No one likes an agent hopper.
Someone who has had four agents in seven years is not attractive. It shows that they can’t stay put, they have no loyalty, and they probably have poor judgment. Sure, anyone can make a mistake and sometimes good relationships need to come to an end. But to hop around like a kangaroo shows instability. It looks like ill-placed opportunism.
The best agent relationships are more like partnerships. The agent and the author work together to build the author’s career. There may be times when the agent is the author’s only friend. Sometimes things don’t go as they should, and the easiest person to blame is the agent, because it’s not that hard to change agents. It’s much harder and more complicated to change publishers.
I’ve had authors leave, and then they find that their new situation may be a little different, but not really better. Sometimes they want to come back, and if they do, my answer would be no. The grass is always greener, and someone who gets restless is going to get restless again.
This does not mean, of course, that you should remain tethered to someone who is no longer what you need. Just look before you leap. If you jump out of the frying pan, you don’t want to land in the fire and burn up. If someone is negligent and truly not doing their job, that’s one thing. Unrealistic expectations on the part of the author is quite another. I’ve had people come to me saying their former agent did “nothing.” Then it turns out the former agent sent the material to 37 places and got no bites. Well, what does the author think I’m going to do? Pull out my magic wand? And 37 submissions is a lot of work. It’s definitely not “nothing”.
Are some agents better than others? Of course. But are they better for you?
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