Category Archives: changes at DGLM

June 28, 2011   Miriam   changes at DGLM, digital publishing, e-books, future of publishing, Miriam, self-publishing, technology  
18

Answering questions

And we thought that in the sultry days of summer no one was reading our blog.  Well you are and we’ve gotten a tremendous reception to our “Announcement,” not just on this site but in several industry publications.  So, instead of blogging on Wednesday (my usual day) I thought I’d address some of your comments here.

Most of the feedback thus far has been very positive.  But there has been some confusion as well and, of course, some folks have accused us of being money grubbing ambulance chasers.  We love the supportive, kindhearted folks who are rooting for us to make this work, and you all know we also relish the snarky naysayers who call us names because they challenge us to keep it real.

Again, we don’t see a conflict of interest in this opening up of our business.  We provide services for our clients that have always gone far beyond selling their books to a traditional publisher.  As we have said time and again, selling is the easiest part of our job.  Making sure your book is published well, that you get paid (accurately), that you’re not signing away your hearth and home in your agreements, that there is someone who is willing to listen and advise you on your creative (and sometimes personal) dilemmas; selling rights and following up on those sales—ask Lauren Abramo if trying to get a $500 advance from a foreign publisher who refuses to answer phone calls, e-mails, or carrier pigeon messages isn’t a soul-crushing job; cajoling and browbeating when necessary to get you to join the 21st century and start blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc.; being the voice of reason when you think that the genius idea for a novel about a poultry farmer with a phobia of chickens is going to make you the next John Grisham (even if we know you’ll scream, cry, and curse us when we tell you it won’t work).  These are just some of the other things agents do every day.  So, helping our clients get their books published electronically, if that’s the direction they choose to go in, with all of the above still part and parcel of what we will continue to do for those clients, seems to us a natural extension of our roster of services.  If we don’t offer this service, our clients will either miss out on the opportunity, go it alone (which some may do, but many will not want to), or be forced to seek out another company that might not have their best interests at heart, as we know we do.

So no, we’re not running out on to Fifth Avenue to yank unsuspecting writers posing as bicycle messengers off their rides and force them to e-publish and pay us 15% for the privilege.

We will also not be forcing any of our clients who want to self-publish to work with us on it, and if they do choose to, we will not be forcing them to choose our cover designers, copyeditors, etc.  Because, as some of you have pointed out, this is self-publishing (and, again, we are not publishers) the client has full control over these issues if s/he wants it.  We have a project manager whose job it is to coordinate, advise, and make sure that the process goes smoothly with minimal work on the part of the author.  This, because we want our authors to write, not have to engage in a 47-e-mail exchange with someone about font size.   Everything is subject to the author’s approval.

Which brings up the question posed by several of you, both here and on Joe Konrath’s blog: what are you people doing to earn that 15% commission?  Pretty much what we do now to earn that 15% commission.  Our commitment to this is more than just uploading and watching the dollars trickle in.  In addition to all we do as agents, managing self-published properties will be part of our job: updating metadata, copy, next-book excerpts, etc.  It’s not just vague managerial duties, but concrete tasks that we will be adding to our other duties.

For some authors it will be the beginning of building a publishing career which may eventually include a traditional publisher because of the success generated by the e-book.  For others, it will mean making worthy books available that are out of print and which still have potential readerships.  And, we will want to try to exploit subsidiary rights whenever possible, with the understanding that even with traditionally published books some of these rights do not get picked up.

If you don’t think an agent’s services are worth that fee, this post will not change your mind.  And we sincerely wish those of you the best of luck doing it yourself or with another kind of company.  Really.  We never begrudge an author success and we can’t represent everyone.

The last question everyone seems to be asking is whether they can terminate their agreement with us if they’re not happy with the job we’re doing.  Yes.  Of course.  With proper notice, we can each go our separate ways with, hopefully, no hard feelings.  (In that event, we will continue to collect our commission on properties we still manage.)  We’re counting on people wanting to keep using our services not just because we make their lives easier but because we have a lot of experience and know-how and we’re hoping that the books that we represent in this way will reflect that level of professionalism.  Some of you have accused us (and our publishing colleagues) of being “gatekeepers.”  Yes.  We will not be representing anything and everything.  We will continue to do a certain amount of gatekeeping.

As this new electronic publishing world evolves (at the speed of light, it seems) we will continue to find ways to earn our 15% commission.  As many of you have rightly pointed out, some self-published authors don’t make a ton of money and so neither will we.  But, you know what? Some of our traditionally published clients don’t either.  That doesn’t keep us from going to 40 publishers with their proposals/manuscripts.  Or from working on their projects on our evenings and weekends.  Or from writing encouraging notes to their sixth grader who wants to be a novelist when he grows up.  You get the idea.  Most of us didn’t get into this business to get rich.  We did it because we love and believe in the written word.  Whether it’s on vellum or an iPad, the written word is still our stock in trade.  All we can vouch for is our effort and our hard work.

June 27, 2011   DG&B   changes at DGLM, digital publishing, e-books, future of publishing, self-publishing, technology, What's New at DGLM  
70

Announcement!

Word gets around the publishing industry pretty quickly (which is not surprising since we’re in the communications business).   So, we wanted you to hear our news from us first rather than pick it up through inaccurate scuttlebutt in seedy back rooms on the web.

As those of you who’ve been reading this blog for the last few years know, we have been following developments in e-publishing with great interest.  As an agency that has  prided itself on being a bit of a maverick among the stodgy old guard, we have always been more intrigued than scared about this new world of e-books.  The consensus among us, even after listening to the doomsayers, has been that e-publishing will re-energize our business and create more readers.  That’s right, instead of bemoaning the death of publishing as we know it, DGLMers have always felt that e-books and electronic media offer a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach and that of our authors.

That said, we have been very clear all along that we are literary agents.  We are proud of the job we do, the services we provide, and the help we’ve given to countless authors over the years in fulfilling their dreams of publishing their work.  We are also more cognizant than most of the superb work traditional publishers have done and continue to do in producing beautiful, lasting, quality books.

Over the past months and years we’ve come to the realization that e-publishing is yet another area in which we can be of service to our clients as literary agents. From authors who want to have their work available once the physical edition has gone out of print and the rights have reverted, to those whose books we believe in and feel passionately about but couldn’t sell—oftentimes, after approaching 20 or more houses—we realized that part of our job as agents in this new publishing milieu is to facilitate these works being made available as e-books and through POD and other editions.

Right now, you’re thinking, oh, DGLM is going to be another of those agencies that has decided to become an e-publisher and charge clients whose books they can’t sell 50% of their income for the privilege of uploading their work.  Some of you may be mumbling, “Uh…that’s a conflict of interest.”    We get it and we understand how that can be the perception.  However, we have no intention of becoming e-publishers.  As we said above, we have too much respect for the work that publishers do and too much respect for the work we ourselves do to muddy the waters in such a way.

Again, what we are going to do is to facilitate e-publishing for those of our clients who decide that they want to go this route, after consultation and strategizing about whether they should try traditional publishing first or perhaps simply set aside the current book and move on to the next. We will charge a 15% commission for our services in helping them project manage everything from choosing a cover artist to working with a copyeditor to uploading their work.  We will continue to negotiate all agreements that may ensue as a result of e-publishing, try to place subsidiary rights where applicable, collect monies and review statements to make sure the author is being paid.  In short, we will continue to be agents and do the myriad things that agents do.

Our intention is to keep on trying to find books we think we can sell to traditional publishing houses, to negotiate the best deal (always), and to give our authors as many options as we can.  Because we will continue to be commission-based, we will not be automatically pushing authors into e-publishing.   Again, we want to give our authors options and empower them to do what they set out to do all along: have their work read by the largest possible audience.

We are excited about this new part of our business and hope you will be as well.  We welcome your thoughts, comments, and concerns.

January 10, 2011   DG&B   about us, advice, calendar, changes at DGLM, conferences, DGLM Recommends, Facebook, feedback, fun, Jane, Jessica, Jim, John, Lauren, Michael, Miriam, opinion, our blog, our clients, our website, Rachel S., Stacey, Stephanie, technical help, Twitter, what we're looking for, What's New at DGLM  
9

Welcome to the new DGLM blog and website!

Welcome to our shiny new home, blog readers!  For the new year, we bring you a new DGLM site, a merger of our website and blog.  Thanks to everyone who made suggestions a couple months ago on features and tech questions—where possible we’ve incorporated your feedback, and other things we’re keeping in mind in case we can implement them in future.

We’ll be blogging as usual over here at www.dystel.com now instead of at Blogger, and there are also some other things for you to explore over to the right (unless you’re not currently reading this on the site itself, in which case you might want to just poke your head in and take a look!).  You might be interested in learning more about us and our clients.  If you’re an author looking for representation, perhaps you’ll want to peruse our FAQ, Submission Requirements, Who We Are and What We’re Looking For, and Nonfiction Proposal Guidelines.  Need something new to read?  Check out our Staff Recommendations, Recent and Forthcoming Titles, and What We’re Reading in the column on the right. Maybe you want to know where we’ll be?  We’ve got a calendar with our upcoming conferences and events in that sidebar as well!  Of course, if you’d like, please feel free to use the links over there to Subscribe, Follow, or Like us and share our site with others!  The new blog should start feeding into our Twitter and Facebook accounts today, so if you’re already following us there, you don’t need to do anything.  If you’re reading us in a blog reader, please subscribe to the new RSS feed.

Make yourselves at home!

As always, we want to hear from you!  What do you think of the new digs?  Any suggestions for improvement?  Glitches we may not have caught?  (We hope not, but let us know if so!)  New features that you’d like us to consider?  We can’t always implement everything recommended to us, but we’re always open to hearing your ideas.

October 18, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Rachel S., What's New at DGLM, why we are agents  
5

Welcome to DGLM, Rachel Stout!

by Rachel S.

Reading all the past blog posts, I feel like there’s a lot to live up to here as the new Rachel in town. While I’ve only been here a week, I’ve grown comfortable, and it’s all thanks to the wonderful people here at DGLM.

I’m incredibly excited to be here, finally, as I’ve been trying to find my spot in the publishing world for quite some time now. With a degree in English, a minor in Irish studies and no practical, handyman type skills to speak of, I pretty much focused on my dream of working in book publishing and left little option for anything else. I interned with another literary agency, LJK Literary Management, in my last year of college and the summer following. Before that, I had no idea that literary agents even existed! It all makes sense to me now, and I fell in love with the reality of what I had tentatively been envisioning for my life. It’s nice when things work out as good or better than you’d hoped, isn’t it?

Words and books have always been my passions and I’m looking forward to being able to observe and actively participate in the process where one becomes the other. I keep lists of words I like the sound or look of, and one of my most embarrassing moments to date is still the spelling bee in sixth grade when, over confident 12 year old that I was, barely listened to the teacher and spelled “BUNK” as “BUCK” and was promptly told to sit down in the very first round. Humiliating.

Since then, I’ve grown to take more time and exert a little more care over my work (though the exhilaration of it all still makes itself known) and always listen to the words I’m supposed to be spelling. Or reading. Or writing. It hardly matters to me as all aspects of the literary process are still new enough to fascinate, and as soon as I find my particular niche I know it will always hold a similar allure.

In any case, I’m really looking forward to growing and learning under DGLM’s wing as well as taking part in this blog. I’m also over on Dystel and Goderich’s website for a more complete bio. You’ll hear from me again soon.

October 18, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Rachel, Rachel S., What's New at DGLM  
4

So long, farewell…

by Rachel

In my blog post on Friday, I touched upon the need—or the compulsion, really—to revise my blog entries, and then to revise them again. This blog entry is no different and I’m sure to self-edit a handful of times before I send it off, as I want to leaving a good lasting impression (!) on all of you, because, as Jane mentioned earlier, I’m leaving the DGLM crew to go back to Australia for a short time.

Working as Jane’s assistant has been a true pleasure. I started my position knowing only a little about the publishing industry, but I’ve learned an incredible amount since my time began here (after all, I’m learning from the best of the best), and I’ve been so fortunate to get as many wonderful opportunities as I have. I’ve had quite an amazing run with the DGLM team, and it’s been a delight to work with such dedicated and passionate people, who truly love what they do; the enthusiasm and drive of each agent has been inspiring.

I’ll miss a lot of things about working with the DGLM family. Of course I’ll miss the (sometimes) weird and wacky queries that sometimes made my skin crawl; I’ll miss reading wonderful manuscripts by talented authors, and there’s no doubt I’ll miss the morning stampede to the kitchen when breakfast arrives (and of course the eyebrow-raising conversations that take place there!).

So, I might’ve failed in getting anyone in the office to eat Vegemite, but—as corny as it sounds—I really did succeed in falling in love with books all over again, and making wonderful friends here at DGLM whom I hope to cross paths with in the future. I know Rachel Stout is going to be a great addition to the team and really enjoy working with this incredible group of people.

October 18, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Jane, Rachel, Rachel S., What's New at DGLM  
2

The two Ms. Rachels

by Jane

So there is good news and bad news at DGLM. The bad news first:

Our dear Rachel Oakley has had to depart. Originally from Australia, Rachel was well ensconced in our company and doing a superb job. She had even signed her first client. In short we all loved working with her.

Sadly, about four weeks ago, Rachel learned that her father, who lives in Australia, is critically ill and so she is leaving the States to be with him during this difficult time. Because she doesn’t know how long her stay will be, we were forced to accept her resignation.

And then came the new Rachel—our good news!

Rachel Stout is a graduate of Fordham University here in New York with a degree in English and has always wanted to be in book publishing. After a year working in the retail clothing business (the perfect background for our very fashionable office) and pursuing publishing internships, she has joined our team. We are absolutely delighted to have her, and I hope all of you will welcome her to our staff.

September 30, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, fun, Jessica, What's New at DGLM  
5

Congratulations, Jessica!

by DGLM

Our warm congratulations go out to Jessica on the birth of her son! As you might imagine, she’s got her hands a bit too full to be blogging, but you’ll see her back here soon!

September 21, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, John, what we're looking for, What's New at DGLM, why we are agents  
6

Welcome to DGLM, John Rudolph!

by John

First off, thanks so much to Jane for the lovely introduction, as well as for inviting me to join the DGLM family in the first place. It’s only been a couple of days, but already it feels like home. As you might guess, I’m very eager to dive into this new world of agenting, so let me give you a brief idea of where I’m coming from, how I got here, and what I’m looking for going forward.

Coming out of college, I had the dubious distinction of graduating with not just one, but two fairly useless majors for the professional world (classics and music). Not really knowing what to do with myself, I moved to Boston for a year and discovered two things: 1) How much I loved reading outside of the academic setting, and 2) there was this industry called book publishing where people seemed to read for a living!

Hence, I moved back to New York and somehow landed an Editorial Assistant gig at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. At the time, I knew less than nothing about kids’ books, but I figured the hardest thing about getting a job in publishing was getting the job—and that maybe after 6 months or so in kids’ books I could “graduate” to the adult side. Very fortunately for me, I discovered that children’s literature was where I belonged, and for the next twelve years I happily immersed myself in that world, moving from S&S to Putnam and eventually editing my own list of novels, picture books and nonfiction for young readers.

As to why I found the young readers department so appealing: For one, there’s a general consensus in kids’ books that no one wants to publish a “bad” book for kids—even the most commercial licensed material usually has an educational element or something positive to recommend it. Along those lines, in the darkest teen novels or dystopian fantasies, there’s almost always a sense of hopefulness to children’s literature, a feeling that in the end things will work out—and I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I love, too, how children’s writers use the first person, giving you an intimate connection with a young character and letting you see the world through a young person’s eyes. And on the younger level, the artwork being created today for picture books is nothing less than spectacular—if you can ever make it to the Society of Illustrators annual exhibition of picture book art here in New York, you’ll see a collection that rivals the finest museums.

While I still relish editing and working with authors and illustrators, finding new talent has always been my favorite part of an editor’s job, and so I’m thrilled for this new opportunity to directly encounter fresh, distinct voices and to help authors transform their voices into books. And while my first love will always be kids’ lit, I’m looking forward to exploring the adult genres that have always interested me—perhaps not quite a “graduation” to adult, but more like a Junior Year Abroad?

For more information on what I’m looking for specifically, please check out my bio and essay on the DGLM website. And then, please query me about your projects—I know there are authors out there waiting to be heard, so let me help you broadcast your voice to the world. Looking forward to reading your work soon!

September 21, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Jane, John, What's New at DGLM  
11

A new agent at DGLM: John Rudolph!

by Jane

Today I am delighted to welcome John Rudolph as the newest agent at Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. Previously, John was Executive Editor at G. P. Putnam’s Son’s in their children’s and young adult imprints. Before that he was Associate Editor for Young Readers at Simon & Schuster. He graduated from Amherst College.

John will begin agenting in the categories of children’s, middle grade and young adult—both fiction and non-fiction—since these are categories with which he is familiar. He is hoping, however, to branch out into men’s fiction, pop culture, music, sports and humor.

I am delighted to welcome John to our staff. His profile is up on our website along with his contact information. Feel free to start sending him queries.

Please join me in saying “hello” to John Rudolph.

August 10, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Chasya, great books, interns, Jane, Miriam, Rachel, Stephanie, what we're looking for, What's New at DGLM  
5

Welcome to DGLM, Stephanie DeVita!

by Stephanie

Hi blog readers! Now that both Jane and Chasya have so kindly introduced me, it’s my turn to chime in. I guess the best way to begin is to give you a little information on my background here. I may be new to the website, but I’m not entirely new to the blog. In fact, I have actually been puttering around this office for longer than you think.

I began at Dystel & Goderich over a year ago as an intern. I was determined to find myself an internship in publishing, particularly during the latter half of my college career. I hadn’t had much luck early on, so by my third year at NYU, nothing was going to stop me. I applied and interviewed for the internship with DGLM all while living in London, where I was spending the spring semester of my junior year. Fully aware that my geographical gap could create a handicap, I knew I had to be persistent. And luckily for me, according to Lauren, I was persistent enough that it exhibited my determination, but not too persistent that it made her want to burn my application and any remaining evidence of my existence. So with that, I was offered the chance to join DGLM that summer as an intern. The semesters passed, I continued to stay with the agency, and before I knew it about a year and a half had gone by and I had graduated from NYU. Then I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity by Jane and Miriam to take over for Chasya as she looks to begin a new chapter in her life. I knew that the timing was right; I felt comfortable here, and I had spent enough time working on the less essential tasks that I had developed the desire to explore the business further and carve out my own place in it. And as clichés go, the rest is history.

In giving this blog post some thought, I remembered something Rachel had said in her welcome post: “I think the one thing I truly love about working in a literary agency is that I get to see the entire process of publishing, from a rough manuscript to a finished book on the shelves.” I might make fun of Rachel for her love of Vegemite, but her words are very true. I’m very excited to finally get the chance to dive in and take on my own work. My time at DGLM has allowed me to expose myself to an industry I have always wanted to be a part of, and now it’s allowing me to embark on a new journey in my life—one that will allow me to build the career I’ve always wanted.

The bottom line is, I’m excited to take on this new responsibility within Dystel & Goderich, because now I get to hear from you. Yes, you. I look forward to hearing your ideas, your thoughts, your opinions. You all have stories to tell. Trust me, I’ve read a lot of them. But now I’m ready to do something with them. Turn them into the books they deserve to be. There are certain subjects I’m particularly interested in reading, which you can find in my bio on our website. So let me hear from you. I can only rearrange the pens on my desk for so long….

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