Pub Rants

Posts from November, 2006

Do You Deal Lunch?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Crunch time! I have three client manuscripts I must read by the end of this weekend and two submissions to get out before the holiday dead zone.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HOLD ME by Fleetwood Mac
(Is it oldies week or what? And yes, I need to download some new tunes but since the new network went up, my tech person is having trouble transferring the library. 1000 songs just keep disappearing.)

Some agents don’t post deals on Deal Lunch. But I do and here’s why.

Thousands and thousands of industry insiders read Deal Lunch every day. There is no better way to get the word out about a project, start the buzz, sell some foreign rights, or just give Hollywood a heads up then posting the news in Deal Lunch.

Mari Mancusi’s deal in Today’s Lunch is case in point.

Here’s the deal for those of you who don’t subscribe (and may I ask why you don’t? After all, you can get Deal Lunch Weekly—a summary of the week’s deals—for free. Sounds like an offer you shouldn’t refuse if you want to keep current on the market):

CHILDREN’S: YOUNG ADULT
Mari Mancusi’s YA novel THE CAMELOT CODE, in which Merlin sends a sophomore girl back in time to meet the teen once-and-future-pre-King Arthur and have him spend a week with her in the 21st century only to have him Google himself, discover his fate and refuse to return, to Sarah Shumway at Dutton, in a very nice two-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency

Not 30 minutes after the deal hit the web I was contacted by two production companies inquiring about the status of the film rights.

Sounds exciting, right? Sure. Film interest is always nice but you gotta remember my Hollywood mantra, they want to look at everything but rarely buy anything so I don’t get excited until they show me the money via a signed contract.

Still, generating interest can be an important first step to getting material optioned.

And yet a lot of agents don’t post their deals. Why not? Well, only they can answer that question but sometimes you don’t want to announce. Perhaps the client wants to keep it private. Sometimes you’d rather keep the sale under your hat so as to do an exclusive film or foreign rights submission. Maybe you don’t want the Scouts bribing people to get a hold of it (which is what happened with I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU. Within a day of the sale, every film producer and scout had a copy of that proposal—a proposal which only I and a select handful of editors had a copy of…)

For some established agencies it’s policy not to post—sometimes to the frustration of their younger and newer agents who want to build a list and name recognition in the publishing world. It’s one of the main reasons I posted on Deal Lunch from the very beginning. I mean, “who in the heck is Kristin Nelson” was quite a valid question in 2002. And maybe it still is!

One agent friend who handles foreign rights for her agency mentioned that it actually would be easier to sell those rights if her agency would post the deals so the foreign publishers will have heard of the title before London or Frankfurt. She still does just fine without the announcements but she thinks it might facilitate more sales and if it’s a tool they could use…

Some agents only post the bigger deals.

Some clients ask me if I could please post it since a lot of writers read Deal Lunch too. Most clients are pretty darn tickled to see the deal out there.

And for those of you who can’t wait to get a hold of this new Mari title but have to because it’s not going to be published for over a year, never fear.

Her next book in the Boys That Bite YA vampire series hits shelves next week.

Any Yahoo Can Do This Job

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Concluded a deal today that I’m pretty excited about. Look for the announcement tomorrow on Deal Lunch.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE by Queen

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a guy who wrote to me to say that he was pretty business savvy, liked to read, had good taste, so might want to become a literary agent since it might be a lucrative venture and could I tell him if his yearly income estimates were accurate.

Which he then listed in a little chart.

His email was actually rather thought out and savvy (unlike other inquiries I’ve received) so I did send a nice general this-is-like-starting-any-new-business reply but I’m sure you could hear my mental sigh out there in blog world. I don’t think, with zero background or experience, that I would email, let’s say a mortgage broker, about becoming one because hey, I’m good at numbers.

What is it about this job that there is a perception that hey, any Yahoo could do it? All you got to do is be a good reader, pick some winners, and boom you’re on easy street. The money just rolls in.

Folks, I’m here to tell you that agenting is not a good, get-rich-quick scheme. It’s years of careful business management, budgeting, planning, great contacts, having solid sales, excellent royalties on the back list to really make it viable. Not to mention there is such a thing called talent in this biz. Some agents have it (I’d like to consider myself in that group) and lots of people have good intentions but not the T (hence, marginal agents with tiny sales records over many, many years not to mention folks who turn to just outright scamming or charging fees to make money). There are also a whole slew of people who actually had the background, started or worked for an agency, and then backed out after less than five years because it was just too tough. They couldn’t go the distance.

And there is so much more to this job then simply being a good reader who can spot a marketable project and sell it. In fact, that’s only 10% of what we actually do. What about author career planning? Negotiation? The deal as well as the contract. Cover issues. Tracking payments. Legal issues. And the list goes on.

You don’t want an “agent” who became one because gee, I’m a good reader. If there truly is an interest in this job, go and get some valuable experience by either working at an agency or at a publishing house to see if you do, indeed, have what it takes to handle all facets of this job because maybe you do. Lots of current, really terrific agents came to this career from different, interesting paths, and they have varied educational backgrounds as well as varied prior experience.

But ultimately, like any job, the talent aspect can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t.

That’s my soapbox for the day.

Weight Of An E-Credit?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Today I got a first look at our new sample pages upload database. Totally cool but it won’t be live until January 2007. We still need to work out a few kinks. The idea of going completely paperless is pretty exciting!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? ALL MY LOVE by Led Zeppelin

Speaking of paperless, I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about e-publishing while doing internet interviews and chat loops lately. The biggest question seems to be whether an
e-publishing credit carries any weight with agents.

As always, this is going to vary depending on the agent. I tend to note them but the truth is they don’t impress very much. For some agents, not at all.

The only exception currently seems to be in the field of erotica where a lot of the erotic
e-publishers really paved the way for the genre to go more mainstream. A lot of e-authors are getting agents for the first time and deals with traditional publishers.

For erotica, it can carry some heft.

Does it hurt your chances? I don’t think so but as I like to remind writers, if you sell the e-rights to your project it can preclude a later print rights sale since most publishers often want to buy the print and electronic rights at the same time and if the electronic rights are tied up…

If you go the e-publishing route, be sure to get a reversion clause in your contract so the rights will revert back to you after a certain amount of time or volume of sales etc. You don’t want the e-rights held into forever. In a phrase, that would be bad.

A Cautionary Tale

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It’s a Monday and the first day back after a holiday. Enough said.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND by Sting

Caution: titillating blog ahead?

This weekend a librarian got a little eye-brow raising shock.

She clicked on one of my authors old, outdated website urls and got, yes, you guessed, a gay porn site advertising “super big you-know-whats.”

Okay, maybe you didn’t guess that. Luckily the librarian had a lively sense of humor and wrote a lovely email to my author informing her of the new home for her old website url and how and where she had found the old link (just in case we wanted to address the issue).

Well, my author had a non-suggestive and completely non-porn former url so of course I had to give it a look-see. Why on earth would someone use that address for a gay porn site? Didn’t make sense so I thought the librarian might be having a bit of fun.

I got an eyeful that’s for sure.

But this is an issue that I imagine few authors have ever imagined. Having an old url data out and about in the world that you release and then is later legitimately bought and used for porn site probably doesn’t happen often.

But I’m here to tell you it does happen.

By the way, my author is super savvy did everything right. She launched her new site and notified any website linkers of the change so other sites could update their content. She even held the website url for two years after the switch with a nifty message redirecting visitors to her new site.

She never imagined what the next url owner would have in mind.

So if there is even a chance of readers clicking on that old url information and you’d like to control what they see, maybe hold that site (and spend the money) for a little tad longer.

Just Thankful

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m one of those crazy people who will be at the airport and traveling on the same day as half the populace. I booked these tickets back in April and now I’m wondering why my hubby, Chutney, and I didn’t leave yesterday. Yep, she’s coming with.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? RIO by Duran Duran

This is my last blog for the week so Happy Thanksgiving! Remember to step back and take a moment to think about what you are thankful for.

On a personal level, I’m thankful for so many things but being me, I simply like to keep that private. But I don’t mind sharing what I’m thankful for on a professional level.

1. I’m thankful for my assistant Sara who has transformed my agency in so many ways. With her on board, we look at ten times more queries and partials—all so we can take on more new clients who might turn out to be you—one of my blog readers. Her talent and contribution has been amazing.

2. I’m thankful for the amount of success I’ve had with my agency this year. Excluding the numerous foreign rights sales, I’ve sold more than 20 books for this year alone. This is a new agency record.

3. I’m thankful to be in the middle of year five for my agency. In four short years, I have over 20 clients, have sold more than 50 books, done tons of foreign rights deals as well as Hollywood stuff, and I have several clients who are National bestsellers, RITA-award winners, and have consistently hit the Barnes & Noble bestseller lists for weeks on end. The other lists are just around the corner!

4. I’m thankful for my terrific clients and especially for all the new folks who came aboard just this year. Truly, my clients are savvy and professional but warm and a lot of fun. They demand but never ask too much. I feel very very lucky.

5. I’m thankful for all the new technology being implemented this year and for my ability to embrace it with good humor. (Actually, I’m working on the latter but I figured if I wrote it down, then I created the possibility to make it true.)

6. I’m thankful for all the terrific new books I read this year—by aspiring writers and by already published authors whom I got the chance to read for the first time this year.

7. I’m thankful for the fact the every day, I love my job.

I’ll toast to that and more on Thanksgiving day.

Reverse Harbinger Of Doom?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m doing great. Still working on a deal in process but hey, no one is going to be in the office tomorrow so it will just have to wait. The new network seems to be doing okay. I’ve caught a few minor glitches but minor they are so nothing to stress over.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH by Meatloaf

I have to admit that when it came to the genre of paranormal romance, I’ve been a little bit of a harbinger of doom.

I’ve been stressing how tight this market has become. Paranormal has been popular now for several years. Basic trends in publishing will tell us that the market will eventually get glutted and reader demand will fall off, publisher interest will decline, and those authors who are strong in the field will only get stronger but the newcomer will have a hard time breaking in.

Then I held an auction for a paranormal romance last week. The deal is up on deal lunch if you get it.

If not, I’m happy to share. Here it is:

FICTION:WOMEN’S/ ROMANCE
Author of A Darker Crimson Carolyn Jewel’s next paranormal romance MAGELLAN’S WITCH, set in a world where human magic users and demons are on the brink of disastrous conflict, moving to Melanie Murray at Warner Forever, in a two-book deal at auction, by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency (World).

Does it change my mind? Yes and no. Maybe I’m not quite the harbinger of doom I’ve been lately but I do think the market is still tight.

Why did this project sell and at auction to boot? Well, I’m not sure if there is an absolute answer to that but here are some thoughts.

1. Carolyn was previously published in historical romance and for one other paranormal romance. Her numbers were solid. Editors like that.

2. The story line was fresh, fresh, fresh. Of course demons have been done before but her approach had a lot of original elements.

3. World building, world building, world building. When Carolyn and I were preparing for this submission, I really drove this home. To the point where she was probably sick of me but I really emphasized the need to layer her world with small details that make a powerful whole. Small things count in a tight market.

4. Her heroine had such an interesting dynamic to her paranormal ability. In fact, in the opening pages, we aren’t quite sure what exactly is unfolding because the heroine doesn’t know either. She also suffers from crippling “migraines” which ends up being something else entirely. The emotion and the tension in the opening scenes put the reader immediately on the edge. It’s also a great hook. The heroine simply thinks she is suffering from a debilitating condition that has shaped her life. Now a whole new world opens up—literally.

5. Sometimes what causes editor excitement just is. It’s the voice, the world, an original approach, they fall in love.

So the good news is there still is room in the paranormal world—even for a newcomer—so don’t put away those elements quite yet.

Network For The 21st Century

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Oh yes, it is super late a night but since it’s going to be a short blog week with the holiday and all, I didn’t want to miss today as well.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SAN ANDREAS FAULT by Natalie Merchant

Today was the big conversion over to the brand spanking new network, dedicated server, Cisco systems mega firewall, and all that jazz. (I’m sure you techies out there understand VPN and a whole host of terms I’m slowly learning.) With the ability to be accessed from anywhere in the world by multiple users, it’s a network to rival anything at any large company.

I’m excited and exhausted all at the same time.

Conceivably, Sara or I can be anywhere on the planet and still be able to access the network, work, all so business can flow seamlessly. That’s the plan anyway.

Once a few little kinks are worked out… From what I’ve learned over the last 3 weeks, a new network isn’t like flipping a switch and voila, you have access. It entailed a lot of new equipment and hours of techie time.

But it’s in. Thank goodness. For almost three straight days, I had only sporadic access to my email and all my files. (Don’t worry, every thing was backed up to the hilt before the transfer but hey, things slip through the cracks.)

Speaking of, we should have transferred everything seamlessly for all the queries sent to query@nelsonagency.com on November 16, 2006 and after.

However, if you don’t hear a response from us in about 10 days (and you haven’t spam blocked us or done something silly like request we click on a link to have our email sent through), you’ll want to resend that query.

So toast our new network. It’s just one more way Nelson Literary Agency is using technology to advantage.

These Are A Few of My Favorite (And Not So Favorite) Things

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF. One deal finally concluded. Another deal heating up. Makes me cheerful for Thanksgiving.

What song is playing on the iPod right now? KISS THE GIRL from the Little Mermaid Soundtrack

My Favorite Things

1. When an editor listens when we say the cover is awful and becomes a huge advocate on our behalf and the new cover rocks!

2. When an offer exceeds expectation and the author and agent are both excited and pleased.

3. When an editor calls to say how much she loves the book and then cites all the same scenes that made me fall in love with it as an agent.

4. When an editor calls to say that your author’s book has hit the list: NYT, USA Today, B&N. I like all the lists.

5. When an editor calls to say the first print run has sold out and the house is going back to reprint.

And Not So Favorite

1. When I hold a best bids auction and the publishers involved don’t come with their best bids and I have to admonish them and refuse to present the offer to the client (translation: and your mother smells of elderberries now go away and give me a real best bid before I taunt you a second time).

2. Publishers that demand an upon publication payment as part of the advance (what’s the definition of advance again?)

3. Cover art that begs the question why.

4. When you ask for a standard reversion clause for rights granted and the editor makes it sound like she is doing you a huge favor.

Remember, Editors Work For The Man

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m a little frazzled. But things are good. I did have lunch today with Kate Schafer, a YA agent at Janklow & Nesbit. She’s in town. Ends up we both have copies of Opal Mehta (of the big plagiarism scandal) because we had lunches with editors involved right before that story broke. Isn’t that weird? A little synchronicity in the world.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? THIS IS IT by Kenny Loggins

One of the great reasons, as an author, to have an agent is the fact that your agent gets to handle any of the nasty stuff and you, as the author, get to maintain a terrific, stress-free relationship with your editor. In fact, some authors end up being good friends with their editors and will often attend parties, weddings, and other events with or for their editor friend.

A great relationship with your editor is a powerful thing. I’m all for it but I always want to remind authors that editors work for the man. In other words, they work for the publishing house and even though they might adore you personally, it is their job to protect their employer’s best interest. Not yours.

That’s why you have an agent.

So when I hear that authors either knowingly or unwittingly circumvent their agent and jeopardize the author/agent partnership, I feel the need to rant. I guess this has been a big discussion on some of the chat forums lately—authors who have agents but go directly to their editor with a new, uncontracted proposal or work without consulting with the agent first.

Oh boy. Regardless of how good your relationship is with your editor, this is business; not personal and a submission (in whatever format) is truly the first step in a negotiation and is serious business. Not to mention your agent’s job. I have heard so many horror stories of authors misstepping at this stage because they knowingly or unwittingly circumvented the agent and chaos ensued.

Or even better, I love the stories where authors have submitted a project themselves and contracted it without the agent’s knowledge and then landed themselves in a whole heap of trouble in terms of not honoring option clauses or current contract conditions etc.

Guess what the agent does when he or she finds out? You bet. Drops you. In this instant, the author has purposely negated the agent/author relationship and as far as the agent is concerned, you are not her problem anymore.

Any gray areas here? For example, are you allowed to share ideas with your editor? Sure… (but it’s better to share with me first) and as soon as the idea morphs into pen on paper, a real project that can be sold, I’d better be in the loop.

It’s After 10 p.m.?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Holy cow did this day ever get away from me. It’s late and I’m still working. Of course I’m thinking do I have any brain cells left to blog today? Not many so I’m going to skimp. I should be hail and hearty tomorrow.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I’D REALLY LOVE TO SEE YOU TONIGHT by England Dan and John Ford Coley

My good friend Jason is tired of the incessant whining over books that didn’t match or bother to exceed expectation. Instead, let’s celebrate the little engines that could.

Jane Dystel thinks you are nutso [my interpretation because Jane is very elegant would never say something like “nutso”] if you think all an agent does is sell books. Agenting is so much more…

My good bud agent Jennifer Jackson discusses how bad books get published and good books don’t (and all variations in between).

Jessica over at Bookends tackles when an agent gives up.

And of course, one of my favorites, Bookseller (Can-I-convince-you-to-handsell-all-my-clients’-books?) Chick talks about the most kick-a** topic of all, books as a gateway drug. Does it get any better than that?

Enjoy. Off to sleep. Back tomorrow.