Strategic Relationship Management, Part 4
The Ideal Agent
In part 1 of this series, I outlined the concept of Strategic Relationship Management. So far, I have applied these principles to publishers and authors. Today, I want to apply them to agents.
I was a literary agent for six years, so I am speaking here from experience. What would the ideal, high-profit, low-maintenance agent look like from the publisher’s perspective? Here are fifteen characteristics:
| Profile of the Ideal Agent | ||
| High Profit | Low Profit | |
| 1. Demonstrates a win-win financial paradigm. | 1. Demonstrates a win-lose financial paradigm. | |
| 2. Understands basic publishing economics. | 2. Doesn’t understand basic publishing economics and doesn’t seem to care. | |
| 3. Has clients who generally recoup their advances. | 3. Has clients who generally don’t recoup their advances. | |
| 4. Places more value on long-term relationships than short term transactions. | 4. Places more value on short-term transactions than long-term relationships. | |
| 5. Routinely sends us every new proposal. | 5. Doesn’t send us every new proposal. | |
| 6. Does lots of business with us and the volume is increasing. | 6. Doesn’t do much business with us. | |
| Low Maintenance | High Maintenance | |
| 7. Sees the publisher as a partner (i.e., a customer), values his role, and reinforces it with the author. | 7. Sees the publisher as an adversary (i.e., “the enemy”), regards him as a necessary evil, and is constantly undermining his role with the author. | |
| 8. Prepares well thought out proposals and follows our proposal format. | 8. Sends us weak or incomplete proposals, requiring us to do his or her work before it is presentable. | |
| 9. Provides collateral sales material when it is available (e.g., audios, videos, previous books, etc.) | 9. Does not provide collateral sales material and seems unwilling to get it. | |
| 10. Is honest with us—tells us the good, the bad, and the ugly. | 10. Is not honest with us—only tells us the good and often exaggerates that. | |
| 11. Responds promptly to phone calls, e-mails, and other inquiries. | 11. Doesn’t respond to our phone calls, e-mails, or other inquiries in a timely manner. | |
| 12. Quickly passes on our requests to the author. | 12. Sits on our requests then blames us when the author complains about being rushed. | |
| 13. Gives us the benefit of the doubt and encourages his clients to do the same. | 13. Looks for opportunities to catch us doing something wrong and then points it out to the author. | |
| 14. Steps in and helps us when the author is not cooperating. | 14. Tells us (in so many words), “You’re on your own. Good luck!” | |
| 15. Expresses gratitude and encourages his clients to do the same. | 15. Rarely expresses gratitude and almost never encourages his clients to express gratitude. | |
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Posted on February 20, 2007
In: Leadership
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