Category Archives: What’s New at DGLM

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  
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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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