Michael Miller has an interesting piece on the unpredictable world of publishing in the latest issue of Time Out New York. Most fascinating was this quote from Ira Silverberg, an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic about the role of agents in the publishing chain: "We are the first line of defense--we keep it safe to read in America, because most of the stuff that people write is shit."

Really? Is that the attitude most agents come to the table with?

I had to ask around and received this from Merrilee Heifetz, Senior Vice President of Writers House: "Another way to view agents is that more of what new writers present is of interest to very few other folks. Our job is to find and develop the books that have the potential to reach a broad audience. Of course, everyone thinks their book is a potential bestseller... which is why publishers need us."

I find that a much easier statement to swallow.

Holly Bemiss, who switched from book publicity to literary agenting last fall, discusses what she's looking for from new authors in the latest installment of Rachel Kramer Bussel's mediabistro.com "Pitching an Agent" series. Although most of the authors at the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency are doing very serious nonfiction, Bussel reports, "Bemiss has so far signed first-time authors such as comedian Jeff Mac, whose humorous guide to 'translating male behavior for women,' Manslations, she sold to Sourcebooks, Bad Habits by graphic artist Cristy Road, who Bemiss was familiar with from her spoken word work, and Lucy Kinsley's 'graphic travelogue' French Milk, which was sold to Touchstone Fireside. But it's not all just fun and games:

"Bemiss boils her criteria down to three basics: 'Why this book, why now, and why are you the best person to write it? If you can say all those things in a very concise way, I'll likely want to know more.' She's on the hunt for 'people who have something new to say and are saying it in a smart way. I'm not just looking at their ideas, but how we'll be able to market and publicize their books as well.'"

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you're not a member yet, you can register for as little as $49, and start reading those articles, receive discounts on mediabistro.com seminars and workshops, and receive all sorts of other bonuses.

If you've been reading GalleyCat for a while, you've probably seen literary agent Sharlene Martin's name mentioned, whether it's because the book deals she's made or the rapid expansion of her agency. And now mediabistro.com has tapped Martin's knowledge of the publishing business for a one-day workshop on writing and selling your first book. The six-hour class, aimed at beginning writers, will be held this Saturday in West Hollywood, and will include additional counsel from Anthony Flacco, Martin Literary Management's director of acquisitions.

Topics covered include creating unrejectable query letters and book proposals, "what publishers and agents are looking for in today's climate," and the most effective means of self-promotion.

When literary agent Kate Schafer was hanging out in the online community for the game City of Heroes, she came across another player who was writing short stories about the characters he was playing and contacted him to see if he might have a novel. He did, and she read it on her first flight out to Denver to meet him and some of their other online friends, but, she laughingly recalls, "I told him I preferred to date him rather than represent him." (Not that there was anything wrong with the manuscript, which is about to be sent out by another agent; it's just geared towards an older audience than the YA books she was handling.) Now, after a year's engagement, Schafer and Doyce Testerman are getting married in April, and she's moving out to Colorado—which means she's leaving her position at Janklow & Nesbit and setting up shop on her own as KT Literary.

In some respects, the move has surprised even her. "I grew up in Westchester and never had plans to do anything other than move into the city eventually," she said earlier this week. "And people don't usually leave Janklow. I'm still the junior member in my department, even though I've been with the firm for ten years." She described the firm as supportive of her move, even considering the possibility of keeping her on as a remote agent, but ultimately heading out on her own felt like the right thing to do, if not always the calmest: "The idea of planning a wedding, starting my own business, and moving cross-country all at the same time isn't something I ever thought of doing," she said. But she's already got three new YA authors whose books she's preparing to submit to editors shortly after she lands in Denver... and how are she and her fiancé handling the separation until she arrives? "We've been playing Lord of the Rings online," she smiled. "It can almost be like a date night for us, even 1,600 miles apart."

Today on mediabistro.com's main site, Rachel Kramer Bussel gets insider tips from Firebrand Literary Agency, as founder Nadia Cornier explains what works best when submitting your queries to her office. "I dislike being told what to think," she says, "such as, 'This is gonna be the biggest book, this is going to be the next Harry Potter.' I do like when people say things like, 'This will attract the same audience as X, Y, and Z book' but leave it up to the writing to stand on its own." Though the company's client roster is heavy on YA books and "paranormal adult fiction," Cornier says she's got her eye on a certain type of nonfiction, too: "I love business books for women that are not 'You're a woman but you can succeed in a man's world' but more like 'you're a woman and you can decide what success means to you.'"

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you're not a member yet, you can register for as little as $49, and start reading those articles, receive discounts on mediabistro.com seminars and workshops, and receive all sorts of other bonuses.

Martin Literary Management, the Los Angeles-based literary agency headed by Sharlene Martin (who famously steered If I Did It to Beaufort Books last fall on behalf of the Goldman family) announced yesterday that it had hired Ginny Weissman to run a new office in Chicago. Weissman's diverse background includes stints at the Chicago Tribune, producing television documentaries (which won her two Emmys), and representing inspirational authors like John St. Augustine and Rev. Dr. Terry Cole-Whittaker.

"I have known Sharlene Martin for over a decade and I have been very impressed with her self-made success and considerate management style," Weissman told me when contacted by email about her new position. "I was already managing one author and have been approached by many authors looking for representation who I have referred to Sharlene. When she asked me to open up the Chicago office and head up the Mind, Body, Spirit Division, it was a wonderful opportunity and a perfect fit. Books in that genre truly have changed my life. I am looking forward to finding authors and projects that will make a difference for others and in the world."

Weissman is the second agent to join Martin in the last three months; back in November, former editor Ronnie Gramazio was tapped to head MLM's New York office.

If the Portfolio interview with Andrew Wylie earlier this week held your attention, you'll also want to check out Lynn Nesbit telling all to Poets & Writers. The online version of the interview is even longer than the one that runs in the magazine. Most of the early exchange is of the "tell us how you met that famous writer" variety, but then they get down to some big-picture analysis. "The role of the agent is more important today than it was when I was starting out," Nesbit reflects. "Because the publishing world is so corporate, and editors move around so much, you are increasingly the only fixed point for the writer."

Also worth noting: Agents today spend more time editing their clients' work, "especially on proposals," because "editors need to see something very polished because everyone is so nervous... An editor wants to see something that's more near completion, that the idea or the thrust behind a novel is more fully realized. Twenty-five years ago an editor would say, 'Oh, this has promise,' and sign it up. Today, editors want to say no rather than yes. Unless they see it as a big book."

And what's the root cause of that, the underlying problem the industry faces?

"Distribution. Especially for smaller books. Because the bookstores won't take a chance. And if a writer has a not-so-rosy track record, then they won't order more and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then, if the book happens to get good reviews, you're caught out of print and have to reprint and maybe the books don't get to the stores fast enough. And distribution is a problem on the other end, too, with books that are overprinted, books that may get on the best-seller list. It may look good to the outside world, but the returns may negate the rosy picture."

Interestingly, Nesbit seems guardedly optimistic about print-on-demand solutions like Jason Epstein's Espresso resolving this issue...

Friday afternoon, Portfolio posted Lloyd Grove's interview with Andrew Wylie, considered among the most powerful agents in the book business, perhaps even the most powerful. And it doesn't take too long into the Q&A for Wylie to kick into high gear:

"The key point in the business is that the investment is made in the wrong areas in the business, and I think that quality—which is more valuable over time—has been undervalued, and quantity—which is less valuable over time—has been overvalued. And I think this is a reaction to the dominance of the influence of the chains. In England right now, this is a catastrophe. The retail side is leading the business by the nose, and publishers have not reacted with sufficient strength, and they should have. And so the business in England is just in the tank basically."

The pull quote comes a little later, when he describes publishing as "a very odd, very small business, that no one should get into unless they have no other occupation that they want to be involved in." (Still, he notes, because his business model is basically "50 percent U.S., 50 percent outside of the U.S., which is pretty much the same equation that the film industry operates on," he feels very upbeat.)

Some readers will be entertained by Wylie's dancing around the whole "Raymond Carver's first drafts" story, or his more straightforward example of consolidating Philip Roth's intellectual property interests; personally, I was struck by his explanation for representing "nonliterary" writers like Larry Ellison, William H. Gates, and David Rockefeller: "One of the benefits of the job is if I become interested in an area, I can go charging off in that area and find the person that I want to have write about that. For instance, we got involved in representing historians, really quite recently, I mean within the last five years, and we now represent a raft of historians—but that was a program, really."

(photo from a 2003 Guardian profile)

After ten years at Donadio & Olson, literary agent Ira Silverberg is switching firms in early 2008, joining the Sterling Lord Literistic agency. "We're delighted to welcome Ira to SLL," the firm's president, Flip Brophy, says in the press release announcing the switch. "At this volatile moment in publishing, what better time to join a strong firm with great literary history?" Silverberg adds. "Sterling Lord Literistic will provide a good home for my clients." Who include, but are not limited to, Adam Haslett, Christopher Sorrentino, Ishmael Beah, Dennis Cooper, Shelley Jackson, Poppy Z. Brite, Binnie Kirshenbaum, and Sam Lipsyte.

A.C. Crispin has a great post on her blog about the unrealistic expectations many aspiring writers have about what it'll be like to have an agent and an editor, and how Hollywood fuels those fantasies:

"Remember Romancing the Stone with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas? At the end of the movie, we see Kathleen Turner's romance writer character sitting in her editor's office, having just brought in the ms. for her new book. The editor is reading the last page of the ms., and crying like a wee infant. The editor looks up, eyes brimming with tears, and tells her writer that she's wonderful, the story is wonderful, it's the best thing she's ever read, etc., etc.

Ahem. Ahem."

"I believe that Hollywood's distorted portrayal of agents and publishers inadvertently softens up aspiring writers, making them vulnerable to the blandishments of scammers," Crispin adds, explaining that scammers can prey on would-be authors who have no real understanding of how the business works, especially if they've already received a typical rejection from an established reputable literary agent who doesn't have time to waste on unmarketable junk.