Which takes priority: authoring or agenting?

...and how I approach my two roles in publishing

This is a question I’ve gotten during offer calls, i.e. calls with authors who I’m offering to represent as their literary agent:

How do you fit together being an author and an agent… and which one takes priority when push comes to shove?

I figured I’d answer it here!

I’d also like to affirm how valid this question is. It is absolutely worth asking. I’ve seen multiple agents leave agenting in recent months, and one was partly because their authoring career was taking off (among other things). So this is a Thing!

First, a tiny background.

My long, long (long) path to authoring

I am not new to writing books. I penned my first (terrible) novel in late summer 2014—fast forward nearly 11 years (!!!!), and here we are. During that decade, I’ve written a lot of books. You may not be surprised to know that I, erm, made a graphic. Hahaha. Pink is “sold”!

But! The point isn’t to go into my extremely long journey right now. Instead, it’s to highlight that because I’ve been writing for so long, I’ve really gotten to know myself. What I’m good at, what I’m bad at. Where I tend to excel, or struggle. And the big one for this topic: after over a decade of writing, I know my writing rhythms: how long it takes me to draft. How long it takes me to revise. I.e., how much time I actually spend writing books.

I’ve learned a few things:

• I have 80 ideas for every 1 idea I end up actually writing (wish I was kidding)

• I have to explore a lot of ideas and frequently write tens of thousands of words in projects that will never go anywhere before finding the one I end up writing and finishing

• Once I have a concept that sparks in that special way, I am generally a fast drafter. Made for You came together in 7 weeks. Beach Bodies/A Killer Getaway came together in about 8 weeks. I write almost daily during those times, to the point that my husband starts to feel neglected, heh heh (yes, it’s a pattern we have observed).

• HOWEVER. Just because I draft fast doesn’t mean I draft fast continuously throughout the year (can you imagine how many books I could write if I did??) (….and how neglected my fam would be 😬). Time has shown that I only write about 1 book a year; at most, 2. After pouring myself into writing so intensely for 2 months, I need a long, long, long break.

• Based on all the above, I realized after a few years I was not only unlikely to ever be able to write full time… but I wouldn’t want to write full time. I just don’t have a creative well that gives and gives and gives like that. I also don’t do well when there’s pressure to produce something—it adds stress to the part of my process where I’m writing 10k words of 10 different things (soooo inefficient haha). Am I occasionally envious of those who pump out 3+ books per year like it ain’t no thang? Heck yes. And also, I choose to embrace that this is what the good Lord gave me to work with in terms of a creative brain.

On agenting full time

If y’all have been around these parts for a while, you’ve undoubtedly heard me yap about how long it takes agents to make money, how much I *actually* made my first year agenting, and why so many of us have full time day jobs as well.

Since I started, I’ve been agenting full time… in terms of hours (not pay ;). I’m not exactly adding up the minutes on a calculator, but I do it during work hours along with my day job (which is a job I’ve had for so long I could do it in my sleep), then continue when I get home from kid school pickup, and then frequently continue into the night. Plus some Saturdays. Sundays I draw the line and don’t ‘work’… but I’ve decided that doesn’t include reading; hence, I sneak in some time to read manuscripts.

Whatever could be said about all the above (and there’s a lot of directions to take a conversation about the hustle economy, the brutal reality of sales jobs, and how difficult it is to make it in any arts or arts-adjacent career)—the point is, I LOVE doing this full time. Unlike authoring, which I could never never do 40 hours a week, with agenting, I can so easily go over that week after week.

I think part of that is that there is so much variety in what I do as an agent—from contract negotiations to chatting with editors or prospective clients to brainstorming with my authors to intense line edits to… (etc etc). None of these things draw from the same creative well that my authoring (at least in the drafting/writing phase) draws from. If time and energy were not a barrier, I feel like I could just keep going—and going—and going. (And sometimes I do and have to give myself a firm talking-to about STOPPING which… it be hard).

But what if I make it big as an author (you may ask)?

First of all…

HAHAHAHAHAAH

Never gonna happen.

BUT. Let’s entertain it anyway. If I make it big as an author? However ‘big’ I were to get, that won’t affect how many books I’m capable of writing per year. Maybe I’d be doing more events—but I just don’t see it taking over my life even then. I wouldn’t want it to.

Agenting is what I *actually* want to do full time for the remainder of my working life—any authoring success I may see is just an added bonus.

Prioritizing tasks

What about when the rubber hits the road, and author and agent tasks both hit at the same time?

Actually, this week is a perfect example. I just signed a new author last week (!!!!!), and I’ve committed to turning around line edits by Friday May 23^rd so that we can go out on sub asap with this brilliant and devastating book (omg I wish I could tell you more). Coincidentally, pass pages just landed for me on the author side for my November release, The New Year’s Party, with a deadline of Tuesday May 20^th. Pass pages, which is my final chance to go through the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and catch any typos or errors, are my least favorite part of the entire publishing process. I hate it so much. It takes a ton of focus to do that hyper-attentive reading, and when I look at the pile of pages, all I can see at this point is hours and hours upon hours down the drain. (Sorry for the whining but for serious, it’s just the worst.)

So! My goal is, obviously, to get both done and meet both deadlines. To that end, as per usual, agenting (including line edits, in this case) is happening during the day. Pass pages are happening at night. Last night, I started going through pass pages after the kids were in bed (7pm) and kept going until my eyes were literally crossing in my head (9:15pm). Tonight, we’ll do it again. And again the next day, until it’s done. Since the pass pages arrived, I’ve had to give up a few fun evening things—dinner with a friend, a friend/park hangout, and running (much to the disappointment of my boys, who this year have started going on runs with me). Welp. It’ll be done next week and we’ll start living again 😂.

However! There are only so many minutes in the day—and there’s only so much hyper-attentive energy in me, which in this case, I’m drawing from both for line edits and pass pages, so I’m using some vacation time from my day job as well to make sure I don’t fall behind.

As a general rule, day to day, agenting comes first—but luckily, I don’t feel like I’ve had to short either career. I have demands from both sides daily (or nearly daily, in terms of authoring), and will always deal first with the most time sensitive agenting things. Second, the most time sensitive authoring things. Then, the rest of the agenting things—then the authoring.

At some point, I do want to reclaim my evenings and weekends for writing—at least during the drafting period of whatever my next book is. That may mean pulling back that time from client line edits for a few weeks, which might temporarily increase my turnaround time a bit. But that’s the juggling game we must do—push in, pull back—readjust a rhythm or two for a season—lean back in when the season changes again—rinse, repeat.

Income stability

Another reason I would never quit agenting for authoring is income stability.

With the caveat that ‘income stability’ doesn’t actually exist in most agenting positions, I do think I can achieve greater stability through agenting than through my authoring. The opportunity to sell books is simply spread out across much greater numbers in agenting. In authoring, if I write one book in one year and then can’t sell it, then too bad—no advance income that year. But in agenting, though there will be books I can’t sell, if I keep that cauldron of author manuscripts always bubbling, the potential ratio of success I believe is much higher.

Creative pressure

Finally, I would never want to rely solely on my authoring income, because it puts a very unpleasant pressure on my creative process that I’m just not into. Some people can handle it really well—I am simply not one of them. I need it to be okay if I can’t write a new book for a while. And I need my ability to buy groceries not to depend on whether or not I can write another book—or sell it (an entirely different thing).

As much as possible, I want to keep writing a happy place in my life. Any money I get from it will be a bonus—and not something I’m counting on.

Again, this is not a rule for anyone else—it’s just my thing based on my personality!

In Conclusion

Unless something truly unexpected and life-changingly awful were to happen (let’s not speculate though, shall we?), I hope to agent all the way to the grave.

And if I ever become a mega success on the authoring side, woohoo—that would definitely be a cherry on top—but would not ever cause me to jump ship on the agenting side.

…Any questions?