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Pitching an Agent: Sanford J. Greenburger AssociatesA mid-sized agency with a distinguished editorial heritage and a contemporary smash hit to its nameBy Jill Singer – April 5, 2005
Background: As one of the oldest and most distinguished New York literary agencies still going, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates has got legacy in spades. The shop was founded in the 1930s, and Sanford J. Greenburger built a house from scratch that specialized in representing European writers in the United States—writers like Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir, to name a choice few—and over the years, the agency has continued its tradition of attracting publishing darlings, from Dave Eggers (who was with the agency at the time of Heartbreaking Genius' publication) to The Da Vinci Code's Dan Brown. In its original incarnation, the agency made a name for itself by practically inventing the practice of scouting (advising European publishers which American writers to translate and publish), and in the more modern age of the agency, which is now owned by Sanford's son Francis, the agency is known for editorial rigor, high-profile sales, and lots of personalized attention for its writers. Who to pitch: The agency's vice president, Heide Lange, reps the biggest name—Dan Brown—but the last thing aspiring fiction writers should do is pepper Lange with queries that boast "My book is a thriller with a twist—the next Da Vinci Code!" She does some thrillers but also takes on a good deal of nonfiction, specializing in categories like health and sexuality, parenting, and education. Faith Hamlin handles mostly prescriptive nonfiction—health books, how-tos, parenting, and psychology—and a small percentage of her list is children's picture books along the lines of You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum. Peter McGuigan also does very little fiction, preferring to keep his list focused on pop culture, music, and celebrity narrative nonfiction and biographies. Matt Bialer and Dan Mandel are the agency's main point people for fiction; Bialer refers to Mandel as "a fiction jack of all trades." On the lookout for literary and commercial projects, "he likes the offbeat," Bialer says. Mandel is also looking for nonfiction about business, art, new media, politics, and pop culture." Bialer tends toward thrillers and mysteries, science fiction and fantasy books, women's fiction, and narrative nonfiction—particularly about music. What not to pitch: No young-adult books, no diet books. Recent sales: Git-R-Done, by Larry the Cable Guy, to Crown; House of the Death, a literary novel by Lamar Herrin, to Unbridled Press; and King Raven, a trilogy about Robin Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead, to WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson. Etiquette: Send a standard query letter with an SASEto your agent of choice by regular mail. Contract: 15 percent on domestic sales, 20 percent on foreign. Contact info: Jill Singer is the former deputy editor of mediabistro.com. |
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of agents: Five