October 26, 2015 
Jane 
One of the things most agents do is come up with ideas for books, and we come up with them in a bunch of different places.
The first example of a book idea I just stumbled upon was a story I came across in the New York Times Obituaries a number of years ago. Robert Giroux, one of the founders of Farrar, Straus and Giroux had died and the piece written about him was filled with colorful stories and characters. I immediately thought there was a book about the publishing business in that era and I approached Boris Kachka, who agreed to write it. Boris made the idea his own, of course, and the result was HOTHOUSE: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art in America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House Farrar Straus.
A number of years ago now, I was watching 60 Minutes (which I do every week) and I saw a family court judge profiled who was incredibly colorful, opinionated and somewhat outrageous. I found out how to reach that judge and suggested she write a book. That became DON’T PEE ON MY LEG AND TELL ME IT’S RAINING and the author became television’s beloved Judge Judy.
Then, last year when I vacationed in Kenya, I learned about how various animals are disappearing and I approached a science writer to do a book that might be titled THE WORLD WITHOUT ANIMALS.
I have found many true crime book ideas in the pages of People magazine or in the newspaper. One of the most recent 
and a book that is doing very well is THE LOST GIRLS by John Glatt, about the three young women who were imprisoned in a house in Cleveland for ten years.
Three years ago I went to Florence on vacation and learned for the first time of the great flood in the 1950s that threatened to destroy all of the city’s incredible art and how people came from all over the world to help save it. While in Rome on that same trip, I met a journalist who is now working on a book about this fascinating event.
Finding ideas is like discovering treasure. We are always looking for them wherever we go. I wonder where you get your book ideas and whether you would like to tell me about them. Maybe we will uncover something new together.
Like all writers, I get my ideas from all over. Usually a book takes a couple of interesting ideas or tidbits I’ve collected crashing into each other.
But what I wanted to ask was do you listen to This American Life? There are so many things on that show that seem like possibilities for both fiction and nonfiction.
I have listened to THIS AMERICAN LIFE but not recently. Like on NPR, I know there are many good ideas which come out of it.
Hi Ms. Dystel,
Thanks for asking! For my writing, I primarily get my ideas from three info streams:
1. The news: It is rich with ideas and is a great source for seeing patterns, like with weather, health, and politics. Since I like contemporary stories, it is important to position them on the edge of extraordinary, but still grounded in reality.
2. The What Ifs, particularly those that are unexpected. Like water in water bottles is supposed to be safe, right? But what if water bottles were used to spread a bacteria as part of a conspiracy? I like to include the unexpected in my writing, stuff that originates from what if questions.
3. Personal experience. I have professional experience with outdoor sports, crisis management, and working with reporters so my knowledge in those areas can make its way into my writing. It makes writing more authentic.