The news coming out of last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is very exciting for our business. An article in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal and another in Saturday’s New York Times announced that in the next several months over half a dozen new readers will be introduced into the market.
I say the more the better. This is definitely going to mean more readers and higher sales of books in all formats. I am delighted.
I figure it’s my turn to explain why it is I do what I do, as Jane, Jim, Lauren, Chasya, and Rachel have—if only to satisfy the clients who keep asking when I’d do one of these!
It all started at the end of the last decade, December of 1999. It was my senior year, and I really needed a job. I had no idea what to do, and was thinking of finding something in retail, as I love a good discount. But my friend Jim McCarthy told me that the literary agency where he was interning was looking for another paid intern. Now, Jim had told me what he was doing, but frankly I never quite understood. These people were agents for authors? Why did authors need agents? And isn’t publishing for rich kids who want a hobby career? Though I didn’t think it was the job or industry for me, I figured it couldn’t hurt to go in and interview.
Like Jim, I was interviewed by Stacey Glick. If you talk to her, she’ll tell you that I had blue hair at the time. This is not true. I had bright, bleached-blond hair. The blue hair came later. (And the blue dye largely ran out of my hair when I had to make a delivery to one of our most important clients in the pouring rain that summer.) I believe she hired me on the spot, and I started working Friday of the same week.
I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning. I did what people requested, paid lots of attention, and started asking questions. Slowly, but surely, I came to be very interested and involved in what was going on at the agency. I’d loved books growing up, but I’d not been the same kind of reader in college. It was great to get back to reading things that were fresh, new and contemporary. And, as I looked around, I liked what I saw: a group of smart, creative, engaged, interesting people helping authors manage their careers. Just a few short months later, I was hooked—on publishing, agenting, and DGLM. When Jane and Miriam offered me a job in September of that year, I was honored, and I jumped at the chance.
When I started full-time, I was doing much of what I did as an intern, along with managing royalties and helping Jane with submissions. But quickly, I took on new responsibilities. I began assisting the rights director, learning the ins and outs of the foreign and domestic rights markets. When she left the agency a few years later, I took over the agency’s rights, eventually attending the London Book Fair with Jane and selling rights around the world. At the same time, I was building a list of my own, something Jane encouraged me to do within my first year at the agency. I started representing children’s books at Jane’s suggestion, something I was unsure of at the time(!). But quickly I found that I had a passion for middle grade and YA books, and my career as an agent really took off then. Several years ago now, I became a full agent, and the talented Lauren Abramo took over as our rights director, freeing me up to focus on my own projects.
Last year I was very excited to be promoted to vice president at the agency, and just as pleased this past December when I moved to Los Angeles to open a West Coast office for DGLM. I tell people all the time—I’d never have had these opportunities at any other agency or in any other job, and I’m forever grateful to Jane for that.
Our industry is going through big, drastic, challenging changes, and I’m glad that Jane, Miriam, the rest of the DGLM staff and I are working together to attack them head-on. My ten-year journey with the agency has been full of amazing experiences and opportunities, and I am just as enthusiastic about the ten years to come.
Over the holiday, I thought long and hard about what I wish for our business in 2010 and here are three things I would love to see happen:
For those who believe the readers of electronic books are the same readers as for hard-copy books, let’s experiment and see. Try publishing both versions simultaneously and with another equally marketable title, publish the hardcover first and the electronic version 4 to 6 months later. It seems to me this is far more sensible than just speculating endlessly on the subject.
I hope that in 2010 editors will take more time to consider projects submitted to them. During the last year, perhaps because of the publishing economy, perhaps because of cutbacks in personnel and increased workloads, it seemed to me that editors were more than ever before “programmed” to say no. Many of them even admitted just sending the proposal back after reading the cover note because they were “sure” it wasn’t for them. Authors and agents work very hard on these proposals and consider carefully to whom they are submitting. If we are going to improve the quality of the books being published, editors need to take more time in considering the submissions they receive.
Finally, I hope the New Year brings a renewal of respect and collegiality in our business. In the last couple of years, for whatever reason, I have seen less of both between author and agent, publisher and author, and even among peers within the industry. If our business is to survive, we have to communicate better, more honestly and more respectfully with each other.
I wish all of you a prosperous 2010–may it be filled with peace, good health and lots of bestselling books.
Here is a very interesting piece written by publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin on his IdeaLogical blog. I believe he has a very good point here and one that authors should also pay attention to. When thinking about a book idea and how to present it, we all must be able to identify the potential market–the reader–both demographically and statistically.
Do you agree?
When my client Matthew Algeo suggested the idea of doing a book about the road trip Harry Truman and his wife Bess took right after his presidency was over, I thought it was a terrific idea. The proposal went to 34 publishers in three different rounds beginning in April 2007 and finally selling in early July of that year. There were two bids on the project and Matthew chose Chicago Review Press, a small publisher with whom we do quite a bit of business.
The book was published earlier this year, has earned more than twice its advance and has received incredible reviews and press mentions which I am sharing here. Success stories like this one don’t happen often but when they do, I find them enormously gratifying:
Washington Post Book World
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The Daily Herald (TN)
ArtVoice (NY)
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune
News-Sentinel (IN)
Pennsylvania Magazine
Pekarskie (PA) News-Herald
Sauk Valley (IL) Weekend
Ogle County (IL) Life/Rock Valley Shopper
TargetMarketingMag
Phillyburbs
XM/Sirius Radio’s The Ron and Fez Show
Kettering-Oakwood Times
History Magazine
Dayton Daily News
Memoirs of an Amnesiac
Columbus Dispatch
Carroll County (MD) Times
Jefferson City (MO) News Tribune
WTKF FM’s Coastal Daybreak
Book Reviews
American Road
College & Research Libraries News
New Press (OK)
WGN-AM’s Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg
Baltimore Sun’s Read Street
JetSetting
Mountaineer (NC)
Cars & Parts
Nashville Public Library’s Off the Shelf
Daily Reflector (NC)
Selma (CA) Enterprise
American Spirit
American History
Delaware State News
Baltimore Jewish Times
XM/Sirius Radio’s Peter Greenberg Worldwide
Frederick (MD) Post
Pennsylvania Gazette
Virginian-Pilot
Dover (DE) Post
Something Good to Read
Presidents and Presidency of the United States
AAA Traveler
Indianapolis Star
Bucks County (PA) Herald
New York Times’ In Transit
Newsmax
Journal of American Culture
Washington Post
Boing Boing
Urban Coaster
Dave’s Travel Corner
Creative Loafing
Chowan (NC) Herald
BookPage
Jackson (MS) Free Press
Cumberland Times-News
Press-Telegram (CA)
Allegheny Radio Corporation’s “Magic Morning Show”
WTCS-AM’s “The Morning Show”
Appalachian Independent
WVON-AM’s “Paul Lisnek Show”
WLS-AM’s “The Roe Conn Show”
Lake Michigan Shore
Illinois Radio Network’s “Eye on Illinois”
Washington Times
KMBZ-AM’s “Kansas City’s Morning News”
Palladium-Item (IN)
WZUS-FM’s “Scott and Scott in the Morning”
St. Louis Beacon
WMEA-FM’s “Maine Things Considered”
WILP-AM’s “Happenings Q&A”
KGO-AM’s “The John Rothmann Show”
Riverfront Times
The Week
Herald and Review (IL)
History News Network
New Daily Record (MD)
Star-Democrat (MD)
Herald-Star (OH)
Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
American Public Media’s Marketplace
PW Daily
Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Chieftain (MO)
Oregonian
Staten Island Live
Examiner
Alfred Sun (NY)
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Triphow
KCUR-FM’s “The Walt Bodine Show”
KCMO’s “The KCMO Morning Show”
Real Simple
World Hum
World Wide Woodard
Booklist
LJ Express
Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
I know Jane wrote about the issue of publishers delaying eBook publication, but now that Simon & Schuster and Hachette have officially jumped on the creaky bandwagon, I feel that it bears more discussion. Or maybe just a short rant by yours truly. It makes no sense, people! You could argue till you’re blue in the face that this move is going to result in more book sales and I won’t be convinced. As the26thstory blogged today, there’s no evidence that someone who’s committed to their Kindle, Nook, or eReader is going to plop down $25 for the hardcover instead of waiting for the eBook.
Sure, those of us who love the heft and weight of a hardcover (or even paperback) book and feel that holding one in our hands instead of an electronic tablet enhances the reading experience and who actually can’t wait another second to read an author’s work, will buy the hardcover. Then, there are all those college kids and young adults who love books but are financially strapped. That’s an audience that’s been mostly ignored by publishing folks for years because, wait for it, they don’t buy books. In my view, that’s also a market that grew up with iPods, MacBooks, and all their electronic offspring and who are less needful of the smell of paper and binding glue to enjoy a good story well told. And, there are all those moms at book clubs across the country who need to save money wherever they can and who might buy that $9.99 eBook instead of waiting patiently for their local library to have it available but who’ll never plop down the $25.
As far as I’m concerned, this new development is nothing more than publishers running scared. Instead of embracing the eBook revolution and figuring out how to make money off their product in all possible formats at a time when the market is in the midst of tectonic shifts, their solution is to clamp down on availability of that product. Seems just plain silly.
Your vehement opposition to my viewpoint is most welcome.
Well, jeez. Everyone else is telling you why or how they became agents. I might as well jump on board and offer the same.
Let’s face it: I had no idea what a literary agent was when I first stepped in the doors of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management in the summer of 1999. I was an Urban Design and Architectural History student at NYU with a minor in the ever practical field of Dramatic Literature—that’s dramatic as in plays, not dramatic as in literature where lots of stuff happens (yes, I’ve actually gotten this question before).
So there I was…studying to be the next great urban planner, destined for a life of fame and glory. But in the meantime, I was stone broke and needed a part time job. I sent out 40 resumes to any and every listing on NYU’s career board that sounded interesting. Why’d I apply here? I liked books. That was it.
Stacey Glick was the first person to call me back. I had an interview the next day and accepted the job the day after that. One more day passed, and I got a call about the job I had really wanted: usher at Hammerstein Ballroom. It was too late: I had already committed to coming here.
On what was supposed to be my first day of employment here, I was stranded in the suburbs because some freak storm shut down all of the trains running into New York and most of the subways. An auspicious beginning.
As Miriam Goderich often tells me about my first few months here, “Jim, you were really weird.” And that’s likely true. Painfully shy, completely terrified to be working in an office with real people who seemed strangely important and powerful, I mostly kept to myself, spoke softly, and consumed buckets of Diet Coke. For some reason, Jane and Miriam remained convinced that I had some sort of talent and wasn’t just some 19-year-old moron. I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely not my hair, which resembled a calico oil slick. Regardless, they kept me around, and I started to learn just how involved the publishing process was. It was hugely intriguing. I think I had some vague notion that there was a small group of people out there who decided to be authors, so they wrote books, sent them to Manhattan, and then had books magically appear with names like “Random House” on the spine. And while I realize this is an author’s dream come true, I was personally much more excited to learn how much that was NOT the case.
Here’s a dirty secret (well, it would be a secret if I ever kept my mouth shut): I quit Dystel & Goderich three times. Each time, I went off to get a job in my “real” field of urban planning, but that never really worked out like I planned, so I kept coming back to my “fun” field of publishing. It took me about two and a half years to realize that I didn’t have to choose a career related to my major—I never claimed to be the quickest draw on the block.
In the intervening time, I had fallen in love with diving into the slush pile to see what was there. It was a thrill to charge into manuscripts hoping for the best, preparing for the worst (the attitude I still take when opening something new). I’ll confess my nerdiness: I also pulled DGLM titles off of shelves in bookstores and read the acknowledgements thinking, “Some day my name will be in one of these.”
A full time job opened up as I happened to graduate from college. Kismet. I was told when the job was offered to me, “You realize this means you have to stop quitting and coming back.”
I didn’t sell the first project I ever signed on (though to this day, I remain convinced that it would have worked). And I didn’t sell the second. But I did sell the third, and I actually sold it pretty nicely. “They offered you what? For a paperback?”
I may have stumbled into it, but it’s been a blast ever since. I had a few criteria while I was in college for what my dream job would be: every day would be different, I’d work with fascinating people, I could wear jeans in the office, and I wouldn’t start my work day until 11:00 a.m. So…I missed out on that last one, but the first two were probably more important anyway. Maybe three. I really like wearing jeans.
It’s an honor to be involved in the process of ushering books to readers, as roundabout as that process sometimes seems. And I’m thrilled with the deeply accomplished group of authors on my list. Publishing is a team sport, and…wait, I don’t know enough about sports to make a good analogy here. They’re good folks, my authors. I’ll leave it at that.
Beyond that, I was supported by Jane and Miriam the entire way. Somehow they knew the weird kid with the bad hair might just be able to make a go at this crazy business, and they supported me every day, while also giving me just enough room to find my own footing. No one ever seems to leave the agency which is a testament to how well we all function together as a team but also how deeply rooted the generosity of support we receive is and has always been. I stumbled into this business, but Jane and Miriam invited me to stay. Here I am, ten years later. Damn, I’m getting old.
Many years ago when Mary Doria Russell’s first book, The Sparrow, was being published, the publisher sent Mary and me a suggested cover. I remember it well–in fact, when I looked at it, I thought that it was a joke. There, on the jacket of this beautiful first novel was a picture of a dead bird lying on its back with its feet up in the air.
I immediately contacted the publisher and clearly expressed our adamant objections–and several weeks later an eye-catching and much more appropriate cover resulted. The book has gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
Would that first cover have prevented The Sparrow from selling? That is Joe Queenan’s theory in his amusing essay in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review. In fact, there are many wonderful books that I suspect aren’t read because their covers are so uninviting.
I asked my colleagues at DGLM for some examples of terrible jackets and here are just a few they came up with:
Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances
Ken Kalfus’s The Commissariat of Enlightenment
Dana Spiotta’s Eat the Document
Alicia Erian’s Towelhead, in both hardcover and paperback
I wonder whether if I really want to read a book, it’s cover would affect me. And so I decided to look at the cover of the book I am currently reading and absolutely loving: Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. I was shocked–the cover is incredibly uninviting and, in my opinion, totally misleading. Thank goodness I downloaded the book into my e-reader rather than seeing it at a bookstore. Had I done the latter, I doubt I would have bought this book–and then, because of a really unfortunate cover, I would have missed a wonderful read.
Can you think of any book jackets or covers that affected you negatively–enough not to pick up that book?
December 04, 2009 
DG&B 
about us, Chasya, fun, Jane, Jim, Lauren, Michael, Miriam, subsidiary rights, why we are agents Since Jane, Chasya, and Rachel have already weighed in on why they are agents, I thought I’d take my turn.
I came to agenting as many people do in publishing, somewhat by accident. When I finished grad school I moved home: jobless, apartment-less, and broke. I’d worked in bookstores in college and grad school and at a non-profit between, so I was pretty confident that I’d be happy in either field. As with many of the uninitiated, the only real jobs in publishing I could think of were editorial, marketing, and publicity, and I didn’t think the latter two were for me. Neither the editorial job I wanted nor a position at a non-profit were especially easy to find. Out for dinner with friends one evening, having borrowed money from my mother to come into the city from the suburbs, I whined as usual that I wasn’t finding a job and was going a little stir crazy. My friend Beth, fortunately, threw me a lifeline: two of her college friends, Michael and Jim, worked at an agency, and she knew they sometimes hired freelance readers. It’d be a foot in the door, an excuse to come into the city, and a bit of money to make it happen. The next day she put me in touch with Michael, and I luckily applied for a reader position just as Jane’s assistant Leslie was moving off to Peru. Michael asked me if I was looking for a full-time position and wanted him to pass on my resume, and the rest is history!
So that’s how I got to DGLM, but 4 1/2 years later, why am I still here when my plan had been to work in editorial? Because it turned out to be a perfect fit. Not only did Jane encourage me to take on my first client as soon as she felt I was ready while still assisting her, but working for her that first year gave me invaluable experience in just how agenting works. Most of us at DGLM started in our first job in publishing as an intern or as Jane’s assistant, and it has made a tremendous difference. Jane knows the business inside and out having worked on both sides of the desk, and while the office is run on a complex set of systems (and anyone who has seen me work knows I love systems more than almost anything in the world), once you have a hang of them you have a real leg up on managing your time and serving your clients’ best interests. And even though Jane’s constantly busy, her door is literally always open–we don’t even have to knock. Jane makes a point of explaining how things work and why. Just before my anniversary with the company, I was offered the chance to move up–take on more clients and work junior to Michael in our rights department. I was able to continue learning, not just from Michael, who taught me the ins and outs of subrights and patiently gave me advice and answers probably more often than he had time to do. I also got to move desks to sit just below the loft Miriam works from, and just from hearing her do her thing I’ve learned a great deal in the last few years about how to put out fires, give editorial feedback, and make sure clients are on the right track and feel supported. When another year or so later the time came for Michael to give up rights selling to focus on his ever expanding client list, Jane and Miriam once again trusted me to climb another rung of the ladder. Jim might’ve regretted being so easily accessible at the next desk when I couldn’t wrap my mind around a contract clause or royalty statement—or when my job, regrettably, called for me to use numbers. As an agent, my list overlaps slightly with just about every other agent’s, so there’s always someone to give me an informed second opinion, to suggest an editor who’d be perfect for my submission list, and to give me feedback on my pitches.
As the agency’s Subsidiary Rights Director and an agent, I still learn new things all the time, but I’ve also had the pleasure of being the one who sometimes knows the answers. It means a lot to me that others ask my advice now, even if it’s perhaps just rightful payback for the time spent at their desks with a confused look on my face. And I’ve gotten to see Chasya, who started as an intern back when I was Jane’s assistant and then took over the front desk from me, make a similar journey within the agency, even joining me in the back room at Jim’s old desk now that he’s got his own office.
So I’m an agent because I found myself in a supportive environment where I could grow, learn, and thrive, and where my obsession for detail and order would come in handy. And yes, like everyone else really, I’m an agent because I love to read!
This week, the DGLM office talked more books, as another book club meeting was held around the all-purposes back office table.
The book club is a little different to any I’ve been involved with before because, for starters, we don’t all read the same book. The DGLM book club usually involves all of us reading a different book–this time we chose novels from the great books lists that were compiled over the summer by staff and interns. Another thing that makes this book club different is that we’re not only evaluating books as readers, but as people in the publishing industry. The reports we give involve ways we would pitch the book, offering our real opinions (some in praise, some…not so much in praise), and then talking about how they performed and whether we’d have picked them out of slush.
This time around, here is what we read:
And, believe it or not, we’ve already chosen books to read for our next book club meeting next month. This time we’ll be reading books from the New York Times Notable Books of 2009, which Jim wrote about recently. I’m excited about this because I’ll be reading from an author I’ve never heard of, and discovering new writers is a passion of mine. Have you discovered amazing authors from book clubs?
