your advice about "finding the agent perfect for now who's also open to working with the future you" especially helpful. Also, Jessica's point about "how they react to the question is as important as the answer they give." Thank you for taking the time to share this advice with us.

I laughed out loud when you shouted, "Money!!". Great advice for newer authors! Thanks so much!

I love this channel so much! Thank you for the open and honest conversations.

It's so helpful to see the agents' side of things. We see so many videos talking about this from the author's POV but I think knowing both sides helps handle the call better

Thank you for encouraging the hard questions. I'm never hesitant to ask if the person in question has experience, or is willing to work with a blind writer. It's a very necessary question because there are differences between visual and non-visual authors. So....yeah, I better ask, all the time. Thank you for being honest about the hashtag. It's a necessary conversation to have.

This is something that is never discussed in your creative writing classes! Thanks for sharing the information, Jessica and James!

recently found your channel and have been binge-watching your content. I've been learning so much. thanks for sharing your knowledge

Thank you so much for this information. I've just stumbled upon your channel, and I love the content.

I love your channel. This was definitely a post from which I took lots of notes. Very helpful. (Jessica - maybe I haven't dug deep enough into your Tweets or MSWL to see it posted somewhere, but I had no idea you take magical realism. Good to know!)

Love to hear you guys discussing allyship!

Delighted to see you've civilized your gambrel ceiling.

Thank you so very much for this open discussion of vital topics.

Great advice. Thanks. I wouldn’t have had an idea how to handle these issues.

I am so enjoying these videos!

I've been building my question list for The Big Day, so these videos are really helpful. Thanks! I have one question on my list I haven't seen in these videos: How do you handle transparency? Hopefully there will be negotiations, contracts, etc. in our future, so how is reporting handled so I feel confident that I have an accurate picture of what's going on? If someone gets itchy when I ask about transparency (as I've had to in non-publishing-related negotiations), I know to run.

Great video!!!!!

Excellent questions

Your You-tube videos are Awesome! I am learning so very much. Thanks!