Agent Advice: Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky Literary Agency

"Agent Advice" is a series of quick interviews with literary and script agents who talk with Guide to Literary Agentsabout their thoughts on writing, publishing, and just about anything else.

This installment features Joshua Bilmes, president of JABberwocky Literary Agency, which he founded in 1994. Having shown an early interest in publishing and writing critique, Joshua and the publishing industry took an immediate liking to one another. He landed a job at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency after graduating from college (University of Michigan, BA in History), started his agenting career in February 1986, and later struck out on his own to establish JABberwocky Literary Agency.

He is seeking: science fiction, true crime, mystery, horror, fantasy, thrillers/suspense, history, sports, cookbooks, business, film & entertainment.

GLA: How did you become an agent?

JB: In high school, I wrote letters to Analog every month critiquing each issue. Betsy Mitchell was then Stan Schmidt's associate editor, and when she was hired by Jim Baen to help launch Baen Books, she decided from all of these letters to offer me the chance to freelance for her. That was my introduction to publishing. I decided I liked. As to the agent end of things, the first offer I got out of college was with a literary agency, and it was just one of those matches made in heaven.

GLA: What is a book coming out you repped that you're excited about?

JB: Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, Tor at the end of August, is a massively epic fantasy, some 385,000 words long. And it's a masterful achievement. So many fantasy novels become long series on weak foundations because the author kind of gets stuck just writing more of what worked because it's what people will pay for. You can see in The Way of Kings that there's a clear foundation for an epic series that's actually planned that way, with lots of rich magic settings and settings and an entire well-created world. And it's already out, but Peter V. Brett's Warded Man (Del Rey) is a book I think fantasy fans should read. The "conversion rate," i.e., the % of people who buy the paperback of #1 who then go out to buy the second book in hardcover, is stunningly high, and the week-in week-out sales are stunningly steady, and that's all driven by word of mouth. People buy Warded Man, they love it, they talk about it, they want more. And not just in the US, but in the UK and in many foreign markets. Like with Brandon's Elantris five years ago, I know if I can handsell Peter's first novel, I can make a fan for life.

GLA: You’ve repped some huge names in science fiction/fantasy: Elizabeth Moon, Charlaine Harris, and Brandon Sanderson, among others. How did you come
to work with these authors? Did they query you, or did you read their
short fiction and contact them?

JB: Elizabeth Moon, I discovered through the pages of Analog. During my earliest months at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency she had some great stories, I got the OK to pursue her, expected to find a science fiction novel from an Analog writer, and instead found myself falling in love with the 500,000-word already-completed Deed of Paksenarrion fantasy trilogy. Charlaine was recommended to me by another mystery writer, Barbara Paul. Brandon had read and liked some Simon Green, and a friend of his Ethan Skarstedt introduced Brandon to me when he found out I was Simon's agent. I read many books from him, most of which will never be published, because back then in his mid-20s Brandon was full of ideas more than just about any published fantasy writer but hadn't yet mastered plotting. But I loved seeing all those ideas and was very encouraging and very open to seeing a next book. When Moshe Feder at Tor told Brandon he wanted to buy Elantris, Brandon was kind enough to think of me. I read it real super quick (Brandon had been waiting to send to me until a decent interval elapsed between the previous book I'd seen), and I liked, not yet perfect but unlike the earlier manuscripts with plot problems that were hard to revise out, this one it was easy to see that Brandon could fix. Moshe and I tag-teamed Brandon on rewrites, and the end result was a great debut fantasy.

GLA: Writers could learn a lot from these authors and their success. What tactics
have these authors used to promote themselves and their work that you would suggest new authors emulate?

JB: It's still about writing a great book. If you don't write a great book, nobody will want to read your blog, follow you on Twitter, or send you friend requests. A lot of people think they can become published writers first by becoming John Scalzi with their blog. But it doesn't work that way. People will happily follow authors with interesting blogs and still not buy their books, and will buy books by authors who've never tweeted a single character. That being said, when you start to develop a real fan presence, I do think the internet and social networking can be used in incredible ways to develop a relationship between reader and author that is deeper and more meaningful. I love to see what Peter V. Brett does with his contests, the content Elizabeth Moon provides in her Speed of Dark or Paksworld blogs, or to see from her tweets how Kat Richardson's day is going. But the content—your novel—has to be there. And don't feel you need to do everything. Different authors have different personalities, and it's permissible to do more of the self-promotion you enjoy doing and less of what you don't.

GLA: You have repped a broad range of science fiction and fantasy titles. Is there any subgenre that you would like to see more of right now? Any that you would rather see less of?

JB: Honestly, no. Ten years ago, I knew I really needed a great guy fantasy author, but today I think we have a fairly diverse list and we're not looking for one kind of great book over another.

GLA: Besides “True Blood” being based off Charlaine Harris’ series, another one of your clients, Tanya Huff, has had her “Blood Books” made into a television show as well. Can you help us understand more the transition from book to television and what that involves?

JB: I can't answer this question in a really great way. I will say that my own experience has been that the transition happens more by people finding material they love than by my trying to sell somebody on the material; Alan Ball [the creator of "True Blood"] found Sookie Stackhouse at a B&N while waiting for a dentist appointment.

GLA: As the president of JABberwocky Literary Agency, one of the leading science fiction/fantasy agencies, what is one of the biggest problems that you see with new authors trying to break into this genre?

JB: There are at least 100 authors who want to be published for every one that actually is. So you have to write great work, only the very best work is likely to be published, and even then there's "many a slip between the cup and the lip," as that old saying goes. Good cover, your editor not leaving or the publishing company not being sold four months before the book comes out—stuff like that which an author can't much control is as important as a lot of things the author can control. But all of those problems have been problems for my entire 25 years in the business, so I come not to see them as problems any more. I see them as facts of life, and we try and deal with all of them as best we can.

GLA: I know you’ve had a lot of success with paranormal fantasy and others, but what else are you looking for? Do you take children’s, nonfiction, literary fiction, young adult?

JB: My associate, Eddie Schneider, is looking at literary fiction and children's/YA. I'd love to have a great cookbook or great nonfiction book in a category like sports or entertainment or business that really interests me, or something to appeal to my history major roots. Check out the bios on our website.

GLA: Best way to submit to you?

JB: We like to get hard copy queries. We are not always open to queries, so check our website. As an example. today we are open but getting into mid-August with various vacations planned we're going to have to close up until later in the fall. Really, the best way to find out how to submit, the best way to find out what we like, the best way to find out if we're going to be at a writer's conference—all of this is in our website, and that's the best place to go for answers on those questions, or to my blog for a glimpse into the personal side of me, which you can link to from the agency website.

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