What about you? Are you seeking an agent? Do you believe you need an agent to get published? Learning more about the agenting field and author/ agent relationships may clarify things for you.

First, let me say that my heart goes out to today's agents. They're in a tough business! To turn a profit and feed their families, they are compelled to sign well-published authors, even when they'd like to promote promising, new authors.

The energy and time demands on a conscientious agent are grueling. A typical workday includes:

• Researching the market and deciding where the manuscripts go next.
  
• Keeping track of whose manuscripts are where, and how long they've been there.
  
• Developing editorial relationships either by attending meetings or on the telephone.
  
• Copying manuscript pages and packaging them for submission.
  
• Reading and evaluating queries and manuscripts from potential clients. Sometimes that includes preparing and finalizing agent contracts for new clients.
  
• Reading and evaluating contracts from book publishers and new manuscripts from clients. These tasks often spill well into the evening hours.

• An industry operating in the same economic environment as the rest of the country: mergers, downsizing, and restructuring
  
• Editors in the Christian marketplace who often consider agents as adversaries.
  
• Impatient writers who think an agent can miraculously create publishing opportunities and markets where there are none.
• Aspiring writers who haven't done their homework and have no understanding of the basics of preparing a manuscript -- much less approaching an agent in a professional manner.

If you write for the secular marketplace, having an agent is often practical and beneficial. The Christian marketplace is a different matter altogether. Here's why.

Most Christian book publishers view agents as an interference in the author/ publisher relationship. Book editors and their committees become resistant and uncooperative when agents try to flex their muscles and use strong arm tactics.

Secondly, it isn't easy to find a good agent. You need someone you can trust and depend upon to do the best job he or she is capable of doing. You need someone who has a vision for your writing ministry, someone who believes in your work and your message, someone who knows the Christian marketplace—what it is and how it works.

Thirdly, it takes a tremendous amount of time to find an agent and establish a working relationship with him or her. In fact, by the time the two of you work through all the necessary legalities and get manuscripts moving through the system, you probably could have sold a manuscript—or two—by submitting them yourself.

Fourthly, the field of agenting is full of con-artists. They're ready, waiting, willing, and knowledgeable about how to take advantage of writers who are inexperienced with agenting procedures and protocol. Watch for these caution flags:

• Agents or agencies who charge several hundred dollars in reading fees. Members of the AAR (Association of Authors' Representatives) discourage this practice. Check the Literary Market Place at the public library or visit the AAR website to to see if the agent you're considering is listed with them.
  
• Agents or agencies who refer you—or require you—to use a particular editorial service or book publishing house. Often these are behind the scenes profit-making schemes.
  
• Agents or agencies who place classified ads in writers magazines, or those who recruit you with a slick marketing package by direct mail. Good agents don't have to advertise. They have all the clients they can handle.
  
• An agent who works (or claims to work) for a reputable agency, but asks you to mail all manuscripts to his or her home. Call the agency to verify whether he or she truly works there.

If you're a prolific author whose ministry to readers is suffering because you're bogged down with business details, the Lord may be leading you to seek an agent. He may want you focus on your primary gift: ministering to readers and advancing His Kingdom through the written word.

Sitting on this side of the desk has taught me that following His counsel and leadership is the only practical solution to any life and career decision. Read the book of Joshua. What happened every time Joshua or Israel decided to move ahead without checking with the Lord first? Makes you want to sift everything through the grid of His will, doesn't it?