Scouting For Agents At No Cost To The Writer

Filed under Get Published.

BubbleCow are proud to announce that they will be acting a scouts for a selected group of UK and US agents. This will be at no cost to the writer.

We are in the process of finalising a number of arrangements with UK and US based literary agencies, which will see BubbleCow passing on selected manuscript for their consideration. The details are still to be confirmed but in essence we will be passing on manuscripts that have been edited by ourselves to agents we feel would be interested in representing the work.

This kind of relationship already exists with a number of literary consultancies. The difference is whilst other companies insist of taking a fee (usually in the form of 15% of the writer’s advance), we propose to offer the same service at no cost to the writer. In fact, BubbleCow will make no financial gain whatsoever from this new arrangement.

The service is only open to manuscripts that have been fully edited by BubbleCow.

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  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    That’s an interesting proposal. Do you see this as the future of editing or just something to set yourselves apart?

    • garysmailes

      To be fair a number of literary consultants have scouting arrangements in place. The way these tend to work is that the writer is presented to an agent. If the book then goes on to be placed with a publisher, the agent takes 15% of the advance, the lit con takes 15% of the advance and the remainder is for the writer. At BubbleCow we always felt this was unfair to writers. After all, the lit con is doing very little. We have always operated a policy of passing on work we felt would be suitable for agents we knew – this is just an extension and formalisation of this process.

      The fact we get nothing from the deal will, hopefully, set us aside from the competition.

      We have the words ‘inspiring writers to write and get published’ at the top of each page, this is just part of that ideal…

  • http://djkirkby.blogspot.com/ DJ Kirkby

    Oooh how exciting!

    • garysmailes

      thanks..

  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    That's an interesting proposal. Do you see this as the future of editing or just something to set yourselves apart?

  • http://djkirkby.blogspot.com/ DJ Kirkby

    Oooh how exciting!

  • garysmailes

    To be fair a number of literary consultants have scouting arrangements in place. The way these tend to work is that the writer is presented to an agent. If the book then goes on to be placed with a publisher, the agent takes 15% of the advance, the lit con takes 15% of the advance and the remainder is for the writer. At BubbleCow we always felt this was unfair to writers. After all, the lit con is doing very little. We have always operated a policy of passing on work we felt would be suitable for agents we knew – this is just an extension and formalisation of this process.

    The fact we get nothing from the deal will, hopefully, set us aside from the competition.

    We have the words 'inspiring writers to write and get published' at the top of each page, this is just part of that ideal…

  • garysmailes

    thanks..

  • http://www.averyktingle.com Avery K. Tingle

    This is a remarkably generous offer. Can anyone submit their work to your for editing, or how does the screening process work?

    • garysmailes

      Avery – This offer is part of our service and is open to everyone. We want to see writers getting published and don’t feel it is our job to ‘select’ which book should be given a boost. So, yes open to all…

  • http://www.wix.com/tangynt/work Tangynt

    How much editing should have been done by the writer before handing over the manuscript since BubbleCow is going to edit it as well. Also, is this a send only if asked type of arrangement. I suppose the most pertinent question is how does a writer get in on this. Thanks.

    • garysmailes

      Our advice is that a writer should not seek a professional edit until they are ‘happy’ with their own work. We add the most value when showing and guiding in areas the writer would never had considered.

      From today, every full edit we undertake will not only receive our line edit and reader’s report, but will also include a list of agents (with direct contact details) who we feel would be suitable. This is open to all and we will offer any advice/assistance needing in preparing the pitch.

      • Tangynt

        That is absolutely amazing. One last question, how long will this process be open? And how many manuscripts will you accept from one writer? For instance, a writer has one completed manuscript and another currently being worked on, would you accept the first now and then the second at a later time?

        • garysmailes

          This is now part of our editing package. Each full edit will be supported with contacts of suitable agents – forever!

          • http://www.wix.com/tangynt/work Tangynt

            Count me in! What starts the process, what needs to be included, what is the format for submissions, how will correspondence be conducted, how do we get the ball rolling with this thing? If you cannot tell by all the questions, I’m rather excited.

          • garysmailes
  • http://www.averyktingle.com Avery K. Tingle

    This is a remarkably generous offer. Can anyone submit their work to your for editing, or how does the screening process work?

  • http://www.wix.com/tangynt/work Tangynt

    How much editing should have been done by the writer before handing over the manuscript since BubbleCow is going to edit it as well. Also, is this a send only if asked type of arrangement. I suppose the most pertinent question is how does a writer get in on this. Thanks.

  • garysmailes

    Avery – This offer is part of our service and is open to everyone. We want to see writers getting published and don't feel it is our job to 'select' which book should be given a boost. So, yes open to all…

  • garysmailes

    Our advice is that a writer should not seek a professional edit until they are 'happy' with their own work. We add the most value when showing and guiding in areas the writer would never had considered.

    From today, every full edit we undertake will not only receive our line edit and reader's report, but will also include a list of agents (with direct contact details) who we feel would be suitable. This is open to all and we will offer any advice/assistance needing in preparing the pitch.

  • Tangynt

    That is absolutely amazing. One last question, how long will this process be open? And how many manuscripts will you accept from one writer? For instance, a writer has one completed manuscript and another currently being worked on, would you accept the first now and then the second at a later time?

  • garysmailes

    This is now part of our editing package. Each full edit will be supported with contacts of suitable agents – forever!

  • http://www.wix.com/tangynt/work Tangynt

    Count me in! What starts the process, what needs to be included, what is the format for submissions, how will correspondence be conducted, how do we get the ball rolling with this thing? If you cannot tell by all the questions, I'm rather excited.

  • garysmailes