Category Archives: Miriam

August 10, 2011   Miriam   about us, fun, inspiration, Miriam, optimism  
18

The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole*

As John and Stephanie have suggested in their blog posts this week, we at DGLM have been slightly beset by mid-year doldrums.  Maybe it’s because it’s a quiet time of year and we’re all either desperate to get away on vacation or sad that vacation is fading in the rearview mirror.  Maybe  it’s because we’ve come all the away around from complaining bitterly about the cold to whining about the relentless heat and humidity.  Or maybe it’s because rejection is a downer and we agent types get rejected more than math geeks at a cheerleader convention.  Whatever the causes I think we’ve all been a little less joie-filled than usual and we’ve noticed that our clients are also exhibiting more signs of existential pain than is normal even for some of the more extreme nutcases among them (and I say that with love).

So, as therapy, I decided to look at the things that make me happy about what I do.  In no particular order here are my top 10 (for the moment):

1.  I work with supremely talented people who make me laugh, cry and grind my teeth (sometimes all within the same conversation).

2.  I am engaged daily in a world of ideas.  Nothing is too un-PC, too scandalous, or too weird for us to consider in the kind of intellectually lively environment that makes my banker friends jealous.

3.  I can justify my addiction to tabloids and thoroughly embarrassing knowledge of what the Kardashians are up to as being “part of my job.”

4.  I get to read for a living.

5.  Books.

6.  I learn fascinating things about science, art, history, politics, etc., almost every day—courtesy of our brilliant clients.

7.  I wear jeans to work on Wednesday or any other day.

8.  I get to see my name printed in the acknowledgments of books.

9.  I like my colleagues.

10. I like that, directly and indirectly, what we do has the power to influence minds, shape opinions, and occasionally change the world.

There, I feel better.  How about you guys?  What’s on your list of what makes you happy about being writers (despite the frustrations, rejections, and setbacks)?

*Oscar Wilde

August 03, 2011   Miriam   culture, fiction, fun, great books, lists, Miriam, reading  
10

Shoulda, coulda, woulda

Ask anyone at DGLM (Jane in particular) and they will tell you that I’m an insufferable bookworm.  When a simple reference to Kim Kardashian would make a more relevant point, I will cite Anna Karenina.  If we’re debating the merits of the writing in a manuscript we’re considering for representation, I’m apt to dismiss it by suggesting that the author is no Ivan Klima (or fill in some other relatively obscure Slavic author).  See what I mean?  Annoying.

Of course, I have a lot invested in turning my nerdy childhood, spent eating chips while buried in the pages of doorstoppers, into a source of irritation for my friends and co-workers.  They may have been partying while I was reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire but they have no idea how hilarious Gibbon’s footnotes were.

And, of course, like any pretentious book person, I’m terribly insecure about the books I didn’t read.  The gaps in my reading list are, as you can imagine, a constant source of embarrassment—not so much that I’m rushing to download those titles on my Kindle, but, you know….  For instance, even though I struggled mightily and valiantly through Romola, I never did get around to George Eliot’s Middlemarch. I did lose steam after the first volume of Proust’s 675-volume Remembrance of Things Past and I’ve never gone near a work by Herman Hesse.  This Today list of books everyone really should have read, reminds me that, well, there will always be books that I should have read, should read, haven’t read, and…probably won’t.

How about you?  What are the ones that got away for you?

July 20, 2011   Miriam   fun, Miriam, opinion, pet peeves, words, writing  
11

Clichéd clichés

Full disclosure:  I’m on vacation as of end of business tomorrow.  I need this vacation like oxygen.   As a matter of fact, my brain is functioning as if it’s a bit oxygen starved right about now.

As a result of being vacation/oxygen deprived for so long, I’ve been finding myself spouting things like “it is what it is” or “we need to think outside the box” or “money doesn’t grow on trees” instead of providing well thought out, intelligent commentary to questions posed by clients, co-workers, and my five-year-old.  Clearly, I need to go off and relax a bit so that I can come back refreshed and stop speaking in clichés.

Then I saw this piece in the HuffPost and remembered reading a historical romance recently where the author used a wink, wink variation of “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”  Anachronistic? Yes.  Annoying cliché? Yes.  Funny?  Mildly.

Thing is, sometimes only a cliché will do (and sometimes repetition is a wonderful literary and oratory device, and sometimes using dialect in a novel is not a criminal offense, but very rarely are those things deployed with enough brilliance and verve to be effective) mostly, however, they make my teeth ache from excessive grinding.  Writing well is all about expressing ideas, feelings, emotions, storylines, character development, in original and fresh ways.  Using clichés instead of coining a new phrase is about as lazy as you can get as a writer and speaker, in my opinion.

What are your favorite clichés and which ones do you find most egregiously used and misused?

July 13, 2011   Miriam   endings, favorites, great books, Miriam  
26

Last words

Everyone knows that a great opening line can “make” a novel.  You might be so beguiled by a beautiful first sentence that you decide to follow the author on whatever path s/he chooses to lead you (even if where it leads you is misery, confusion and despair).  We’ve made a lot of fuss on this blog (as publishing people do) about opening lines…but what about final ones?  How a book ends and the image, emotion, or idea it leaves you with is, to me, in some ways more important than how it ensnares you to begin with.

I remember many years ago being rewarded for my persistence and dedication in reading Faulkner’s maddeningly brilliant The Sound and the Fury by the very last line (of what it turned out was an appendix added to the book years later; I didn’t know this at the time so for me it was the last line): “They endured.”  That phrase has stayed with me for decades now. (Yowsa! Feeling old here.)  Its simplicity is its power and it left me in awe of someone who could have crafted such a fierce and uncompromising book and ended it so exactly right (the actual first last line is pretty great too; check it out).

I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast (and it’s the same thing every day), but some of my all time favorites:

“After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“Isn’t it pretty to think so.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

“She called in her soul to come and see.” – Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Vladimir: Well, shall we go? Estragon: Yes, let’s go.  [They do not move.]” – Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

And, of course, I surveyed the DGLMers.  Some of them ignored my e-mail (as they do) and some came back with:

Stephanie, Jim, and Lauren: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

And Lauren: “He loved Big Brother.” – George Orwell, 1984

And Jim: “When they tried to detach the skeleton which he held in his embrace, he fell to dust.” – Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Rachel: “yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.” – James Joyce, Ulysses

Jessica: “She runs.” – Nadine Gordimer, July’s People

What are your favorite last words and why?

July 06, 2011   Miriam   authors, competition, feuds, fun, Miriam, our clients  
10

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had*

Personally, I think jealousy is a great motivator.  Who hasn’t experienced a moment of jealous rage so virulent that it’s propelled them  to action?  Whether it’s romantic or professional, this base and vile emotion can force you to get off your keester and make things happen.  Okay, sometimes, it lands you in jail—not so good.  But, when we are jealous of someone’s accomplishments and able to see the effort and talent behind them, we can parse the elements of their success and try to apply them to our own circumstances.  Also, there have been some epic feuds born of jealousy that make for great entertainment—Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer; Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck….

The kind of jealousy we encounter on an almost daily basis is creative and professional.  Why is so and so getting bigger advances than me?  Why did she get a better review from the Times when everyone knows she’s a hack?  Why did [fill in the publisher’s name] give him an eight-city tour when they can’t even get my books in stores?  And so on.

Our response, in soothing, zen-like tones is something along the lines of “Be patient, grasshopper.  Unimaginable success will be yours.”

Uh…yes…well…more often it’s “Stop whining and stay focused on your own work.  No one can write your book better than you and being jealous of other people’s success is just distracting you from doing your best work, not to mention meeting your deadlines.”

So, this piece in Writer’s Relief made me think about the uses and misuses of jealousy and wonder whether it is, indeed, a motivator?  Can you keep it in check and make it work for you? Or is it just a corrosive, soul destroying thing you wish you could banish from your creative life?  Who are you most jealous of?

*Erica Jong

UPDATE:  I love the link Tamara posted in the comments so much, that I thought I’d share it with you here:

http://therumpus.net/2011/03/dear-sugar-the-rumpus-advice-column-69-we-are-all-savages-inside/

June 29, 2011   Miriam   changes at DGLM, digital publishing, e-books, future of publishing, Miriam, self-publishing, technology  
0

Thank you

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the response to our announcement has been both gratifying and challenging.  We appreciate your questions and your interest and we are taking your suggestions and comments very seriously.  In fact, many of you have raised issues that we think need further review.   This program is in its infancy and so we have the opportunity to take your feedback and consider incorporating some of it into our business plan.  Although we’re not prepared to discuss specifics at this time, we will be keeping you updated on our progress as we go.

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 22, 2011   Miriam   Amazon, audience, author events, authors, Barnes and Noble, comics, culture, favorites, guilty pleasures, independent bookstores, Miriam, retailers  
14

The price of admission

There was a little used book store around the corner from my apartment complex, when I was growing up in Miami, that was my second home.  Nerdy, latch-key kid that I was, I spent hours browsing the shelves, trying to get the owner to throw in an extra dog-eared paperback in exchange for the stack of Spanish language comic books I was trading, and generally getting high on the smell of old paper and ink.  I still have treasured editions scattered throughout my many bookcases whose provenance was that little shop.

Then, when I first got to New York, I was blown away by places like Shakespeare & Co., Brentano’s, Coliseum Books, Papyrus and that promised land for bibliophiles, The Strand.   A few years later many of my favorite haunts had gone out of business or been taken over by soulless corporate giants (you know who you are) but I never lost my love of browsing aimlessly in book stores.  These days, I still occasionally wander over to the Barnes & Noble on Union Square and spend my lunch hour in the fiction stacks on the fourth floor.

Of course, book stores have also traditionally been a place for authors to do their dog and pony show in support of their work.   Book tours are going the way of the Amazon forests but certain authors are still a huge draw (just try to get anywhere near the third floor at the aforementioned Barnes & Noble when David Sedaris is doing a reading).  Some of these events can make you fall in love with a book or its author, sometimes both.   They’re also the makings of a cheap date for grown-ups and an alternative to a $30 movie outing for young kids.  Except, it seems, no more.

Check out this  Gawker piece about the new trend of book stores charging admission to author events.  I actually understand and support independents in their efforts to get people in the door.  These are trying times for book sellers and if they are to keep their doors open in the face of the online juggernauts (you know who you are, cough, Amazon) they are going to have to figure out a way to make money.  But it does make me sad.   How many times did I walk out of a book store with a title I had no intention of buying when I went in after stumbling upon an author reading from his/her book?  I wonder if the days of the accidental book buyer are numbered as a result of these new pay-for-play tactics.

What do you all think about this new development?

June 15, 2011   Miriam   fiction, fun, inspiration, literary, Miriam, opinion  
6

Under the influence

Driving into the City on Monday, I heard a snippet of a segment on NPR where they asked their listeners to discuss books that have influenced them.  I made a mental note to look up the program online when I got to the office and had forgotten all about it by the time I’d crossed the GW bridge (now, of course, I can’t find the link).  But, the subject stayed with me.  As a result, I’ve been noodling about the influence of books for the last couple of days.  Obviously, all of us bookworms have been swayed by literature—both high and low—but how, specifically?  It’s rather obvious that books shape our intellectual growth but what about other areas of our lives?  How much of our beliefs, tastes and dislikes, career paths and other big-ticket choices have been influenced by books?

I think every aspect of my life has been touched by books.  For instance, I believe my view of politics and policy was shaped by those “You Were There” books about the American Revolution that I read in elementary school and all those biographies of three-letter presidents (FDR and JFK); my ideas of romance were an unholy mish mash of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Colette, Mary McCarthy and Jacqueline Susann; my career choice owes a lot to Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast; and my general take on the human condition far too impacted by the darkness of Russian novels and the sinister whimsy of Latin American greats like Borges and Garcia Marquez….

But, when I tried to think of one book that influenced me above all others, I couldn’t.  It seems that, for me, literary influence is an aggregate of themes and ideas culled from, probably, every book I’ve ever read.  Even in the most banal, tedious narratives I’ve been able to find a phrase or thought that influenced my thinking or my doing.  And, that, to me, is what’s so amazing about literature.

So, what are the books that have influenced you?  Is there one title (or many) that you can claim changed your life?

June 08, 2011   Miriam   about us, agents, art, authors, fun, great books, Miriam  
2

What inspires us

In our line of work we hear a lot about what inspires people to write.  We also hear a lot about when inspiration takes a hike and authors are left with a bad case of writer’s block.  I’m pretty sure we all agree that the state of feeling inspired is a wondrous and energizing thing and that feeling devoid of inspiration is tantamount to sitting in a dark room on a sunny day.  What is interesting to me is that we agents are seldom asked about what inspires us.  Everyone wants to know why we pick the projects we do, sure, but I don’t think anyone has ever accosted me at a conference and asked me what I’m inspired by.

Well, even if you don’t ask, I’ll tell you.  Like our clients, we’re inspired by great writing and storytelling, of course (as well as art, music, and drama that makes you sit up and take notice).  We’re inspired by people who are able to turn personal pain and suffering into art.  By those who can lucidly and entertainingly explain scientific principles and those who write movingly and convincingly about intangibles like faith.  Personally, I can find inspiration in everything I’m curious about—from medicine to cocktails, black holes to macramé, steampunk to quiet literary fiction.  In every category, a smart, thought provoking, well elucidated book inspires me to seek out more about the subject, or read more of that author’s work, or go out and try to find something similar that will become someone else’s inspiration.

We often tell our clients to find models for their work. Whether it’s a bestselling novel or a piece of contemporary art, someone out there has undoubtedly grappled with some creative problems similar to yours with inspiring results.   As agents we take our own advice.  We sign up projects because we just saw a play we loved that dealt with a similar topic or because we’re currently wearing out the new Adele CD and want to read the literary equivalent.  We digest a newspaper piece that gets us thinking and the next thing you know we’re looking for a writer to shape it into a full-length nonfiction narrative.  And so on, ad infinitum.

Lately, I’ve been inspired by Dr. Seuss and Patti Smith.  How about you?  What’s inspiring you these days?

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