Brenna graduated from Northeastern University and has financial, marketing and some agenting experience.  We are very excited to have her with us.

I hope you all will join me in welcoming Brenna to the Dystel & Goderich family.

OK, so full disclosure, there were a few I felt I couldn’t really consider, because I know them and felt biased because they’re all so smart and witty (client, grad school roommate, agency client), but I haven’t told Rachel so that she won’t have the same problem.  WordPress automatically emailed me the comments since it was my blog post, so I actually saw the email addresses before the actual entries.

My pick is Elizabeth Lynd for Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? and Then Again, Maybe I Won’t.  Not least because I actually felt as a kid that Margaret and Tony were kindred spirits.  Elizabeth, please write to me at labramo@dystel.com to claim your mug!

Honorable mention goes to Jesse, because Perks of Being a Wallflower is always going to win me over.

So there you have it! Thank you so much for your participation and please, have a wonderful weekend!

I know my authors have similar ups and downs. There are those moments when the words just come, when fingers can’t keep up with ideas. Then there are the moments when the phone rings, the email dings, the kids whine, the spouse calls. And suddenly the muse is gone and the magical moment has passed. What then, writers? For me, it’s easy enough to get back to things by doing. Instead of worrying about the piles, I focus on one thing and get it done. That seems to get me back in the swing without feeling overwhelmed. But when you’re doing something creative, how do you recapture the magic? I’m curious how our readers handle it. Any advice?

It was a really thoughtful and informative conversation that lasted almost an hour and a half. We had a lengthy talk about the cookbook as object and whether that is something that will continue into the future or go the way of the VHS tape. We all agreed moving away from the book is a long way away, if it ever happens at all, and that there is still a great benefit to holding a book in your hands, cooking from a book rather than a computer screen, and sharing books as gifts with friends and family.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the discussion centered on the agent and author relationship, and the question of how important is it to have an agent in a market where so many writers, bloggers especially, are going it on their own. I strongly believe that (and I think, based on feedback, made a persuasive argument for) authors need agents now more than ever. A savvy agent who understands the nuances of the market’s language and culture is critical as they oversee every aspect of an author’s entire career, focusing on the big picture, as well as the smaller details that can go astray at any point in the process.

What really jumped out at me, though, was the concept of how much book negotiations have changed in the recent past. Each and every negotiation now, even with publishers we’ve dealt with for many years and have boilerplate contracts with the best negotiated terms possible, is fraught with challenges that include new and changing digital royalty rates, author deliverables that previously didn’t exist (one agent mentioned a major publisher had asked that the author deliver along with their manuscript 20 minutes of the author on tape), and which rights will be retained by the author versus the publisher.

This might sound simple, but believe me when I say it is not. The landscape has been described as The Wild West, and we are using our collective years of experience to secure the best deal and contract terms that are possible in a market where publishers are pushing so hard in one direction to keep rights in their control and agents are pushing so hard in the other.

The good news is we are making progress with every deal. Each new contract offers an opportunity to renegotiate contract language we aren’t happy with, or get an author an improved digital royalty, or at least the ability to renegotiate the royalty in the future. We are always striving to protect our clients and maintain a positive working relationship with all the publishers we do business with. I’ll admit it can be precarious, but we have leverage because publishers know the value of our long, successful client list.

All this to say your agent is your friend and will be there to guide you through this sometimes messy and difficult process of being a book author. I’d love to know your thoughts on the agent-author relationship in this new market and also on cookbook as object and its future. Do you think cookbooks are going to go away, or will there always be room on your shelf to display your favorite stain-filled tomes as a badge of cooking honor?

Yes, I know it’s been over a week, but I haven’t had a chance yet to properly crow over the Giants’ victory in the Super Bowl. In a completely unavoidable coincidence, I was in Boston on Super Bowl Sunday for a family reunion. While the locals were certainly well behaved (in and around our hotel, at least), it’s not like I publicly advertized my allegiance before retiring to the security of our room to witness the glorious triumph. And by the time we got back to New York on Wednesday night, it seemed like everyone had, typically, just moved on…

Everyone, that is, except for publishers! According to the always reliable folks at the New York Post, books are on the way from Victor Cruz and coach Tom Coughlin, while editors are supposedly lamenting Eli’s lack of interest in writing a book right now.

I have to say, I feel a little torn about Cruz and Coughlin. Not that their literary pursuits are all that surprising—it’s Super Bowl tradition for the winners to capitalize any way they can, and being a New York team the Giants have always been well-courted by the publishing industry (BTW, kudos to Justin Tuck for getting ahead of the curve with his picture book). But how much does Cruz, a rookie, really have to say? And what’s Coughlin going to write that’s any different from his last book, which tanked?

Well, until Eli changes his mind, I guess we’ll have to be satisfied with what the others come up with. But readers, are there any other players you want to hear from? Any other stories you’d like to read? Myself, I’d love to see a book from Bill Belichick on how he can’t seem to beat us in the big game (tee-hee)…

Based on the fact that I handle a number of romance novels, it’s clear that I enjoy a good love story. But I’ll note here that I really flip for love stories that are a bit…unusual.

Last summer, I lost my mind over Brady Udall’s The Lonely Polygamist. A novel about a husband of four who has an affair with a married woman, it had all the drama of five love stories packed into one book. But what I most admired about it was how realistic the emotions felt, how relatable this unlikely family was, and how thoroughly non-judgmental Udall was about his characters. It’s a brilliantly rendered novel, and I highly recommend it for those of you looking for something a little less expected on this particular Valentine’s Day.

Or maybe you’re so totally over this holiday that you want to see love partnered with bloodshed. Happily, there are some dark minds out there willing to accommodate you. Donald Ray Pollock’s sprawling The Devil All the Time features a serial killing couple that picks up hitchhikers so that the husband can photograph the wife in flagrante delicto with them…and murder them. And the husband is impotent! I mean…it’s pretty much all things for all people. That doesn’t even begin to cover how deeply twisted the novel is. It’s one of the most brutal, unflinching works of fiction I’ve read in some time, and I’ll just say it: it’s bloody fantastic. (Bad pun alert!)

Before I swing back to sweeter love stories, let’s also mention The Silence of the Lambs because you know Clarice had a thing for Lecter, J. G. Ballard’s sex among the car wrecks in Crash, and the excruciating horrors of bloodlust, pedophilia, incest, and love-gone-wrong of Dennis Cooper’s (I think it’s amazing, but I can’t recommend it because I’m scared you’ll judge me) Try.

Let’s get back to the more romantic (though still unusual) side of things, for those of you who don’t feel violent when V-Day comes around! You could read my all-time favorite novel as of this exact moment (it rotates between three or four): The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The ultimate story of falling for someone out of your league, Quasimodo’s passionate tumble for Esmeralda destroys me every time. If you can find a last paragraph that makes me cry any harder, I might actually end up institutionalized.

Or, dive into Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House and feel free to swoon over Peggy and James, the spinster librarian and 8’7” younger man who find mutual understanding in this beautifully compassionate, heartfelt novel.

Also, if you want to watch a movie instead of reading today, it’s okay. I won’t tell. Harold and Maude, anyone?

So tell me: what are your favorite love stories, be they dark, depressing, beautiful, sweet, or otherwise?

Lastly, I mentioned in my last blog post that I intended to read all 16 books in the Tournament of Books before it kicks off this year. Four to go! One of them is still 1Q84… Whether I make it or not is a total coin toss, but I also wanted to recommend the most unexpected surprise of the event so far: the intense pleasure of reading Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers. Talk about a writer to watch!

Now normally Valentine’s Day is not my thing—in high school I established a cabinet for when I take over the world specifically to delete 2/14 from the calendar—but when Rachel sent me this adorable video, my icy cold heart melted just a bit.

Via Word Brooklyn, Rachel’s favorite bookstore, via Riverhead, comes this video from LA’s Skylight Books of books that are totally gettin’ it on throughout the store.  It’s charming and adorable.  (Except that dead Steve Jobs should probably not be participating in spin the bottle.  That’s sort of icky.)

But it made me wonder about what kinds of books actually would love each other.  Fortunately, Rachel helped me brainstorm some ideas:

The Great Gatsby would be all about Emma.  Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games would go steady for sure, until their romance ended tragically and prematurely.  Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web could be a good couple since opposites attract.  And I could see a strong future for The Imperfectionists and Then We Came to the End, as long as one or the other managed to win the lottery so they didn’t have to bicker about how to pay the rent.

Which books do you think should hook up this Valentine’s Day?  Rachel and I will each select a favorite entry from the comments below to receive a DGLM mug!

Further to this, the online journal the Millions again features a handy (albeit too brief) side-by-side comparison of US and UK covers for finalists in this year’s Tournament of Books.   Predictably, I find myself gravitating to the American aesthetic. Call me parochial, but cover designs can be more culturally specific than their contents. When I was an editor, the awfulness of UK covers was something of a running joke.   But perhaps that schadenfreude was misplaced. Here, the British designs for The Cat’s Table and the 1Q84 are (I think) far stronger than their American counterparts.

What say you? For those inclined to see even more examples of cross-cultural cover design on display, have a look at:

http://redroom.com/member/dale-estey/blog/different-book-covers-for-us-and-uk-markets

So, how thrilled was I to find myself in a gorgeous setting—cold, yes, but picturesque and charming, with views of the Alps and an icy Lake Geneva—among truly fascinating people who were as engaged, smart, and serious a bunch of writers as I’ve ever encountered.  Individuals from all over the world gathered at Webster University to attend panels and workshops by the likes of Colin Harrison of Scribner, author Dinty Moore, British agent Hannah Westland, novelist Nick Barlay, guerilla publisher and author David Applefield, and many other brilliant authors and publishing insiders who came together to share their insights and expertise with kindness, generosity, and intelligence.

I had a great time, but I also came away with a refreshed perspective on our business and the creative process so many of us are engaged in daily.  Seeing how the life experiences and the cultural backgrounds of those present informed their writing, their questions, their goals was incredibly edifying.  I was struck again by the fact that dedication to craft and love of language and ideas is something we all share, regardless of our national boundaries or personal circumstances.  A clichéd observation?  Perhaps.  But I did come back to New York with a renewed love and respect for the business I’m in and for the writers I work with as well as a determination to keep my own intellectual borders open.

My only complaint?  Not enough strong coffee!  But that’s a small price to pay for an experience that I’ll treasure.