Christine Kelly Reads and Writes

My therapist likes to remind me I have moral OCD and think in black and white to my detriment. But some somethings are so unmovable for me I won’t change.

One of them is holding strict boundaries between being an agent and being an author. What are these boundaries? Let me spell them out so you know when you query me, you know what you’re getting.

1. I will not take, use, or be inspired by ideas in my inbox. SO many good ideas come into my inbox and I will not take them to save for a later date when I can write them. Nor do I take ideas and give them to my authors. I do make sure I am 100% transparent with my authors and potential clients that I write, and if there is overlap I either don’t take that client on or have the conversation with the author about it.
2. Off of that, I will not be stealing ideas from other agents. Other agents work hard for their content and what they provide. I will not use what they do to my personal gain. I will shout from the rooftop how amazing others are, and when they’re right, and to GO TAKE CE CE LYRAS CLASS RIGHT NOW (honestly for real do it)– but I won’t start offering something that is already out there because a. that’s not smart marketing IMO, and 2. it’s already out there, by smart(er) folk.
3. I will not ask my authors to beta read for me. I serve my clients. I am here to help them propel their career forward, not the other way around.
4. I will not make authors pay me for my services. I am an agent and get paid on commission. No other fee’s will be collected for querying folk or for my authors.
5. I will not sign friends. I even go so far as to emphasize to people I beta read for that I will not sign them if I work with them on a author level. This may seem extreme, but I really don’t want any lines to be blurred, or people to think they can pull favor. I recently spoke with someone in DMs and offered to read for them, but also said, if you are comfortable, I’d love to see this in my QM– but that means I will not read for you. Hard line in the sand for me.
6. I will never sell my work directly to an editor. I will not pitch my own work to an editor– and honestly, I even had agent friends I don’t pitch my work to because we’re friends.

Why am I writing a post about this? Because I’ve had a lot of people question how you can be an agent and author without crossing a line. And to be frank, there are quite a few agents out there crossing lines in a way that gives me pause.

I’m not saying that an agent that does one of these things is a bad agent– not at all! I know many agents who have different boundaries that I think are GREAT agents! But there are ethical complications if there is a persistent pattern and I find that worrisome.

Flublishing had a great podcast on vetting agents, so on top of these things when looking at agents, be sure to listen to their podcast too.

Goddess speed out there folks!