Every agent – and agency – is different and, ultimately, who you sign with has to be someone you click on a personal and professional level, and who you think will do the best by your writing and your career. Some agents work very closely editorially with clients and some don’t, but I’m not here to judge anyone! All I can say is that, as a former editor with a decade of experience working for several publishers, I do a lot of editorial work with my clients, particularly with debut writers, but this process can continue beyond that. This means working closely with them on several drafts of their novels before submitting them to publishers, helping them to shape outlines for future projects as well as brainstorming titles and pitch lines, and these are processes I really enjoy!

Whatever their style or experience, an agent should be hands on and work closely with you on your work. I remember what it was like, as an editor, to receive a submission from an agent – if it was a messy manuscript (both in terms of spelling and grammar, but also plot, character and pace), I could just tell that the agent hadn’t really worked on it and that really bothered me. Why hadn’t they taken the time to nurture and guide this writer? An agent should be your biggest advocate and what better way to present your work than to polish it and polish it until it’s editor-ready?

An example of working with a debut writer: once we’ve agreed that I’ll represent them, I will read their manuscript again and mark it up on screen with tracked changes. These changes could be comments about what I love or what’s working great along with all the things that might need a tweak or a bigger fix. In my email to that client, I will send them the marked-up Word document along with a summary of my main editorial concerns (these could be plot, pace, a certain character, some dialogue that doesn’t work, a scene that needs expanding etc) and then, once the author has processed my comments, we’ll have a call, Zoom or meeting to discuss tackling them and a timeframe for that. And the process continues until we’ve polished the manuscript enough that I think it’s ready for editors’ eyes! I will always do a final proofread on a manuscript before hitting the send button as I want the novel/proposal/outline to be as readable and polished as it can be.

While this sometimes rigorous (!) process might put the odd writer off, most writers who approach me for representation mention this close editorial eye and relationship as a positive, something they would like in an agent and I think it’s a vital part of developing a solid working relationship together. Agents have to sell projects with passion and, if we’ve worked for some time on a book, and we know it inside out, then we can do our best by that project. And the editorial work doesn’t stop with us – once you have an editor on board they will, most likely, ask you to do further edits on your book so I, personally, think it's best to be used to this process already so there are no curveballs further down the line!