One of the questions I’m asked frequently is “Does an author need an agent?” My short answer: “Absolutely.”

Granted, when you’re writing romance, there’s a stronger possibility of not requiring an agent before scoring a sale to a publisher. Even so, a good agent is an author’s best friend, for a number of reasons:

1. A good agent has roughly a gazillion contacts in the industry, and has a beat on which editor from which publishing house is currently seeking which material.

2. A good agent is a savvy negotiator and can help you get a better deal.

3. A good agent can make sense out of contracts…and probably comes to the table with a better-than-boilerplate contract when getting ready to negotiate a deal for you. (Translated: publishing houses tend to have standard contracts for their authors…but a good agent who has previously done business with those houses probably already has a better-than-standard contract to begin the negotiating process — in other words, a good agent starts the negotiation with an advantage over a non-agented author.)

4. A good agent is more than just the contacts and contract person: he or she is your business partner for your writing career, and offers advice and feedback on your next moves.

5. A good agent may even act as a “pre-editor” and give your manuscript a thorough edit before it’s submitted to a publisher.

A good agent, in short, is an author’s friend. Maybe even an author’s best friend.

(Note: I’m stressing the phrase “a good agent” for a reason. Anyone can hang up a sign declaring that he or she is a literary agent. Smart authors MUST do their homework, because a bad agent is far, far worse than no agent at all. And there are numerous scammers out there who claim to be agents and actually fleece authors out of their money. Rule of thumb: money flows toward an author. If an agent demands payment up front, from you, instead of taking a commission out of a sale, steer clear.)

So are you looking for a good agent? If you are, Backspace — one of the best writer resources I’ve ever encountered — is holding an Agent-Author Seminar in New York City on November 6 and November 7, 2007, at the Radisson Martinique. If you can, come check out the “All Agents Day.”

From the Backspace website:

With 25 agents and 3 editors on the program, the Backspace Agent-Author Seminars are a terrific opportunity to network, ask questions, talk about your work, and listen and learn from the people who make their living selling books.

Two days of panels & workshops featuring:

November 6: Emmanuelle Alspaugh, Rachel Vater, Paul Cirone, Scott Hoffman, Michael Bourret, Jennifer DeChiara, Jennie Dunham, Jessica Faust, Michelle Brower, and Liza Dawson with Daniela Rapp (editor, St. Martins)

November 7: Laney Katz Becker, Janet Reid, Stephany Evans, Caren Johnson, Alex Glass, Lucienne Diver, Jennifer Unter, Miriam Goderich, Kate Epstein, Joe Veltre, Elisabeth Weed, Deborah Grosvenor, Paige Wheeler, Jeff Kleinman, and Miriam Kriss with Mark Tavani (editor, Random House) and Brenda Copeland (editor, Hyperion)

Register for one day or both! Attendance limited to 150.

If anyone has any questions about getting an agent, or about Backspace, let me know! Go ahead and post a comment.