Post #166 April 22 2019

“Downloads and Agents”

I just uploaded Episode 3 of my new Time Jumpers series.  Since I started uploading on February 1, this series has garnered 285 downloads, so it seems to be off to a decent start.  Every week, I update my download statistics.  Here’s the latest:

Downloads since I first went online (2014) = 25,351

Downloads this year (1-1-19 to 4-15-19) = 6761

Downloads last week (4-8-19 to 4-15-19) = 792

Average downloads per day (1-1-19 to 4-15-19) = 64 per day

The numbers seem pretty good.  The lady who leads the writers critique group I’m in has suggested, as have others, that with these numbers, it’s time for me to look for an agent.

Which leads me to today’s topic: Why agents?  What are the pros and cons of having an agent?

The web site Literary-agents.com has a nice list which helps answer this question.

Pros:

1. Agents know who to send your book to
2. More publishers will review your book
3. Publishers will take your work more seriously
4. You’ll get better contract terms
5. Your agent will troubleshoot any problems
6. Your agent might bring in extra book ideas or deals
    
   Cons:

1. You have to share control
2. Agents get commissions
3. You have to wait…be patient
    
   Another website, Nathanielfree.com adds these:
    
   Pros:
    

1. Agents have industry contacts
2. Agents have industry experience
3. They protect your rights

Cons:

1. There’s no guarantee an agent can get you published
2. It’s an extra step in the process
3. The wrong agent can actually hurt your career
    
   For five years, I have been publishing online through Smashwords.com.  While it’s true that I have set all my online work to free, my downloads numbers are now over 25,000.  Also, since I’m putting everything online these days, I don’t actually have a manuscript I can shop around to agents at the moment.
    
   My personal opinion is that I should take a different tack before I go agent-shopping.  My writer friends are also telling me I should start putting prices on my uploaded titles.  I originally did that with Smashwords several years ago and it worked okay for awhile, but my downloads started to plateau off.  Smashwords makes many recommendations for their authors and one of them is to lower your prices or set all titles to free, if downloads are flat, and see what happens.  I did that two years ago and my downloads took off.  They’ve stayed high ever since and my writer friends tell me it’s probably because I am developing a small readership base, which was always a key goal of mine.  This course of action seems to be the best choice for me.
    
   So, I won’t put prices on any title that is currently free or anything else I upload this year…mainly the rest of the Time Jumpers series.  However, next year, I have resolved to put a small price (maybe $1.99 or so) on anything new that I upload.
    
   Then I’ll see how dedicated my readers really are.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed (April 29) will deal with something all writers deal with…handling rejections.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.