Agents

In December, agent Irene Goodman will auction off 25 critiques for partial manuscripts--a chance for fledgling writers to donate to a worthy cause and polish their work for the agent search.

The auction will run from Dec. 1, 2009 and ends Dec. 15, raising money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Deafness Research Foundation. Her 22-year-old son (pictured, with Goodman) suffers from Usher Syndrome, a genetic disease that causes progressive loss of hearing and sight. She explained: "when you are 22 and you are losing your sight and your hearing, you want the cure to happen NOW. All this costs a lot of money, and that's where your dollars will be spent."

Here's more about the quality of Goodman's advice: "I believe that nicey-nice doesn't really help you. Honesty does. If you can accept well-meant feedback from someone who has built a lot of best-selling careers, then this is for you. My track record in this regard astonishes me when I look at it. There are dozens of books that sold for sizable advances as a direct result of my feedback to the authors. When you are hungry for information that will really make a difference, not waste your time, and respect your goals, you need a real industry professional who has walked the walk."

Aspiring writers require many tools, but a list of available agents is one of the most valuable gifts any fledgling author can receive. With that in mind, here's a birthday present for all the aspiring writers in the audience.

According to Writer's Digest, there are 1,300 practicing literary agents in the United States, making it a daunting task for any writer to connect with the right representation at the right time. To help writers out, the magazine published a list of "24 Agents Who Want Your Work."

Here are pitching guidelines from Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency (who recently sold "How to Take Over Teh Wurld" by icanhascheezburger), taken from the informative list: "NONFICTION INTERESTS: narrative nonfiction, sports-related books, food writing, pop culture and craft. FICTION INTERESTS: literary fiction, contemporary women's fiction, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, urban fantasy, mystery, YA and middle-grade fiction. DOES NOT WANT: epic fantasy, sci-fi or children's picture books. HOW TO CONTACT: Agent prefers e-mail queries, and generally responds in six to eight weeks. Send a query letter and three sample chapters."

Miriam Goderich of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management responded in their blog to the GalleyCat post yesterday entitled, Literary Agents, bah! Who needs them? by stating: "Who needs an agent? You do." In her well-respected blog she also mentioned: "every serious author needs an agent. Not just any agent, of course. You need a good agent. One who is an advocate, who is willing to fight for you and who is able to tell you when you're being unreasonable and doing your career more harm than good."

And that was not all -- emails, comments and tweets have come pouring in from agents, writers and other book publishing professionals with a resounding, "Yes, we do need agents."

Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency says, "Many agents, myself included, believe that the digital age is bringing opportunity. Yes, change is here, but why must that mean the end of printed books, editing and publishing in general?"

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CrainsNewYork.com reports that Amazon.com wined and dined a number of prominent literary agents at their home-base in Seattle, Washington to convince the agents that they are not the "evil empire" but rather willing to work with them as the publishing industry makes its full-fledged transition into the digital revolution.

The fact that Amazon.com had to have this discussion with literary agents brings up the question, will literary agents even exist in the near future? Are literary agents even necessary nowadays when a writer can upload their manuscript to the Kindle service or Smashwords and sell their books directly to the consumer?

"There will be a need for literary agents," says Nicholas Croce of The Croce Agency, "Agents ... offer informed advice and camaraderie during the inevitable ups and downs that all writers experience. I don't think technology will ever put this human element on the extinction list."

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Too many writers have a great nonfiction book idea but don't know how to pitch the book to an agent. A special one-day-only sale at mediabistro.com can help you write that pitch and meet an agent.

Today (October 30) only, you can get 30 percent off all multi-week courses when you sign up using promo code SAVE30 while submitting payment. You can use that discount to get book pitching ideas straight from an agent. The Nonfiction Book Proposal class is held in New York, starting November 5. This course is taught by Mollie Glick (pictured) from Foundry Literary + Media.

If your work or life schedule won't permit classroom visits, mediabistro.com will also offer a Nonfiction Book Proposal online, starting November 18. Here's more about Glick's course: There is a basic formula for nonfiction book proposals and when broken down into parts, this formula can be easy to learn. By workshop's end, you'll be armed with a fully realized proposal that you can take to agents and start selling your book."

The East/West Literary Agency hired former Ingram Book Company lead book buyer Mary Grey James as a partner literary agent yesterday.

James (pictured, via) has spent more than 30 years in publishing, managing children's and adult titles at Ingram, working as national accounts manager at Harcourt, and serving as vice president/president elect of the Women's National Book Association. She will represent adults and children's books, with a special focus on southern writers.

Here's more from James, quoted in the release: "Joining East/West Literary Agency is a culmination of my years in the publishing world, bringing together my love of books, my desire to see talented authors and illustrators succeed, and my pleasure in working with gifted people devoted to books."

Break ups are messy, whether you're dealing with marriage break ups or business relationships. Such is the case with an agent-writer relationship. Somehow something went awry, the writer and agent were not on the same page, the writer had unrealistic expectations or perhaps the agent simply wanted to grab the writer before anyone else did and then sat on the writer to squash the competition from their existing client (rare, but it does happen).

In either case, how would a writer separate from an agent in a way that would be amicable and not burn any bridges. The agent you may despise now, for whatever reason, may become a friend and helpful colleague in the near future.

We asked two literary agents about the best way to handle such an issue.

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We last examined why it is that agents don't return phone calls. But
another question remains: What can authors do to make themselves more
pleasing to agents?

We spoke with agent Paul Cirone with the Friedrich Agency who
explained there is no excuse for an agent not to return a client's
call. "If your agent isn't calling you back, it's not the client
that has to change. I think the agent has the issue. If a writer who is signed on with an agent isn't getting their calls returned, they need to examine that relationship."

He went on to disclose, "Every client I work with I've signed on for a reason. Namely, I believe in their work. If the agent you are working with is not working with you, that's something to look at."

But what can a writer do if they feel they are being neglected? In our next report we will discuss key tips on how to turn such a situation around in your favor.

Recently, an author on Absolute Water Cooler commented, "The lack of
calls from my agent has gotten me really frustrated. It is making lose faith in the entire system of publishing my book!"

That is one of the most heard complaints from writers. But, should
writers be satisfied and just grateful that they even have an agent?
Or, do they have a legitimate cause for concern?

We talked with former agent turned manager (who will go unnamed) who told us point blank, "We don't call you back if you aren't producing, if you aren't making us enough money. We have many clients and if you simply aren't producing, you aren't going to be a priority. It's the business."

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The universe is filled with questions. And each sub-universe carries
their set of questions. In the world of published (or more accurately agented writers), there seems to be one question that plagues their minds. That question is, "Why doesn't my agent return my phone calls?" To them it is akin to "What is the
purpose of life?"

Writers wait. Waiting builds frustration. Soon, enough waiting means
more frustration and it begins to build and heat up into a slow
simmer. After months and months of playing telephone tag, this simmer
explodes into a pot of hot boiling water, splashing everywhere as the
author becomes infuriated and joins other bitter writers in spreading
their discontent and frustration. Don't believe me? Check out Absolute Water Cooler, an online forum group dedicated to dissecting agents.

Why are some agents notorious for not returning calls? Are they really that busy? Or is there another, perhaps more profound reason that writers just don't know about? We posed this question to a number of literary agents and came up with some interesting responses. Stay tuned to find out.