The Average Salary of a Literary Agent
Being a literary agent seems like a glamorous job. Discovering the next literary star and inking million-dollar deals, however, is not the daily course of business for the average literary agent, especially new ones.
Most literary agents start small and take time to build their clientele, and therefore their incomes. Salaries of literary agents vary depending on the skill of both the clients and the agent.
Other People Are Reading
-
Percentages
-
Most literary agents take a 15 percent cut of the writer's income. In addition, some literary agents charge the writers fees for items such as making copies, postage and the like, which they deduct from the writer's paycheck.
The writer's income is a percentage, or royalty, of the book's cover price. How much the writer gets is based on the writer's experience, whether it's a hardback or paperback and various other factors. The 15 percent agent commission is based on the writer's royalty.
-
How Agents Are Paid
-
When the writer is entitled to an advance on a future work or royalties from an existing work, the publisher pays the literary agent directly. The literary agent takes his or her 15 percent, then cuts a check for the writer.
The agent does not depend on the writer to send him or her a check.
Misconceptions
-
The take-home salary of a literary agent varies according to how much his or her client earns. If the literary agent is new and has only a few writers, all of whom earn small advances, the agent will earn 15% of that income and may need another job to keep afloat. If the agent is more established and has several high-earning writer clients, the agent makes more money. Thus, the salary of a literary agent may vary from zero (if he can't sell a book that month, for instance) to millions of dollars.
Considerations
-
The average salary for a literary agent can be estimated using the average advance for new authors. Different types of books earn different average advances. According to Joe Wikert, general manager & publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc., the average advance for a computer book is $10,000. 15 percent of $10,000 is $1500. Therefore, the agent can expect to earn $1500 per book, until the book is actually printed and sold and earns money. Books can take one to two years from purchase to publication. Therefore, if this literary agent sold 10 books in his first year, that year's income would be $15,000. Again, the number of books the agent sells depends on the market, the material and the experience of the agent.
Warning
-
Agents are paid when, and only when, the writer earns money. No legitimate literary agent charges a reading fee to an unsigned writer, for example. Literary agents will lose credibility if, in an attempt to supplement income, they ask writers to pay them fees.
Getting Started
-
Most literary agents start out as interns, then assistants to full-fledged agents, so they can learn the craft and establish their own clientele over a period of years. Some start as readers for the agency, looking through the manuscripts that come in.
To get started as a literary agent, contact literary agents who represent the types of books you would like to sell and ask if they need an assistant or an intern.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit "80% Dangerous - Day 160" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: √o...έ'x™ (Vox Efx) under the Creative Commons Attribution license. "Money" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: AMagill (Andrew Magill) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
More Like This
Comments
-
Oh, that sucks, i feel your pain, i hope you had some cut at least when your book was sold. But do you need to pay for a publisher to promote your book? i thought that was the job of the literary agent?
-
The considerations section does NOT make sense. Agents earn 15% of the advance, which is $1,500, but not $1,500 per book unless each BOOK is selling for $10,000. I don't know about you, but I've never purchased a book for $10,000. So, if a book sells ten copies in its first year, it wouldn't even pay for the advance, so neither author nor agent would make anything beyond the advance.
-
I forgot to mention before that the publisher I used for my first book charged outrageous fees, and after I paid for editing , they did not do the job.They were very unprofessional and I feel that they took advantage of me, a new writer after promising to help achieve a successful book.They will promote your book , yes , for thousands of dollars more.I cannot trust this company since I trusted them to edit my book and they ended by using margin of error for thier excuse for doing a bad editing job.Beware of self-publishers.Be very careful.Although my book is successful , there are errors in it which are unexcusable, when you consider they were paid to do the job in a professional manner.
