Would you feel 100% more secure if your publisher worked with you instead of against you? Considering how many first-time authors get the short end of the stick with support, advertising revenue, and the like--while their richer--more *established*--colleagues gets the lion's share of the publishing deal?

I'm just curious.

Report Abuse by Aki T Well, from what I have learned, an agent and publisher need to be like a friend to you. I have read plenty of writing books from bigtime authors who say that, in order for your book to really work with an agent or publisher, you need to be able to have "lunch" with them, so to speak.

Not everyone is suited for everyone agent who accepts he or she. With an agent, you need to be able to have some things in common with that agent, and some things to talk about with that agent. Or else the relationship won't work. A lot of amateurs seem to think that because they have an agent, everything is hunk dorey. But they don't realize that they actually have to establish a strong relationship with that agent for everything to work.

A publisher might be a different story. You can probably have "lunch" with a publisher, but they are really there for the money. Having a relationship is fine and dandy, but what a publisher really wants to know is if your book can sell. Granted, having a strong relationship with your publisher adds brownie points, there's no guarantee for anything with a first time writer.

I don't care about having a relationship with my publisher. I want to have a well-established relationship with my agent because my agent's the one person I depend on to get me through this publishing business. My agent will be the one to negotiate contracts, money issues, publishing issues, editor issues, ect...And that's the person I want to be closest to.