“Should I get a literary agent?” Finally a professional answer

8 mins read
Book proposals
February 12, 2025
agent, book, book contract, book deal, book proposal, fiction, getting published, nonfiction, proposal, publication, publisher, query

If you want to get your book published, you need to get an agent, right? Nope, that’s not necessarily true! It’s absolutely possible to find a publisher without an agent! So the real question is: SHOULD you get an agent? It’s hard to find an answer online, but I intend to rectify that, with this blog post. Let’s talk about literary agent vs publisher and help you find an answer once and for all.

I’m Susanne, a freelance editor and book publishing coach. That means that I am unbiased: to me it doesn’t matter whether you look for a literary agent or acquisitions editor first. All that matters to me is that I help you make the decision that makes sense for you. So, without further ado: Here’s my professional answer to the question, “Should I get a Literary Agent?”

How to get a literary agent or publisher?

If you want to get your book published the traditional way (meaning, through an official publisher rather than self-published), you need to get a publisher interested in publishing your book. Though it’s possible to self-publish, many people still try the traditional route first, as this may come with additional prestige, and means that you don’t have to pay any publishing costs up front.

The first step to take depends on whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction.

For a fiction book, you need to finish your whole manuscript before you start “querying” (sending out query letters to agents and publishers). Then, you write a query letter and a synopsis, which you send to either a literary agent or publishing house. Keep sending them to new people until you find those who want to help you publish your book.
For a nonfiction book, the process looks slightly different. In this case, you don’t need to finish writing your whole book, only the first three chapters. Then, you write a book proposal and you send that to either a literary agent or publisher. Again: keep sending them to new people until you find those who want to help publish your book. I’ve written a blog series on how to write a book proposal. You can find the first post in the series here.

So, whether you’re submitting to a literary agent or directly to a publisher, you’ll have to prepare the same documents and go through the same process. Which leaves the question: why would you want to get a literary agent?

Reasons you should get a literary agent

Even though it is possible to submit your materials directly to publishers, there are still very good reasons to find a literary agent first, who can do it for you.

Though many smaller publishers do accept unagented submissions, this is not true for the big publishing houses. If you want your book to be published by them, you’re going to need an agent to even submit your book to be considered by them.
Agents have experience negotiating these contracts and often have longer-term working relationships with the acquisitions editors of publishing houses. This means they might be able to secure you better deals: with (bigger) advances and better royalty rates.
A literary agent can help you with negotiating and securing rights, such as film rights, translation rights and subsidiary rights. So if you see a big future for your book, an agent might be a safe choice.
As a literary agent might have relationships with the acquisition editors they’ll send your manuscript to, they will be able to advise you on how to improve the manuscript and proposal to be more appealing to each of these editors.
And finally, as they are very much a part of the publishing industry, a literary agent will be able to advise you on how to map out your career as a writer and which kinds of projects you should embark on next.

In short: if you have big ambitions for your book, you’ll have a much better chance of realizing them with a literary agent. Now, I hear you ask, “So what’s not to like? Why would anyone forego the chance to secure an agent?” Well, actually, as a publishing coach, I know that there are some pretty solid cons too!

Why would you submit directly to a publisher?

Even though literary agents certainly have their advantages, for some writers, they are still not the right choice. Here are some of the reasons why it might be good to forego submitting to an agent and query a publisher directly instead.

Agents charge a commission. Though you do not pay agents in advance, they also aren’t free. Normally, a literary agent charges about 15% of everything you earn. If you want to keep all proceeds for yourself, then, an agent might not be the right choice for you.
Finding an agent can be a lot of work. Because agents are paid on commission, they only take on projects that they think they can make them money. That is why it’s usually not easier to find a literary agent than a publisher: they are just as selective. This means that you might not only double the work (see the image below) but also double the number of rejections you receive!
Finding an agent takes time. Once you secure an agent, the agent will then start shopping your proposal to publishers. This means that instead of having only one submission process (directly to the publisher), you’ll have two (first to agents, then to publishers). And these processes can take a lot of time. It’s not unusual for it to take two years before you have a publishing contract!

To make this clear, the image below shows the difference between the processes of submitting to an agent first, or going directly to a publisher.

So how do you decide whether you should get a literary agent?

I know I’ve given you a lot of information… And a lot of different factors to consider! For example, you might feel your book is super relevant to something that’s going on in the world right now, so you want to get it out as fast as possible. But on the other hand, you might think it has movie potential as well. And in that case, an agent can be super helpful.

So here’s what I suggest you do.

Take the list of pros and cons I gave you above (and which I’ve also summarized for you in the following image).

Then, think about every item on that list and ask yourself how important this is for you on a scale from 1-5.

Now, all you need to do is add up the points for the pros and the points for the cons… And you have an answer to your question, “Should I get a literary agent?”!

I told you I’d help you figure this out 🙂

Make sure to pin the “Pros and Cons of Literary Agents” image to Pinterest or save it to your computer, so you can look at it every time you wonder whether you should get a literary agent.

How I can help you get a literary agent or publisher

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question “Should I get a literary agent?” Instead, the answer depends on your needs and, for example, how big of a splash you want your book to make.

And that is why a publishing coach can be so helpful: I’d love to help you figure out what choice is the best one for you and how to realize the vision you have for your book and author career.

Whether you’d like some more personalized help figuring out whether you should get a literary agent, want help with your book proposal, or would like me to create a personalized list of agents and publishers who I think will be interested in your book – you can simply schedule a free half-hour strategy session straight into my calendar here.

And if you’re ready to write your book proposal yourself, you grab my free Playbook by filling out the form below.

Talk to you soon!

– Susanne

Write a book proposal your agent or publisher will love!

As I know how complicated a book proposal can seem, I created this Book Proposal Template & Playbook just for you! Just fil out this form and I’ll email them to you.

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