New York Writers' Workshop Fiction Pitch: Meet the Agents

I’ve been feeling and sounding more intelligent lately, at least as far as it relates to the publishing industry. No, I didn’t take a special pill that enabled me to know that the line about only using 10 percent of our brains is a bunch of BS — I knew that already. It’s actually because I recently had an opportunity to attend an agent panel session of the New York Writers’ Workshop Fiction Pitch earlier this month.

Let me just say, if you’re in the NYC area, you should check out their "perfect pitch" conferences. They offer writers opportunities to workshop their pitches with folks who are active in the industry. The workshop is the teaching division of an organization called New York Writers’ Resources, and they also have a webzine called Ducts that publishes personal stories — both fiction and nonfiction — and a publishing arm called Greenpoint Press, which is about to publish The House on Crash Corner and Other Unavoidable Calamities.

Anyway, the agent panel that morning brought together three agents who shared their insights on what’s happening in the industry. Being one of those annoying reporter types, I asked a bunch of questions — especially during the "meet the agents" discussion afterward. I came away feeling that I learned a lot more than I knew going in, and I don’t think of myself as ignorant.

The agents were Jenny Bent, Erin Cox, and Sarah Dickman. Bent, who set out her own shingle — the Bent Agency — after working at a few places, has been an agent since the mid-'90s. But she was no industry curmudgeon; rather, she struck me as being very much on top of how things are changing. In fact, since attending this workshop, I started following her on Twitter (@jennybent) and have found her to have interesting things to say and share about "independent publishing" (a term she prefers to "self-publishing"; don’t you prefer driving a "pre-owned" vehicle to a "used car"?) as well as about traditional publishing.

Like the other agents on the panel, Bent stressed the importance of voice in the manuscript. She also loves comp titles. (Who doesn’t?) She made a few interesting comments that led me to believe she foresees some major changes happening. One question was raised about the importance of agents as the industry changes; she commented that agents aren’t as vulnerable as publishers are in this new era of e-publishing. And she also called the e-publishing and digital revolution "the Wild Wild West" a view I hold also, but it means a lot more coming from her.

Erin Cox hasn’t been an agent for very long, but she’s been in and around the book industry for more than a decade. She’s with Rob Weisbach Creative Management and has been a publicist for several years after working in advertising. In fact, she’s still does freelance publicity on the side. The Weisbach group sounds very intriguing to me.

Apparently, Rob Weisbach was a publisher and wanted to provide more for the writers he worked with to help them advance their careers — and presumably his own — so he went to the agent side to create a team with a variety of talents (such as publicists) to help train writers for the long haul in the industry. Sounds good to me!

Cox said that about 75 percent of her authors are first-timers. She, too, was looking for a great voice in the work. She spoke of needing to love the work. "And you can’t just write. You need to sell yourself to me." And she’s willing to find out quickly if there’s chemistry. She said writers should send their whole manuscript right off the bat. If she’s intrigued by the query, she doesn’t want to have to wait.

Speaking one-on-one with her, Cox sounded as though she thought e-publishing was just about to burst. She said she expects that it won't be long before it's a major area within publishing. Frankly, I've been seeing changes in the weeks since I met her.

Dickman works for the Nicholas Ellison Agency, and if I’m reading their website correctly, they represent one of my favorite writers, Christopher Moore. (And they inked a movie deal for his vampire trilogy of Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck and Bite Me. I can’t wait.) The thing that really sank in for me about what she said was that Ellison is absolutely concentrating on traditional publishers at this point, as that’s where the money is. It’s an honest answer, and she didn’t share any insight as to how long she thinks things will stay that way.

"There’s a decrease in profit margin, and the volume of e-books hasn’t caught up with digital rights," she said. But given what Cox and Bent were saying about e-publishing and digital rights, I have to believe Dickman and the Ellison Agency are preparing for the future too.

Overall, I found the workshop very informative and helpful. I think it had something to do with the caliber of the agents as well as the people attending. You could tell by the questions that these were writers with experience, and some were looking to learn about what pioneering might look like in the Wild Wild West of e-publishing.

When it comes to taking on unpublished or "debut" authors, they couched their answers a little: Bent readily admitted that she takes on "fewer (debut authors) than other people," but she also spoke about how exciting it is for her to help new authors get their initial sales. I was impressed by Bent in general, but I think she was trying to put a sunny smile on the debut author thing. She's been in the industry for a good fifteen years and she probably doesn't have to work with anyone she doesn't want to work with (which I think says something for the NYWW group, frankly).

With fewer years as agents, the other two were far more likely to take on first-time authors. Cox said 75-80 percent of her writers were pitching their debut and the numbers were a little lower for Dickman but in the same ballpark. But both of them might receive requests after they've been vetted by an assistant.

Even if an author gets signed, getting their books sold is difficult. I happened to ride down the elevator with Cox and the man who moderated the panel. She reps one of his nonfiction writers and she's having a very difficult time selling the woman's book. She thinks the woman has a decent platform, but publishers aren't buying it.

During the Q&A, I asked Cox about the agency model and how it's different than most agencies. While she talked about how Weisbach wants to develop writers for the long haul, I also had the sense that they were able to manage costs differently by having a variety of talented people involved when needed. I didn't have a chance to delve too deeply into the cost structures of the services they provide their writers, but I do think it's something that deserves more investigation.

Still Cox talked about the challenges that were going on in the industry: smaller royalties, fewer payments, which meaning a different cash flow for authors and it probably means the cash flow is a challenge for the agency.

I can't help but wonder what the industry will be like by the time the fall event comes around.

An Actual Trip

Not that I've exactly been burning the blogosphere up with the past of my postings, but I'll be away from a computer for the next several days on an actual trip. But I've already got a blog post yearning to breathe free. Actually, it'll be an interview with an agent! I might post something else before I conduct the interview, but I believe it's fair to say that before October is history, you'll see more activity here on the Elephant's Bookshelf.

In the meantime, feel free to read and write at your leisure.

(And no, the person in the image at the side is not me, not my wife, not anyone I know. Just someone writing on a plane. During my travels, however, I'll be the guy with the young child on his lap.)

Multitasking Manuscripts

June has been a funky month. Aside from the usual torrent of busy-ness at work and at home, my modicum of a writing life has been tossed about on a crazy train.

In one of those "fish or cut bait" moments, I decided to quit whining about how I don't have any time to get my first novel out the door. But I'm too much of a perfectionist to not give it one last massaging, taking into account the many prescient comments my early readers have offered. If you're a writer, you know what I mean: "I liked it, but I'm not sure I know what value [insert name of character] provides." Or "I can almost taste that room, but I think I'm getting lost there. Too descriptive!"

Masked in compliments, remarks like those are vital to getting a manuscript in shape, because they cut to the heart of the matter: It's not ready yet. However, while I've appreciated the support of my carefully selected early readers, I didn't always hear what they said. As writers, we're trained to put a finished draft aside for several weeks and work on something else before going back to revise. In a sense, I've found that I needed a similar bit of time to let my readers' comments simmer too. Finally, the remarks have sunk in and I'm eager to get this puppy out into the field to run.

So, I've reopened the manuscript, stripped out some of the detail, added more character development to those people who needed it, and even happened upon a couple typos that somehow escaped the typo-spray I'd shot at the manuscript months if not years ago. Damn insects!

But I don't want to lose the momentum on my current work in progress. I've made great progress in a short amount of time, and I intend to finish the first draft by the end of the year. Hence, the challenge: How do you get a manuscript in shape for agents when you're also writing something new?

For me, the biggest challenge is time. (I know, I know. Not only have I joined that club, I serve on the board, which hasn't helped at all.) So trying to manage multiple manuscripts is like keeping two toddlers safe when they're exploring the house in different directions. I know whereof I speak.

What advice do you have for your fellow writers? Do you focus on one manuscript at a time? Do you move back and forth each week or each day? Do you have other suggestions? Feel free to share.

Wet Invigorated Toes

As usual, I have no time. But I wanted to get this information out to those writing friends who stop by from time to time. As some may recall, I noted a few months back that I'd stepped my toes in the water of the agent world by sending my completed (to distinguish it from the one I began in November, not to imply it's really done) to an agented friend.

Today, he called back and offered me some great advice about ways to improve it. Since I have the book out with another friend who's an editor, I don't want to offer the exact details here, but suffice it to say I believe I now know what had been aggravating me about my book. I knew it wasn't perfect (and if it's going to go to an agent, I believe a first novel should be pretty damn close to perfect — as far as a particular novel can be), but he pinpointed what was missing.

I still have little time to work on the novel, but I don't think it will require months of work. Indeed, there's some rearrangement of material, but not a lot of new writing. I may even need to remove some detail and add some more that I'd removed from earlier drafts. This is why I keep everything!

Hope you're all well and all finding time to write. It's not easy. But it's worth it.

Toes in the Water

I don't really have time to type this, but for those who've asked in the past about my completed novel (in italics because I know a novel is never finished until it's published), I have sent it to a friend who is an agented writer. He offered to take a look at it and consider passing it along to his agent.

I don't really expect anything to come of this, but at least I have sent it out with the intention of getting it to an agent. So I am celebrating my having done this ... not with actual Champagne but in my brain it is the first step in a long walk.

Nonfiction Writers Wanted!

If you're a writer of nonfiction who's looking to get his book idea into shape for agents, you might want to visit and join AgentQuery Connect, where a nonfiction discussion group was recently established. For those of you who are familiar with AQC, you probably know that it's primarily populated with fiction writers, but nonfiction remains the biggest segment of the publishing world and AQC recognizes that.

I don't work for AgentQuery, I'm simply an active member of that community, and while I'm there to gain insight into getting my fiction published, I'm a working journalist with ideas for several nonfiction works, so I'll be an active participant in that area too.

There simply haven't been many participants yet, so come on in and join on the ground floor of an active online community of writers. I'm sure you'll like it.

Yes, Virginia, You Need An Agent

For those of you who miss my posts, sorry to have been quiet for the past week or so. The delay between posts may continue this week as well, but I came across this blog post at the Editorial Ass and was quite impressed. Unagented writers should give it a read — and while you're at it, many of the comments are worth reading, too.

Chris Moore Can Wait

At long last, I've printed out the latest iteration of my novel. Although I started reading Christopher Moore's Island of the Sequined Love Nun on Friday, I'm going to have to put that on hold for a little bit, as I want to reread my book again. I probably won't send any queries out this month, despite my initial plans to start by June 30, because I want to make sure that there's no stupid errors in there. The close of the month — indeed, the first half of the year — is fast coming upon us. But the deadline is self-directed. I will send queries when I've finished my homework.

Just as important is that I've not been able to adequately research agents and agencies. This takes time, and it's time well spent. I could write queries now — I'll probably map out some templates soon — but I want the queries to sing to an audience that will understand and appreciate the tune.

But this should be the most important quest of my life; I need to be prepared. When Shackleton was putting together a crew for his ship's trek to Antarctica, he placed an ad in the paper, saying in part: "Men needed for dangerous quest. ... Survival in doubt, but if successful, fame will follow." I'm almost certain I've got the quote wrong, but its spirit is accurate. The point is, I must prepare myself. I've got a product to sell and future products being planned: I need partners.

On another note, I've noticed some other good Web sites of young and/or aspiring novelists, and I may want to develop something for myself along those lines. But that's hardly of immediate importance. I like having this blog and my other site, and it's not always easy to keep these up to date with the constant crush of life in general.

So my reading returns to Hoboken. Then I'll venture back to the island of the sequined love nun!

Off to Antarctica ... or Maybe San Francisco

I've completed the fourth or fifth draft of my first novel. (The reason for the seeming uncertainty is that while writing it the first time, I recognized that -- after 100,000 words -- I'd not only failed to tell a story worth reading, I wasn't close to completing it, so I made major changes. Does that constitute a first draft?)

Actually I finished this latest iteration about a week ago, but who's counting? In addition, I've been researching agents for several weeks and will ready myself for the first attempts to secure representation. I expect to mail a query letter to at least one agency by the end of June.

To be honest, I'm both excited and nervous. A friend of the family is the son of a novelist who has many novels to her credit. While there's no guarantee of anything, I think there's a chance that she'll read my novel; perhaps she'll recommend an agent who might be receptive to my work, perhaps she'll offer a critique to make it better and more marketable; she might simply say, "Nice try, but I doubt you'll sell it." She may not read it at all.

I know another author, Joan Winfield Currie, who's gone the self-publishing route. Earlier today, while helping to man a booth at the Bonnie Brae Highland Games, I finished up my profile of her for the Clan Currie Society. What won't be in the article is the good advice she's given me about how to market my novel. I've been fortunate in my years as a journalist to have met and befriended many people who've been generous with the knowledge they've gained about publishing. I'm grateful to them all.

So, what's next? Well, I've had two novels on my mind for a while. Actually, one for many years, which takes place in part down in Antarctica. I've had that one ruminating for so long, it's probably started to ferment. I'd like to get to know the characters that live in that book more intimately.

The other novel is probably more fun, however. It's a story in the fashion of Christopher Moore, who is simply fun to read and a master of creating wonderful silliness, which is something I appreciate. I actually started this novel (set in San Francisco since that's where Chris Moore lives) during the 2007 National Novel Writing Month competition. But it's a different direction than my first novel and the Antarctica tale is more along those lines. Both will eventually be written.

So, I'm not quite sure where my mental exercising will go next: Antarctica or San Francisco. But either way, I'm off on a new adventure.

Good Tool for Writers

Over the past few months, I've begun connecting to some of those Web 2.0-style social networking sites for writers. If you don't count the NaNoWriMo, which I joined last November, the first I joined is Writers Cafe, (Feel free to visit: I'm the ElephantGuy). The site had a bit of a disaster when some adminstrator accidentally wiped out just about everyone's writing, which upset a lot of the members. Fortunately for me, I hadn't been too active there and only lost one item.

Today, after poking around in the latest issue of Writers' Digest, I learned about a site called Agent Query. My first impression is this is the type of site I'd been hoping to find for a while now. While my hope is to connect with agents, I get the impression that the caliber of writers in this community is stronger than what I've seen at Writers Cafe (though it's possible I haven't dug deep enough there.)

Already, I've found one agency that sounds fitting for what I'm looking to accomplish. If anyone out there has any experience (good or bad) with either of those sites or if you want to recommend something else, I'm open to them. I'm ready.

Why Does Publishing Take So Long?

I was fascinated by a story about the publishing industry that appeared in this past weekend's New York Times Book Review. The article starts from the premise that, given the advent of electronic communication, publishing should have speeded up like the news cycle. But that's not true.

Although technology makes it easier to turn a manuscript into a finished book, it still takes a long time to build a book that'll sell. Word of mouth is still paramount.

The book I'm reading right now would agree. It's called The Practical Writer, and it's published by the folks who put together Poets and Writers magazine. Published in 2004, it is compiled with an awareness of the importance of Web sites in the process of finding an agent and developing an audience. The essays seem to be written around 2002, so blogs were still in their nascent stages. [A late chapter on authors developing a presence on the Web makes no mention of blogs.] The book, which consists of essays by publishing professionals of all stripes, is a perfect example of what the Times article is talking about; the writing is roughly two years old by the time it appeared in print.

The article outlines the carousel of the publishing game. While all the pretty horses are going up and down, the music playing in the background is publicity. The Practical Writer's description of this aspect of publishing is contained in several essays -- the one by the bookseller is a good example as are the items by agents and publicists.

I've always expected that if I'm able to sell my first novel, this blog will be the basis for developing a community of readers -- or perhaps it'll remain a hidden little alcove not far from an as yet undeveloped "professional" Web site. [Of course, if I never see my book in published form, I'll still enjoy writing. It's what I do.] The key is to develop word of mouth, and that will require an online presence, an expansion of my freelance writing, and probably reaching out to book clubs and readers through other literary sites.

Ultimately, the goal is to develop an audience. I hope the forty people or so who visit per day like what you see and stick around.

The Writing Life of the "Successful" Author

The Boston Globe recently ran a story about author Leah Hager Cohen. It has become rare to find an article about someone who's basically a mid-list writer. By her own admission, Cohen is not making a lot of money writing both novels and nonfiction. She may have to start teaching to make ends meet, she said. Frankly, that doesn't sound so bad to me, but I'm sure she'd prefer to be able to write on her usual schedule. The article also describes what to me sounds like a dream relationship with an agent: the agent pushed her but was honest, perhaps also blunt.

This article is also another example of why it's important for newspapers -- especially major ones like the Globe -- to continue to cover writers and books. While there are tons of Web sites and blogs out there that talk about writers no one in the "mainstream" world has ever heard of, when a New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, or any of the other important U.S. newspapers include stories about authors other than Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, or any of the instantly recognizable, commercial writers, it helps all of us who aspire to get their works published and to believe there will be avenues of distribution for us too.

Keep writing, Ms. Cohen, and if you have to teach, then do it. Because that's one more way of developing writers and readers. Those kids will go off to college and talk about the quirky English teacher they had who had a few books published. The audience can keep growing one commuter at a time.

Anything?

I was spinning around the Internet looking for information about how to avoid scummy, sleazy literary agents, when I found this page. It's an old post (in the archives). But I found it helpful.

It's about a letter from a self-published reader who sends a note to an editor in response to something on the editor's blog. There's a funny little aside that made me laugh:

Jim Frenkel was once approached at a convention by an attractive young lady, who said, approximately:

“Golly, Mr. Frenkel, I’d do anything to be a published author.”
“Anything?”

“Anything.”

“Then write me a good book.”

Perfect!