Miriam | Dystel, Goderich & Bourret

November 23, 2009

DG&B

about us, Chasya, Jane, Jessica, Jim, Lauren, Michael, Miriam, Rachel, Stacey, Thanksgiving

3

What I’m thankful for

by Jane

It’s Thanksgiving and every year at this time especially, I think about what I am thankful for.

One of the main things I am thankful for is our team at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. They really are the best at what they do:

Miriam Goderich–Partner, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director: The foundation of our company, a great editorial and administrative mind with an awesome sense of humor. I am so thankful that she is my partner and very close friend.

Michael Bourret–Vice President: A tireless agent; an incredibly hard worker and a risk taker. Michael is setting up a California office of DGLM. I have such admiration for him and am rooting for his success.

Jim McCarthy: A brilliant editorial mind and a superb agent, Jim has incredibly good taste and a wonderful sense of humor. I am constantly astounded by Jim’s insights and so proud of his enormous growth over the years and his recent successes.

Stacey Glick–Vice President: A terrific agent with a growing list of practical non-fiction, Stacey has a very good nose and is incredibly persistent. I am constantly amazed at all that Stacey accomplishes in her increasingly busy life and thankful to have her as part of our team.

Jessica Papin: Jessica is a passionate and amazingly hard working agent who is building a very exciting client list; we are so lucky to have her back.

Lauren Abramo: Our Rights Director and in-house techie as well as an agent in her own right, Lauren is always on top of everything. With a small list of clients, which she is growing carefully, we are very lucky to have her.

Chasya Milgrom: Our Royalties Manager and newest agent, Chasya is building a list and growing beautifully with the agency. I am so thankful to have her with us and to watch her develop as an agent.

Rachel Oakley: My assistant and our newest staff member–I am thrilled to have her here and know she is going to be a huge and important member of our team.

Thank you all for your support, your tenaciousness, your good taste and your wisdom; you all add to my life and to DGLM in enormously important and meaningful ways.

November 18, 2009

DG&B

fun, guilty pleasures, Miriam, reading

14

Guilty Pleasures

by Miriam

Browsing NPR.org’s Book section, I came across this and it made me think about my own literary guilty pleasures. Given that I take pride in being an eclectic (some might say schizoid) reader, I don’t generally feel guilty about many of my choices but every once in a while I find myself sneaking around with a book that I think will raise eyebrows on the train or lead to outright taunting by my rude friends and family members. Usually, this has to do more with the cover art–certain romance novels leave very little to the imagination–or provocative title than with the actual content, but I find that I tend to feel a little guilty reading certain pop culture blockbusters such as the Twilight series. It’s positively unseemly to be swooning over vampires, along with millions of teenaged girls. Or is it? What are your guilty pleasures?

November 11, 2009

DG&B

advice, future of publishing, Miriam, opinion, why we are agents

45

Who needs an agent? You do.

Do you ever feel like you want to take everyone involved in the publishing business–writers, agents, publishers, and the interns who open the mail–and shake them until their teeth rattle? Probably not, right? Well, I usually don’t either. But then I read a piece like this one in Galleycat and, well, you know….

At the risk of sounding self-serving, every serious author needs an agent. Not just any agent, of course. You need a good agent. One who is an advocate, who is willing to fight for you and who is able to tell you when you’re being unreasonable and doing your career more harm than good. You need someone who’ll tell you they believe in you when you think you’re the biggest literary fraud since James Frey (who is actually a very good writer despite his questionable morals). You need someone who asks about your ailing grandmother and vets your contracts. You need someone who will look at your royalty statements and make sure that the publisher isn’t holding a 75% reserve for returns. You need someone who is willing to try to place foreign rights to a book that is so hopelessly American that no one outside of the 50 states would want to read it. You need someone who will do battle with your publishing team and make sure they still like you despite the fact that you aren’t always discreet about them in your Facebook posts. You need someone who’ll see you through the process from idea to publication to the inevitable disappointment when the publicity for your book is done with before you noticed it had started. And, you need an agent because in these trying times, we’re sometimes the only people who offer continuity and stability in what everyone hopes is a long career.

So, how does the digital revolution change the fact that you need an agent? Not at all. Sure, you can upload your manuscript on the internet yourself and you can do all your own accounting when you start selling the downloads. But, if you’re serious about writing books, you’re still better served having someone else handle the business side of being published.

There is no question that agents, as well as publishers, need to get with the program when it comes to e-books and all things digital. There is a woeful amount of ignorance about this revolution and lots of needless resistance and hand wringing. In the end, however books get into a reader’s hands is irrelevant. The process by which they get there, who sifts through the good, the bad, and the absolutely unreadable, and who takes care of the administrative side of things while you hone your craft, should not change. I would argue that with so much content out there for the taking (or downloading), now more than ever we need agents and publishers to be better gatekeepers and advocates. Otherwise, I will begin to fear for the future of books, and not just because they don’t come in paper packages any more.

-Miriam

November 04, 2009

DG&B

Miriam, opinion, reading, science fiction

4

The present of the future

I like the idea that literature is a vehicle for exploring (and exploiting) our anxieties, both personal and cultural. I tend to agree with Cory Doctorow that science fiction has always been more about the present than the future. What do you all think?

-Miriam

October 29, 2009

DG&B

favorites, fun, Miriam

11

Haunted houses

This made me think of all the fictional houses — haunted or not — that are characters in their own right. What are your favorites?

— Miriam

October 21, 2009

DG&B

fun, Miriam

1

Still laughing…

This New Yorker piece is “old content” by now but since we’re still talking about and chortling over it, I thought it deserved a post. Enjoy!

— Miriam

October 08, 2009

DG&B

future of publishing, Miriam, opinion, optimism

31

Book sales and wails

Anyone else getting tired of hearing about how the book business is in a slump? I have a cold, summer’s over, and the health care battle wages on in Congress. Sure, the Yanks are in the playoffs, but aside from that, there isn’t a whole lot out there that makes me feel optimistic. Except, that our agency is having a good year. A really good year. We’re selling books faster than we can turn contracts around, we’re seeing authors whose careers we’ve helped build show up regularly on the bestseller lists, and we continue to be engaged in developing the myriad ideas that cross our desks every day.

So, when I open the paper (actually, I read the Times online) to yet another “the sky is falling” piece citing as the primary indicator of the industry’s woes the under-performance of titles like Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, Ted Kennedy’s posthumous memoir, and Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry, it makes me just want to…write a blog post. Last I heard, Dan Brown’s book has sold about 3,000,000 copies and I’m guessing it will eventually sell all the ones his publisher printed. If you factor in rights sales, this book will make money (despite the astronomical advance and whatever you may think about its literary merits). Likewise Ted Kennedy, whose book should have even greater staying power than The Lost Symbol. Senator Kennedy’s career and storied family, not to mention his contributions to his country, would seem to guarantee that generations hence political science students will be reading True Compass. I confess to being one of the few people I know who didn’t love The Time Traveler’s Wife so I would not be surprised if the author’s new book finds a true and loving audience or really does end up disappointing the publishing execs who overpaid for it. That’s what makes horse races, as they say.

What I really object to in today’s article (among other things better left for other blog posts) is the notion that books are like the latest Tom Cruise or Will Smith movie, that opening weekend grosses are more important than overall sales (and an author’s career), and that books are going to find themselves in the remainder bins as quickly as one of those films goes to DVD because they don’t sell out their entire print runs within the allotted 10 days of co-op placement. In fact, the marketplace is changing and it seems that only publishing people are unaware of that. Given the internet’s ability to create niche audiences for everything from bento boxes to splatterpunk, it takes longer for some titles to build sales. Readers are becoming used to the fact that they will be able to find the books they want to read either in their originally published form or through used book sites or e-book editions. Just because these people are not in the bookstore the day a book is published doesn’t mean that that audience, if marketed to correctly, can’t make a title a bestseller six months after publication.

Despite this, publishers are still overpaying for a tiny percentage of books and then rolling them out as if the entire business depended on them, and they are invariably disappointed when they don’t sell by the truckload within a couple of weeks. And then the second guessing and hand wringing begin. Instead, how about not paying such ridiculous advances and publishing books more intelligently? You can still have your Dan Browns and your Ted Kennedys and your books about bento boxes but won’t bankrupt the system by making them happen. Building sales slowly and carefully may not be “sexy” but it will guarantee a loyal audience that will follow an author (and a book) for years to come. That’s been our M.O. here at DGLM and it’s what will ultimately take the publishing business out of the doldrums.

— Miriam

September 30, 2009

DG&B

fun, Miriam

0

David, Zachary and Rambo

As a fan of David Morrell, the author and the person, I was delighted to see this blog post by Zachary Oberzan, creator of the Indie Theater hit Rambo Solo.

— Miriam