Re: New Literary Agent

Milt goes:

On Jun 30, 12:27?am, janethompson1...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I am currently in the process of setting up a new literary agency,
after making contacts with publishers for around 3 years. Although I
am glad to have finally got to this stage, I still want to learn
more.

Below is a link to the outline of a Book that I have been offered.
Using this as an example only, could I please have opinions on the
positive and negative sides of this outline. Please give me your
critical comments, and do not think that you are hurting my, or
anybody else's feelings. I am simply trying to learn.

Thanks
-- Jane

Perhaps I am dense, but I thought it was an agent whose responsibility
it is to review and evaluate submissions. By the way, I couldn't find
your link but that isn't an issue. First of all, agents have an
organization that if you do not belong to, you will not get a foot in
the door at any reputable publisher. Second, you sound as if you
haven't the first idea of what you are doing. How can you reperesent
yourself to writers as an agent without any apparent experience? This
isn't a game out here. What are your qualifications other than you
called publishers for 3 years.

Here's an example of an agent (name withheld). My agent worked for 10
years as an editor for Ziff-Davis Publishers before she decided to
declare herself an agent. Through her contacts with writers as their
editor, she developed a short list of clients, several previously
published - in her magazines and books. She is a name known to the
chief editors of every major publishing house and respected by all as
an astute selector and editor of fiction and nonfiction. When I sent
her my manuscript, I was putting my life in her hands. She had to
know if it was salable and if so, to whom. When she was new, she
couldn't afford to shop a work to the wrong house. Her reputation was
on the line, too. The fact is that I got a contract from the first
editor to see it. The same happened with my second book. For her
fifteen minutes of work she was worth her 15% because she knew just
who to call. She spent years building her contacts and her street
cred. She knew every publisher's wish list because she spent her life
on the phone and over lunch with the two dozen top editors from those
houses and through her contacts, with the dozens of small presses that
make up the entry point for most new writers.

When you go to an on-line writing site for information as to how to
agent, I think you are already telling the world that you need to do a
lot of homework before you hang out your shingle. Also learn how to
match your verbs with your nouns in your own writing. "I HAVE FINALLY
GOTTEN TO THIS STAGE," NOT GOT TO. PAST PERFECT DEMANDS A PAST TENSE
VERB. IF YOU DON'T KNOW THAT, HOW THE HECK COULD YOU CRITIQUE A
MANUSCRIPT?

Wrong.

It takes all kinds to make a world. You learn that if you spend too
much time on the net.

Just as long as you know who to listen to. Not you, then, Milt.


--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com



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