Category Archives: advice

February 23, 2011   Miriam   advice, agents, Miriam, relationships  
3

“Hello,” he lied

Don Carpenter, novelist and screenwriter, famously quoted a movie agent thusly: “’Hello,’ he lied.”   Agents, whether they ply their trade in Tinseltown or Gotham, have a rarely deserved reputation for being, well, unscrupulous and underhanded.  In fact, most of us are honest, hard-working professionals whose job description on any given day includes being a tough negotiator, an unlicensed therapist, a financial advisor, an editor, a producer, a critic and a fan.   There are entrenched codes of ethics in our business (check out the AAR’s site, if you don’t believe me) and most of us who care about our reputations would never consciously breach the trust placed in us by our clients.  As Jane has been drilling into my skull for about 150 years now, our reputation is all we have.

Clearly, we are all capable of making mistakes, whether intentional or un-, but the one thing authors need to be assured of is that their agents are looking out for their best interest…always.  Authors should manage their relationships with their agent the way they would their most important personal and business dealings:

  • Be respectful but firm about your needs and goals.
  • Make sure you read all contracts and ask questions when you don’t understand something.
  • Get satisfactory answers to your questions (backed up with paperwork when appropriate).
  • Check out that agent’s reputation before signing on—call others of his/her clients if necessary.
  • Be involved in the publishing process from the get-go.  Don’t just wait for a phone call.  Be proactive.
  • Communicate with your agent (without being a pest) and demand good communication back.
  • If things aren’t working out, sever your ties—again, respectfully but firmly.  Make sure you have a written release of your property to the extent allowed by your agreement.

I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but I know that sometimes, in the elation that follows that initial phone call from an agent telling you s/he is interested in representing you, all caution goes flying out the window.  This is when you should do your Snoopy dance quietly, take a deep breath, and start checking that agent out.

February 10, 2011   Jessica   advice, fun, Jessica, writing  
9

It bears repeating…

Like most people, I have favorite turns of phrase upon which I rely.  My speech, my correspondence and likely my posts are littered with “it’s worth noting,” “for better and for worse,” and “any number of…” I overuse the words lovely, tricky, interestingly, chthonic (kidding about that last one.) At long last, however, I can monitor and control these verbal tics. With the help of the word frequency counter recently featured in Galleycat,  I can see just how prodigal I am with my “althoughs” and “indeeds.” Try it.

Much as I like this program, it strikes me that kids are almost as good at pointing up speech patterns. My almost five-year-old prefaces much of what he says with an eerily familiar “actually…,” He expresses his skepticism for my latest suggestion with “I’m not so sure about that,” and less charmingly, appends a peremptory “Yes or no?” to many of his questions in a harried mom tone of voice that sounds an awful lot like my own.

What words and phrases do you tend to repeat? If you ran the search on one of your own pieces, were there any that surprised you? Do you ever use the search function to find and (with apologies to Faulkner) kill your darlings?

February 09, 2011   Stacey   advice, marketing/publicity, Stacey  
6

More tips for bloggers

So many authors blog now, and the idea of not blogging at this point is one that is mostly frowned upon by agents and publishers. In such a competitive market, being out there and available is almost a prerequisite. This isn’t a new blog post, and the author is based in Romania, but an editor I work with often sent this link  to a client recently suggesting that she check it out for some good tips and ideas on blogging, and going through it I have to agree. While some of them are obvious, others are not so, and there are just so many of them that it really covers a lot of ground in addressing things you might not otherwise be thinking about. There are also a number of useful links to things like Google Sitemap that make it easy to add functions you might not currently have. Bottom line is this guy has done his homework, so you don’t have to! If there are any bits and pieces in this post you find really helpful or that you didn’t know before, let us know. In the meantime, Happy Blogging.

February 09, 2011   Miriam   advice, fun, Miriam, opinion, reading, writing  
16

First lines and all that

I’ve been on a fiction reading tear of late and, like Jim, excited by several manuscripts that have landed in my inbox since the beginning of the year.  Because, as we’ve mentioned countless times in this blog, it’s relatively rare (percentage wise, that is) for us to fall in love with a novel to a degree that makes us want to represent it, I’ve been (again, like Jim) wondering why this sudden embarrassment of riches.  I’ve actually been reviewing my “process” in order to try and figure out what about these novels grabbed me in the first place.

Then, I came upon this piece in the Huffington Post and remembered how insidiously effective a great first line is.  Not all first lines are as pithy as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” or “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,”  of course, but a well crafted opening in a novel immediately grabs you by the metaphorical lapels, drags you into a comfortable chair, and forces you to keep turning pages until, hopefully, you reach a satisfying conclusion.  Sometimes it’s not until you reach that last page that you turn back to the beginning and see how everything was presaged and encapsulated in that first sentence (or two).

I know that I’m not communicating anything new here (we’ve even had a first lines contest on this blog) and that all of you avid readers have had the experience I describe above numerous times, but I think it’s necessary for all authors and those of us who work with authors to remind ourselves how crucial a novel’s opening salvo is.  Once you nail that, I’m pretty sure the rest of the novel just writes itself.  (Kidding…or am I?)

What are your favorite first lines?   One of mine is “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

February 08, 2011   Stephanie   about us, advice, agents, relationships, Stephanie  
4

20 Questions

I’ve talked about the query process in the past, but today I wanted to take it a step further, to the point at which an agent feels ready to reach out and offer representation—something that typically happens over the phone.  This potentially nerve-wracking phone call is a huge step; lest we forget: when an author signs with an agent, he or she should be the person the author feels most comfortable with, both personally and professionally. So this week I wanted to address how to approach this phone call, and in particular the kinds of things one should consider asking when speaking with an agent.

For the most part, it really is personal.  What are you really looking for in an agent? What is your vision for your work? And so on.  But there are also certain questions that I think are important when talking to an agent.

–          How does the submission process work?

–          Do you want to represent just this book or my other work(s)?

–          What are your commission rates?

–          Do you have an agent/client agreement I could review?

At the end of the day, it will really come down to what is most important to the individual person and how personalities mesh, but when an author gets the chance to discuss representation with an agent, preparation is key.

Can you think of other questions you would ask a potential agent?

February 07, 2011   Jane   advice, Jane, opinion, timing  
4

Better late than lousy

Lately, I have been thinking about how hurriedly we all feel we have to do things, especially in our work lives.  I have long subscribed to the motto “better late than lousy” and yet even I find myself doing things too quickly these days.

The ramifications  in our business of writing proposals too quickly (I am constantly telling clients to take their time), reviewing them too quickly and missing important problems as a result, sending material out too quickly without strategizing carefully enough, even reviewing contracts too quickly and overlooking points that we might want to negotiate further could be, indeed, very serious.

This is why I tell my clients, our staff, and most especially myself that we need to slow down and think before we proceed in all of these areas and in our relationships and communications, both professional and personal. I honestly feel we will all be happier and more successful in our lives if we learn, really learn that it is better to be late than lousy.

In what areas do you find yourselves doing things too quickly?

February 03, 2011   Jessica   advice, international literature, Jessica, reading  
2

Reading Egypt

Like many people, I’ve been riveted to the reports coming out of Egypt this past week. Prior to rejoining DGLM, I lived and worked in Cairo for several years, and I have watched, electrified, exhilarated and terrified at the history-making events unfolding in Egypt. Tahrir Square, which has been the nerve center of the protests, is not far from where my office at the American University in Cairo Press was located. Indeed, the press’s proximity to the demonstrations made it an easy target. The offices were ransacked, and the looters left a path of pointless destruction in their wake.  I feel terrible for my former officemates but far more relieved that they themselves are all safe.

Internet connectivity was restored yesterday (alarming and outrageous that the internet, along with cell phone service, can be summarily “switched off””) so I was, at long last, able to communicate with friends and colleagues whose first-hand reports were welcome after so much anxious speculation.  Yesterday’s violence—clashes between anti-government protesters and pro Mubarak “supporters” widely believed to be security forces brought in to incite violence—was deplorable, and the potential for greater bloodshed remains. While it is impossible to predict what will transpire in the coming weeks (it is my fervent wish that Egypt will get the democratic, free and fair government its people desire and deserve), it is possible to better understand the social and political forces that brought tens of thousands of ordinary people to go to such extraordinary measures.

Given that this is a blog devoted to publishing and not politics, I’ll leave the analysis to people better qualified to make it (but check out Mona El Tahawy), the reportage to the people actually in Cairo (worth reading the TheArabist.net), and recommend a brief reading list, one that can provide some context for the extraordinary events of the last ten days.  The following books are by no means a comprehensive list, but they do represent a good and engrossing starting point to getting a bead on Egypt.

In fiction, the late Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s Karnak Café. His Cairo trilogy is better known, but this slim volume looks at the repressive political atmosphere of the Nasser era and could well have been written last year.

Alaa Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building, which shines a revelatory light on the fictional inhabitants, rich and poor, virtuous and venal, of an actual Cairo apartment building

Sonallah Ibrahim’s ZAAT, a darkly funny political satire of one Egyptian woman’s misadventures under three regimes.

In nonfiction, Galal Amin’s Whatever Happened to the Egyptians: Changes in Egyptian Society from 1950 to the Present, a lively and lighthearted (really) discussion of the vast changes Egypt has undergone. Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman, and Arthur Goldschmidt’s Modern Egypt: The Making of a Nation State, both of which are thoughtful, comprehensive and readable.

Feel free to chime in with your own recommendations. Meanwhile, I’ll hope that Egypt’s next chapter—the one now being written—is long on triumph and short on tragedy.

February 02, 2011   Miriam   advice, Miriam, opinion  
3

Directions? What directions?

These days I often find myself trying to take roughly 750,000 tiny plastic pieces and build them into a working nuclear reactor that my five-year-old can pretend to save from evildoers with his Batman action figure.  Okay, maybe I exaggerate.  There are probably only about 600,000 pieces per box.  Point is, I often find myself totally ignoring the folded piece of paper containing diagrams that take you step by step through the process.  For some reason, I always think that I can figure it out faster on my own.  Invariably, after two and a half hours and many muttered curses, my son has moved on to another game that doesn’t involve mom’s help and I am face to face with my nemesis: the instructions with the wonky diagrams and the incomprehensible text.

So, it was with wry bemusement that I came across Carol Saller’s fun blog post about this very thing.  What is most interesting to me about this phenomenon is that I spend 85% of my work life complaining bitterly about how our clients, prospective clients, editors, film/tv people, foreign agents, and the place that delivers our breakfast order never follow directions.  I rail when I get a “Dear Sir or Madam” query letter when it says very clearly on our website that we like things personalized; when I get back three signed copies of a contract and I clearly asked for four (4)—I always put the numeral in parenthesis for further emphasis; when I send a detailed edit memo asking for specific changes (technical ones, at that, not the subjective kind) and get the next draft of the proposal roughly 12 minutes later without the aforementioned changes….

Clearly, whether it’s Legos or query letters, we are hardwired to ignore directions (even when we ask for them).  I guess that’s a good thing if, like Einstein, we have the ability to reinvent the rules of the universe.  The rest of us should probably pay a little more attention.

How universal is this syndrome?  What are your most egregious examples of this wanton behavior?

January 27, 2011   Stacey   about us, advice, opinion, Stacey, what we're looking for  
6

What I’m Looking For

As we move further into the New Year, and battle through yet another snowstorm, I thought it would be a good idea to take Jessica’s lead from Back to Blogging and let our blog readers know a little bit more about where my interests are these days as far as new projects go. I can’t quite believe it, but I’m coming up on my 12 year anniversary with DGLM and my list has changed quite a bit during that time, in many cases reflecting my personal and professional interests simultaneously.

Narrative nonfiction is an area of my list I’ve worked very hard to develop over the last few years. I like a wide range of narrative nonfiction topics (politics not being one of them), and recent titles I’ve responded to in the marketplace are The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Unbroken, two books that uncover a fascinating, little known and inspiring person or story with a strong narrative arc.

I am always interested in memoir, even though they’ve become increasingly difficult to sell. I’ve had great success with an usual hybrid — the mother-daughter memoir. And I’m especially interested in parenting memoirs, which are almost impossible to place, but with the right combination of elements, they can work big. Recent titles I would have liked to represent are Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (even if I don’t entirely agree with all of her parenting choices!), Poser by Claire Dederer, and Devotion by Dani Shapiro.

Food has always been, and continues to be, a passion of mine. Cookbooks are still a staple on my list, and I’ve also been selling a lot of books by food bloggers. It’s competitive, but authors with a big or growing website and blog can definitely find an audience. Baking books continue to work well, even though most publishers say there are too many of them. Too many great titles to name, but if you want to pitch a food book, it’s really important to have a persuasive concept, pitch, solid recipes, and the platform to back it up.

I still represent a good amount of practical nonfiction outside of food as well. The category has become increasingly difficult, and platform is really imperative for these titles to work. But I am always open to a great health or fitness title if it’s well positioned and executed. Carb Lover’s Diet was a great easy-to-digest concept, and hit a chord with readers.

Craft is another category I’ve had a lot of success with. Two of my books were on Amazon’s Top 10 list for 2010, and I am open to hearing about more fun, smart, unique how-to ideas.

I’m signing up a lot less adult fiction, because it’s so hard to sell but also because my time is limited and fiction can take a lot of work to develop. And I’m not really looking for genre fiction right now. My taste in this area tends to gravitate to contemporary mainstream fiction with a psychological backbone, like Room by Emma Donoghue or Laura Lippman’s I’d Know You Anywhere. Dark is good.

Even though I’m scaling back on adult fiction, I am actively developing and selling more young adult and middle grade fiction. It’s an exciting category, and one that feels less limiting than many areas on the adult side. Reality-based teen fiction is a hard sell, but paranormal is still working well, and I have a big middle grade fantasy series upcoming with a male protagonist, so that’s an interesting area too. There’s a lot of competition, so I think it’s just about grabbing me with a strong cover note and a perfect voice, combined with a story that offers something we haven’t seen before. High concept is definitely a plus. The Suzanne Collins trilogy worked well for me, as well as James Dashner’s The Maze Runner (represented by Michael) for great original ideas.

Thanks for listening, and I hope I’ll hear from some of you with new projects, ideas, proposals, or anything else you want to bounce off of me!

January 25, 2011   Stephanie   advice, queries, Stephanie  
3

When queries attack

Quite often, we get questions from writers concerning the formatting of queries—everything from what exactly to include all the way down to what font is best.  Because Times New Roman and Cambria are great. But Courier? How dare you, sir! Which led me to consider how we as agents approach submissions that might not necessarily line up exactly with our guidelines (which, while I’m at it) and the effect, if any, that can have on a query’s lifespan.

I think the entire concept of submission guidelines is borne out of a two-fold necessity.  At their most basic, they serve to help agents simplify their reading and consideration of material.  Trust me, on those days that the “Unread” counter on your email queries tops triple digits, having a straightforward and to-the-point piece of reading does ease the weight.

On the other side of the coin, submission guidelines also benefit writers in the sense that they aim to demystify the whole process, narrowing down the myriad different ways a query could be put together into a simple, fairly uniform setup. It is, after all, the introduction, so it makes perfect sense why a writer would scrutinize the smaller details—first impressions are important.

At the end of the day, however, the success of a query often has very little to do with the minutiae of formatting, fonts, weighing the merits between attached Word document and text-in-body emails, or what type of fancy resume paper to use. It really does come down to the story, and being able to catch the agent’s eye, leaving them begging to know more.

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