Ask the Agent: What if another agent took my manuscript out already?

This question came to my in-box recently: What is the protocol for getting an agent for a book that was agented before? I don’t think I should withhold that information, but I don’t want to put up roadblocks either. I’ve let it stop me from going forward and could use your input.

If you had an agent in the past who took your book to market but was unable to land you a deal, by all means reveal that to your new agent or prospective agent. For example, if my buddy Greg Johnson has taken a World War II novel manuscript out to all the houses doing those types of books, then I need to know that. Things with the manuscript would have to change for me to take it out to publishers. We may need to shift the story a bit, do some heavy rewrites, re-title it, or do some serious revising to make it work. So if you took this out to editors already once, it’s fine to try again, but you need to let me know what’s changed.

So if you had an agent take the manuscript out a couple years ago, and have done serious work on it to change and improve it, talk to your agent about it. Find out where it was sent, and, if you can, what was said about it. That will help him or her when they start talking to editors about it and somebody begins asking questions.

The thing to remember is that there’s no magic in MY taking a book out that everyone has already rejected. Occasionally I’ll have an author approach me with a manuscript and say, “Well, this other guy has shown it around to everyone already.” Okay… so why would I be able to land it? It’s not like I can take a book and place it with an editor who has already seen it and said “no thanks.” (And I don’t want to be surprised by having an editor tell me, “Um, Chip… we already turned this down three months ago.” It makes me look stupid, and won’t win you any friends.) So just be open about it up front. Maybe I know of some houses that haven’t seen it yet. Perhaps I know of changes at a house, so the story might now be a fit. Maybe I know of an editor at a house who is looking for exactly this type of story, but we need to change the book’s title or the names of the characters to get a fresh review. Maybe I can suggest a smaller house for you to go to, where it might be a fit. Just be open about it. And understand that if everyone has seen the book, another agent probably isn’t going to help you land a deal. At that point, you may want to self-publish, or set it aside for a season.