The Evolution of the Literary Agent
The October 2010 issue of Writer’s Digest features the annual round-up of agents looking for new writers. Chuck Sambuchino does an excellent job as usual in curating this hot list….
The October 2010 issue of Writer's Digest features the annual round-up of agents looking for new writers. Chuck Sambuchino does an excellent job as usual in curating this hot list.
Just as important, the October issue features standout queries that worked for authors in landing literary representation, including:
- A masterful and basic literary fiction query
- A young adult query that conveys the voice of the book
- A mainstream fiction query that targets the right agent
- An urban fantasy query that concisely summarizes the story
- A romantic suspense query that emphasizes a fit for a well-defined genre
I also contributed to this issue with an agent roundtable discussing "The Evolution of the Literary Agent." Click here to read the piece online.
A small excerpt:
Given the volume of agents
today, it doesn’t seem likely they can all continue to make a living
under the traditional commission-based model. What do you anticipate
will happen?
Richard Curtis: It is absolutely true. There are too many
agents for not enough business. What will happen? There are many
scenarios, most of them grim. Here, with apologies to Darwin, are some:
1) The unfit agents will not survive; 2) Mergers and acquisitions among
agents will thin the herd and a smaller number of super-agencies will
evolve; 3) The old breed of agents will have to learn new skills to keep
up; 4) The “commission basis” you refer to will transform into
something closer to the Hollywood model, in which the talent pays
managers to handle such business as public relations, website management
and contract negotiation. Such an agent-manager might even be called
upon by a client to help the client self-publish a book.
As I completed the editing for this round-up, Andrew Wylie announced that he was striking a deal with Amazon for exclusivity to sell his clients' e-books. While this deal later fell through, it further illustrated what a time of transition we're living in, and how a lot of old rules don't apply any more. Click here to read a recap of the situation at the LA Times blog, Jacket Copy.
For more
- Click here to read the October agent roundtable at WritersDigest.com.
- Click here to read a recent Q&A I did on agent revolution over at Jungle Red Writers.
- Click here to read an article I wrote about a Digital Book World agent panel (and the changing author-agent relationship). And here's yet another article, too.
- Click here to buy the October 2010 agent issue.
Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).
