Category Archives: changes at DGLM

August 10, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Chasya, Stephanie, What's New at DGLM  
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Goodbye, dear readers!

by Chasya

You have all joined me in various debates here on the blog and read my musings on some of the most random things, such as bad titles (which I love) and good author squabbles (also love). Sad as I am to say it though, this will be my last blog post. As Jane announced yesterday, I will be leaving DGLM shortly to go back to graduate school in clinical therapy. It’s always tough to say goodbye, but this time it feels especially hard. I’ve spent the past few years working in the presence of extremely hard-working and talented people, all of whom demonstrate an abiding commitment to wonderful books. I have had the opportunity to surround myself with remarkable colleagues and learn as much as I can about an industry that continues to fascinate me every day. I’ve also worked with an extremely talented list of clients and am honored to have had a small part in seeing that their books get published.

Though I’m excited to be embarking on this new adventure, I’m also sad to be leaving a job where I’ve learned and grown so much. It will be strange at first, I imagine, to open up my email and not see queries that are inspiring or make me laugh out loud (for good or bad), but I know that I will cherish my time here and miss the challenges and the endless education that comes from wearing the many hats of an agent. I’m so thrilled that the terrific Stephanie will be here to fill my shoes and know she’ll do wonderfully!

Thanks to you all for interesting discussions and lively commentary, and most of all, thanks for reading!

August 09, 2010   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, Chasya, Jane, Stephanie, What's New at DGLM  
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We’re moving right along!

by Jane

Over the years, Dystel & Goderich has grown from literally just two of us—well, actually, we did have a part-time person when we began so it was two and a half—to nine. We have also had interns working with us for a number of years and, over time, many have been promoted to full-fledged staff members.

Working at any organization initially as an intern is good for the intern and for the company, in my opinion. It enables the intern to learn whether he or she wants to continue on this career path and at this company and it enables the company to evaluate the intern’s ability and enthusiasm. In the end, the intern system is good for everyone.

Four years ago, I hired one of our interns to be my assistant; Chasya Milgrom had recently graduated from college, didn’t really know what she wanted to do, but thought giving our company and the business of literary agenting a try might be interesting. In fact, over the years, she has done very well—developing new systems for us and growing enormously herself. Last year she began building a client list and also began overseeing royalties (a big job) when Jim McCarthy was promoted to Senior Agent.

Now, sadly for us, Chasya has decided to move on. She will be attending graduate school in an area that she is passionate about. We know she will be terrific at whatever she does and we are excited to watch her succeed.

I am delighted to say that our very bright and energetic intern of the last year and a half, Stephanie DeVita, has just joined us as a junior agent; Stephanie has learned so much about our agency and the business of being a book agent in the time she has been with us that I have no doubt she is going to make a very successful career out of this. She will be taking over the royalties position as well as Chasya’s client roster and has already begun to talk about building a list of her own.

I am always excited when new people come on board and I am especially excited when they are as determined as this young woman is. I know you will hear from her soon and I know you will enjoy it.

November 06, 2009   DG&B   about us, changes at DGLM, fun, Rachel, What's New at DGLM, why we are agents  
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Welcome to DGLM, Rachel Oakley!

I’d like to formally introduce myself to all our blog readers out there, as I’ve recently joined the team here at DGLM as Jane’s assistant, and couldn’t be more excited about it.

I think a little information on my background is the best way to begin my first blog, so here goes…

I moved to the United States as a teenager, but returned to my home country of Australia to go to college. I started my freshman year in college thinking I was going to be a psychologist. In my second year of college I decided I was going to major in French. Then, in my third and fourth years of college, I decided it was time to follow the things I was passionate about and ended up as an English and Philosophy major.

During college I worked as an Editorial Assistant, and I occasionally wrote for the local women’s interest zine. I was always trying to get more than a foot in the door of publishing. So, moving to New York and working in publishing–particularly in a literary agency–has always been a goal of mine.

There was one question asked by a reader a few blogs ago about why agents do agenting, and I want to answer why I love working in an agency. Of course, I love books, and I like to write, but 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 have the opportunity to read things I wouldn’t ordinarily read and have different ideas presented to me–I find it all very exciting!

I’m looking forward to my future with DGLM, writing more blogs and hearing your opinions.

Over and out,
-Rachel

November 06, 2009   DG&B   changes at DGLM, feedback, our blog, polls, What's New at DGLM  
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DGLM Poll-a-thon

Thanks to all of you for the great feedback in the comments on our post about changing things up around here. I’ve turned that feedback into some handy polls, so we can get a better sense of what all of you would like to see. And while we’ll still have to decide how much of the feedback we’re getting it’ll make sense to run with, we are eager to hear from you.

And let me apologize in advance if these polls don’t actually work–I’m trying some advice I found on a message board to put the polls in the posts rather than the sidebar, but as we’ve seen, when I get near HTML code, colors tend to go wonky. I’ll fix ’em if this doesn’t actually do the trick. Wish me luck!

-Lauren

Where should the DGLM blog live?

Which type of post would you like to see most often?

Show or Tell?

Give me more… (Choose as many as apply.)

Give me less… (Choose as many as apply.)

November 05, 2009   DG&B   about us, calendar, changes at DGLM, conferences, fun, Michael, queries, SCBWI, Twitter, West Coast, What's New at DGLM  
16

California dreaming

As my clients know, and as many of you may have heard, I’m moving to Los Angeles at the end of this month to open up a West Coast office for DGLM. I’m really excited about starting something new, and I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for my clients, the agency and me.

I’ve had a few questions about how this will work, so I’ll try to address those here. First and foremost: I want to be very clear that I will continue to agent my amazing clients, and I remain on the lookout for exceptionally talented new authors. I’m a literary agent, and that’s not going to change.

Though I’ll be living and working in L.A., you can expect to see me in New York. Often. I’ll be back at the end of January for more than a week (I’ll be attending the SCBWI Winter conference to do the roundtables on January 29), meeting with editors, publishers and, of course, authors. There will be several trips like that throughout the year, so you New Yorkers can breathe easy (or not!).

I’ll be working New York hours, at my desk about 9:30 AM – 7 PM Eastern time, and I’ll be at my new phone number, 310-363-0252. That number is already live, so feel free to call me there any time (it’s forwarded to ring me wherever I am). My email remains the same: mbourret@dystel.com. I’ll still be on Twitter, where I’ll try to be more active–computer issues have kept me off a bit that past couple of weeks–and you’ll see me blogging more than before.

Speaking of Twitter, I asked my followers there for questions they wanted answered about the move. Either they’re all comedians or already knew everything, but here are a couple of questions and answers:

Question: Is it true that people sparkle in LA? :)

Answer: I don’t know, but I’ll find out and will let you know.

Question: Could you cover submission guidelines and how to submit, if that’s changed?

Answer: Great question! I’m now only accepting email queries. Please do not mail queries to the New York office. (Though all other official mail should still go to the New York office.)

Question: Do you remember driving? I would love to see how that’s treating you.

Answer: I actually drive several times a year, and I didn’t grow up in NYC, so driving isn’t going to be new. Getting a car, however, is a very bizarre notion. I’m going to have to bring a friend because I have no clue how it works!

-Michael

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