My Book Just Got Sold! What Now?

"Ask the Agent" with Ken Wright is back! If you want to catch up on the conversation before jumping in, go here to read past topics. As before, we'll be directing the questions around a broad category to help keep things focused.

Topic this time: A literary agent's role after your book has been sold.

Wondering about the author-editor-agent relationship? Or how things change between writer and agent after the second, third, or even tenth book? If it takes place after book is sold, then it's fair game! Ask Ken anything that comes to mind, and he'll pick the three he likes the most and respond.

We'll be taking questions for the next two weeks, so fire away! 

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[Amelia Underwood]

Ken,
Once you have sold a title, does an author have to go through the process of querying you again? Or do you take on an author that you believe will have several more titles to offer?
Amelia Underwood
Author Dark Forgiveness

[Tim]

Hi Ken,

I'm curious as to what the agent's editorial role is with a book after it's been sold. Are those responsibilities pretty much passed off to the editor? Or is the agent still in the picture as changes are made to the story prior to publication?

Thanks!

[Max]

Once you've sold a clients book, what kind of work takes up the bulk of your time? I guess I'm wondering if you do a lot of coordinating between the author and the publishing house, or if you end up doing a lot of promoting and publicity work through other avenues...or even something that I've probably never thought of as being an agents job!

[Donna]

Dear Ken,

Thanks for taking all of our questions again! I'm wondering how much leeway there is in the contracts you make with the publishers after they've agreed to buy the book.

Is there a pretty standardized contract that gets used most of the time, or do things vary a lot in terms of rights and royalty payments? Is there usually a long round of negotiations with this stuff, or does it go pretty fast once the book is sold?

Thanks,

Donna

[Rick Thomas]

Ken,

I am in the middle of a writing that started out as a screenplay but has grown into a novel. Would you suggest when it is finished that I market it as a novel, a screenplay, or both?

Rick Thomas

[warriorwitch]

The only thing I would like to know is, IS it really possible to earn a living by writing? Especially poetry? Even if you don't have all those degress?

[Kim Ward]

When do you know when you have built a big enough platform? I have started a website(its doing very good), twitter, fan page, blog, done radio interviews, became a platinum writer on ezine, doing page to fame,am a contributing writer to other blogs and have been asked to write for a huge online dating site all in 7 months. When do I start to submit to agents?

[Michel]

Hey Ken thanks for taking questions. I've written a series and the story is there but the technical aspects aren't because I'm not the English major and I've been trying to fix as much as possible. Is it more important that I find an editor to work with or an agent? I know agents work with editors on a regular basis but do all editors have a agents they work with?