The agent has the upper hand.
The relationship is an ongoing negotiation, and the reality is that an author has no idea what their value is to the agent until he gathers that information through experience. You've only what they tell you to determine how much they value your book, and you've no idea what other books and authors they're working with. Meanwhile, the agent knows just about everything the author is doing.
In basic negotiations, that imbalance should put the agent in a much better bargaining position than the author.
That doesn't mean there's no way to rewrite the relationship dynamic. But loosely speaking, going in, that is probably the typical starting point.
The relationship is an ongoing negotiation, and the reality is that an author has no idea what their value is to the agent until he gathers that information through experience. You've only what they tell you to determine how much they value your book, and you've no idea what other books and authors they're working with. Meanwhile, the agent knows just about everything the author is doing.
In basic negotiations, that imbalance should put the agent in a much better bargaining position than the author.
That doesn't mean there's no way to rewrite the relationship dynamic. But loosely speaking, going in, that is probably the typical starting point.
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