Today’s guest is Katie Shea Boutillier who has been a literary agent with the Donald Maass Literary Agency since 2011. She is the Rights Director handling the agency’s translation and audio rights, and selected film/TV and electronic rights. In addition, Katie focuses on her own client list of smart contemporary women’s fiction/book club; edgy/dark realistic YA; commercial-scale literary fiction; and celebrity memoir. She looks for projects with the perfect balance of plot and emotion. Katie loves novels that seek big truths, touch on important social issues, and explore unique family dynamics and unlikely friendships. She is a cum laude graduate of Marist College.
Connect with Katie on Twitter.
What I’ve Learned in the Last 4 years as an Agent
Last week marked my 4-year-anniversary with the Donald Maass Literary Agency . . . and a lot has happened. First, I’ve become the agency’s Rights Director, closing over 70 deals to-date. I’ve hit two agent milestones: held my first book auction and closed my first six-figure deal. While all along, I’ve become a wife and a mom.
With each passing year there have been beautiful moments, hardships, celebrations, and frustrations. Being an agent is challenging. I think we can all agree. We are advocates. We are set out to show the industry what we believe will work in today’s competitive market. We want others to hop on board with us, put a price tag on it, and give the author a chance to gain an audience. And it’s not easy. Our industry is constantly changing. But that’s no excuse. We must catch the wave of change and continue to ride. We must learn how to maneuver challenges. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Because at the end of the day, this is a business. And in every business, success is achievable. Focus on your strengths and defeat your weaknesses. Continue to be inspired.
The material I send out to editors must speak for itself. I must push my clients to the furthest limit when it comes to editorial. The stronger the material, the larger the advance. The bigger the buzz. The more copies sold. The more chance of longevity in a publishing career. The concept must attract a major audience, and it must feel different. Large advances come to those who have unique ideas, touching on a subject that has not been explored before. They come to writers who can deliver a story in a way no one has tried. I cannot hold back reservations on elements of a project that I think are not working. Because if I have doubts, it’s likely an editor will too, which will lead to a rejection. It doesn’t only affect the author. I have a reputation to hold for myself as an agent. Both of our names are on the cover page. The material must be perfect in our eyes, so there are no regrets. As long as we are working toward a finished project that feels fresh, new and modern, I am fine with taking my time with a client to make sure the material is spot-on. It’s the only way.
An author and editor must be able to work together. The publisher is making an investment in my clients’ work, and so the agent-author-editor relationship must be effective. More than that, it must be powerful. We must believe in the success of the author. We must be able to envision the author’s future and know how to brand her in the marketplace, because we all want more books. We want to see sales rise with each book and a consistent gain in the author’s readership. This will lead to continually higher advances.
It’s important to be assertive and ask questions. This goes for my relationship with clients and with publishers. On both ends we need to continue to ask each other: What’s our vision? Any troubling story elements? How can we fix those? What about marketing? How will this book break out into the market? What can we do to help this break out? Who is our competition? What kind of connections can we make to help spread the word? What can we do differently to promote? How can we help push exposure? We need to discuss all questions and concerns. Address all expectations. Collaborate. And keep the conversation going.
You must aim high. Confidence goes a long way. Authors can feel it. Editors can see it. Continue to rise with trust in yourself that you are doing everything you can to close a book deal and to achieve the highest success for your clients. Believe in the work you are putting out there. Keep your eyes open and pay attention to those who are successful. And make sure you understand why it worked.
Think volume & keep going. This goes for both the agent and the author. As an agent, I need to keep signing. The more material I have, the higher the chances are for me to have more bestselling authors. In the perspective of the author, you must, MUST have volume in your book ideas. Try not to get too invested in ideas that aren’t working. We also need to support each other, trust in each other’s opinions, and make decisions in order to better our careers. Create more opportunities, and with more opportunities, our odds are higher to succeed.
As I close in on my four-year-anniversary at the DMLA, I am inspired. It’s tough out there. But my persistence, confidence, awareness, and aspiration is a constant that cannot be destroyed. In the words of Steve Jobs, “You have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing because it is so hard . . . if you don’t, any rational person would give up.” Let’s aim high. Let’s push a little harder. Let’s keep the conversation going. Let’s achieve great things together.
We all know there are challenges in publishing and in the road to get there. You will experience euphoric moments and and there will be dark ones, too. But what’s most important are the ways we keep moving forward. How have you, you and your agent, and you and your editor kept things pushing?
Hi Katie: I like your “think volume and keep going” strategy, which applies to all writers, not just agented ones. I’m unagented with three novels indie-pubbed and self-pubbed, and I have a question. Can you speak to the length of time it takes for a new author to get a book published through an agent? I ask because a friend of mine just went through nearly 4 years before the book got out there: the author spent a year of query letter rejections before finally landing a literary agent; then it took a year of submissions for the agent to land a publisher; then it took well over a year for the book to get on the publisher’s schedule for launch date. Honestly, I was so discouraged hearing that. I was thinking, gee, I’m in the over 50 set; I could be dead in 4 years. Is this the usual time it takes to do the literary agent journey to publication? Great post today. Thank you.
Four years? Wow. We move so fast I don’t stop to count, but it’s true. So much has happened. Many clients, many deals, more responsibility. Hard to image the agency without you now. I feel the force that is Katie.
Thanks for sharing your experience on WU today. If authors imagine that agents are lazy gatekeepers who point, pick and reap easy rewards without effort, they only need to read this post.
Thank you, Don!!
“the force that is Katie” oh, yes! Hard reality delivered with a shining optimism, thank you, thank you. Head down, volumes to go…much gratitude for the morning inspiration.
Every publishing journey is different, but yes. Years in the making is pretty much normal. This isn’t to discourage you, it just is a fact. This is exactly why I point out that we must keep going and create volume in our projects/ideas. During downtime (ex: querying agents, your agent is on submission, waiting for your book launch), focus on something that excites you, something new. So that if the current project doesn’t work out, you have something to lean back on.
Thanks for sharing your insights, Katie. As authors, we get wrapped up in our world of writing and its good to know what the process looks like once the marketing begins, first with the agent, then the publisher. Any insights we can garner about what it takes to attract an audience are appreciated. And congratulations on all your milestones. This sounds like it’s been a busy four years!
Hi Katie – Great post! I’m a book publicist and much of this applies on my end as well. Question: what specific materials are you referring to in saying “The material I send out to editors must speak for itself?” The manuscript for sure, but what else, and what sub-components? I, too, need shining materials to get the media’s attention, but it’s about so much more than the book and the story angle. It’s about the author’s profile. His or her existing media platform and often, professional experience. I need to highlight this in whatever I send out. Please tell a bit more about those ‘materials’ you describe! Thanks :-)
Thanks for sharing! I wish you more success in your field. Kathryn Craft suggested I check this feature out. I’m glad I did!
Ultimately, Sharon, I am speaking of the manuscript. But of course if the author has a strong platform and great connections for future blurbers or any features/reviews in the media, this counts too. But at the end of the day, focus on the publicity information that will actually create more attention and help reach out to a wider audience. And dump anything that you might have doubts on being impressive.
Congrats on four years, Katie. Thanks for sharing your perspective. For those of us who are still unpubbed, it’s great to be reminded that agents and authors form partnerships, that the effort is accomplished through synergy and teamwork. Here’s to the future – to volume and a plethora of new ideas. Onward!
Congratulations on your 4 yrs at DMLA, Katie, and also on becoming a wife and mother! I don’t have an agent but I work directly with various editors and your comment about volume is spot on. I’d say only the best 10-20% of ideas/proposals actually end up hatching but it’s the wading through the 80-90% of terrible ones that often opens the path to the good ones. Thanks for you insightful post.
“Large advances come to those who have unique ideas, touching on a subject that has not been explored before.”
Yes! Making this my mantra.
This is such an important post for writers who have not yet worked with an agent. Glad you set the bar high—where it needs to be—and most importantly, glad you’re there to help push me over it!
You talk as if you’ve just time-traveled from 1998 straight to 2015. Do advances of any kind still exist? Not to mention the six-figure advances. It’s not nice, putting visions of sugarplums into the heads of unpublished authors. It seems to me the results of what you’ve accomplished for a few authors, amidst the millions of us, is as rare as the Hope Diamond. Don Maass used to say, “It takes ten years to become an accomplished and successful author.” That was years ago I heard him first say this. I wonder if he’s extended it to fifteen or even twenty years. And yes, I am a graduate of his Breakout Novel Intensive. (Sigh) I don’t know … the industry has evolved. God bless the few authors you’ve been able to get “deals” for. But I think those who read this blog need to know … those are FEW and FAR BETWEEN. Just keepin’ it real.
Pamela, I completely understand your frustration. Agents are looking for large advances, but we are also looking for strong support from the publisher for our authors. And yes, it doesn’t come easy. Hence, why I first pointed out that the material needs to be spot-on. It needs to work with the market. It needs to hit at a certain time, the right time. And sometimes this doesn’t just come with hard work, sometimes we need a little luck. So that’s why I tell everyone to keep pushing. Keep coming up with ideas. Don’t give up. As an agent, we are in this together. We are your #1 advocates. So if something doesn’t work out, we need to move on to Plan B. Or Plan C, and so on. I hope you don’t think I have elevated expectations in publishing, and I have, personally, experienced discouraging times, but at the end, all we can do is keep pushing.
Echoing other readers, congrats on your accomplishments, Katie, and the trajectory of your life while you were succeeding in the publishing world. It’s a balancing act to be successful in personal and public life–and you make it look easy. Enjoying Don’s workshop today. Now, I know so much more about my story and how to make my fiction shine. Thanks again for drawing me out–you helped me to see the possibility of success–and I am working toward that in earnest.
Congratulations to you!
“Large advances come to those who have unique ideas, touching on a subject that has not been explored before. They come to writers who can deliver a story in a way no one has tried.”
Child, Deaver, Cussler, etc., and all their co-authors or successors like Ludlum-Lustbader disprove this thesis every time they publish a book.
I have read a number of times that literary agencies are like stonewalls to getting published, no doubt some stonewalling is necessary. Also no doubt, some good stories are overlooked. It has been said too often that agents and editors are in the good ol’ boy relationship over coffee or martinis- as to what gets published. This is why we see so much crap in book stores for very limited reading audiences. Private Payne
Congrats Katie, it sounds like you’ve had a wonderfully fulfilling 4 years, at work and at home – and as someone said in the comments, that’s always an exceedingly difficult balancing act (I know, I did it too, working for the United Nations, writing fiction on the side and having a family, 2 kids, one dog, one cat!)
What I find very striking (and to me highly reassuring) is that the publishing business still sounds very much the same as it did before the onslaught of the digital revolution. Agents still work hand-in-hand with authors and get hefty (hopefully!) advances for their clients’manuscripts.
And sure, it takes time. Someone mentioned 4 years from start (first draft done) to finish (book published), and I can’t say I’m surprised. That seems about right to me. Someone else complained that was too long and depressing when any self-pubbed author can go from draft to published in a matter of weeks or even less – at the push of a button! And, this person said, compared to how FEW authors you manage to get published.
But the difference between being traditionally published and self-published is HUGE. Of course, even if you’ve got a good publisher, you have to promote your book but if you’re self-published, you’re alone in promoting! You have to think of hiring a publicist (if you can afford one) and do all the marketing yourself – mostly online since self-publishing is primarily online. Rare are the self-published authors who manage to get their books in physical brick-and-mortar bookstores (unless they’ve gone hybrid, but that’s only possible if you’re hugely successful to begin with…)
What self-pubbed authors rarely acknowledge is how rarely they hit the jackpot. Most self-pubbed books sink out of sight (and I mean 99% of them). I’ve checked people who used to be big sellers online (like say, Amanda Hocking) and now…well the story is quite different.
Personally, I consider self-publishing a great experience to learn the trade, to hone your writing skills. But to break through? No, I don’t think so. Prestigious literary prizes are all reserved to those published by traditional publishers. Now of course, many of my fellow self-pubbed authors say they don’t care about prizes, they just want to make money as fast as possible and they claim they are. But I do wonder how many of them actually do…I know the Authors Earnings statistics give a very positive view of the indie market but it doesn’t provide a detailed view of the distribution of sales. The distribution is what counts, i.e. for every one that makes it to the top, how many sank to the bottom? In other words, we don’t know (and there’s no way we can know) how many books “make it” into the Amazon top selling ranks out of the millions that are out there, in the Kindle Store (apparently some 4 million titles…)
To conclude: Book discovery is hard, especially for self-pubbed authors, but I’d love to hear how you think an agent can help in book discovery…In other words, is that how you see your job and its highest calling, the possibility that one day you’ll discover the next Jonathan Franzen?
Claude, your remark about “book discovery” is certainly key. I think it’s a lot like throwing the dice. You can try a number of strategies and still be in the dark as to what is effective. As a hybrid (self-pubbed and indie-pubbed), I did a BookBub promo on one of my books, specifically aiming for book discovery, and it was very successful, sold thousands of books, and achieved solid residual sales for months. I tried it again with my second novel and the promo was a disaster with only a few hundred books sold and zero residual sales at two weeks. I think one of the strategies is to keep writing, keep polishing your craft, keep publishing. Don’s advice that it takes 10 years is probably right on.
I do think you have to keep pushing, never stop. Give it your all, and one day your best work will be met with great publishing support. But as far as those big advances are concerned, play the lottery. Your chances are much better.
Excellent article!