Pub Rants

Author Archive

Brouhaha

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF. I’m in the middle of negotiating several different deals this week, which has made life particularly hectic on top of all the “normal” stuff.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN by Depeche Mode

You probably have to be living under a rock not to have heard all of the hullaballoo happening over at the Smart Bitches Blog and the possible allegations of plagiarism and romance writer Cassie Edwards.

If you are living there and haven’t heard, you might want to pop over there to check it out. (Stories are also running on the AP and hence in a lot of major newspapers.)

I’m not really going to jump into the discussion per se because I think most of the pertinent things have been said.

If you remember there was another recent brouhaha with the OPAL MEHTA novel scandal and the plagiarism of established author Megan McCafferty. In both cases, I must say I felt a small pang for the editors involved. Why? Because I’d be silly not to live in fear of the possibility happening with one of my clients, and I missed it.

When pointed out so clearly, it seems like the misuse should have been clear as day but egads, what if you had never read Megan’s SLOPPY FIRSTS (so didn’t catch the obvious echo) or, because you are so used to the author’s style, you just missed the change in tone for the passages in question? Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about that.

So for all my clients, a message. Don’t plagiarize and if you remotely have a question on whether content could be “paraphrased,” for heavens sake ask me!

I know the rules. I was an English College Professor for years and had to teach this stuff and how to cite and attribute correctly (based on several different styles: MLA, Chicago AP etc.) I’ll be happy to guide you.

And for all those non-clients reading this, use this incident as a learning moment to be warned, to be careful, and to be knowledgeable about what plagiarism is.

All By Myself….

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Beside myself with all the good news. Seriously, how can next January compete? I just found out today that my debut author Sherry Thomas is going to have a starred Publishers Weekly review for Private Arrangements in the January 14th issue. That’s almost unheard of for a debut. Congrats Sherry!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? MAGIC MAN by Heart

But not anymore. I’ve got really fun news to share. Denver, Colorado is going to get another terrific literary agent and no, this agent isn’t coming aboard here at Nelson Agency (although I wouldn’t have minded that!). It’s Kate Schafer—formerly of the Janklow & Nesbit Agency of New York.

She’s opening up her own show as KT Literary in South Denver.

Together, we are going to put Denver on the map for literary agents! No more “and where are you located” by the publishing world.

Okay, so we might have a few more years until that happens but welcome Kate.

My 8 New Clients And Where They Came From

by Kristin Nelson


STATUS: Oh baby. Ally Carter is still on! This week, CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY is at #5 on the New York Times hardcover list and I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU is #2 on the NYT paperback list. Do I see #1 in our future? I’m praying for it!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU GOT LUCKY by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

I’m really starting this year on a roll. I just took on a new client today. With that in mind, it occurred to me that I didn’t really explain how I found the 8 new clients from last year and that info might make for an interesting blog. Or not. Let me know.

If the client has already sold, I used his/her name.

Brooke Taylor—young adult
Brooke is an interesting story. I actually met her in person at an RWA chapter conference a year before she queried me with her novel UNDONE. She knew a couple of my authors and had mentioned that info as well as our previous meeting in her query letter. That certainly made me pay more attention to it when it came in.


Sarah Rees Brennan—young adult fantasy
Sarah simply sent a query letter by email—going through our standard email query submission process.

Jamie Ford—literary fiction
Jamie did the same.
Helen Stringer—middle grade fantasy
Helen came to me via an agent friend recommendation. My agent friend doesn’t rep middle-grade so she asked me if she could send this author my way. So glad she did!

Client 5—young adult
This client is a currently published author who had left her previous agent. She knew several of my clients and asked if they would give me a heads up that she would query me about new representation.

Client 6—young adult fantasy
I met this client at the Surrey International Writers Conference in Vancouver, B.C. She had a pitch appointment with me. I loved her title right off so was eager to see sample pages just based on that. She didn’t disappoint!

Client 7—young adult
This client was a direct referral from one of my current clients. She is previously published in the adult world but her agent didn’t want to handle children’s on her behalf so I took her on.

Client 8—women’s fiction
This client was also a direct referral from one of my current clients.

I’m so glad my clients know really great authors who are looking for representation. It certainly helps to have that referral to help you get the agent’s attention, but it’s not the only way. A really good or intriguing query letter or pitch can do the trick as well.

Editor Dance

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Hugely productive day. I cleared the surface area of my desk for the first time in about a month I’d say.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY by Van Morrison

Today I was de-cluttering the files on my desk when I came across a pile of editor business cards from one of my trips to New York last year.

Often times I jot down a few notes to myself about the meeting or about the editor’s tastes on the back of the card. When I hit the office, I’ll input relevant info into my database for future use.

But what struck me about this pile, and hence the blog, was how many editors had left the business since I had those meetings last year. It was close to half (and these editors, by the way, weren’t new as in assistant or associate editors). They had been in the biz for years.

In fact, I just got an email from one of my favorite editors (with whom I had a client with for many years) that she’s leaving and will be having a baby very shortly. I’m thrilled for her but couldn’t help groaning.

Agents expend a lot of time building our contacts. Of course we’d love the editors to stay put—especially if we match up in tastes etc. There’s nothing worse than the perfect editor who leaves and you can’t match tastes with his/her replacement to save your life. On the flipside, there are several editors I adore personally but to whom I’ll probably never sell a book to because we just don’t share that vision. Invariable those editors stay forever (she smiles wryly). When that happens, it’s a godsend when new blood is brought in to that imprint so I have a fighting chance of landing a client there.

But back to the point. When an editor leaves, agents have to rebuild their contacts. Sometimes it’s easy (maybe there are several like-minded editors at that same imprint and I can focus on another editor there instead), but if there isn’t and a new editor arrives, I add that person to my meeting list for my next NYC trip.

And hope they won’t be leaving the biz in the following year!

The Last Word

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Busy Monday and I think it’s going to snow this evening.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I WILL SURVIVE by Cake
(I apologize for the unintended irony but this was the song playing as I typed this.)

I read a story today in the New York Times that made a shiver slide down my spine. The story was of an American soldier blogging about his experience in Iraq for the last five years. Here’s the link to the NYT article and his site. His blog was featured on the website of the Rocky Mountain News.

Nothing new about that; there are a lot of blogging soldiers—except Andrew Olmsted decided to write a final blog, the last word, to be posted in the event of his death.

And he died in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2008; his final entry is posted.

A tribute to the power of blogging, free speech, and to the courage of choosing to have the final word when so often we don’t get the chance.

A moment of silence.

Blog Should Come With A Warning Label

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It’s been a great week but I’m still glad it’s Friday!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? PROUD MARY by Tina Turner

This might go without saying but just in case, I want to point out here that my blog should come with a warning. Even though I do my best to share information that allows writers to get a good understanding of what happens in the agenting process (because I believe that writers should be as knowledgeable as possible), by no means is my blog a substitute for real expertise.

In other words, don’t use the information learned here in lieu of an agent. Or, god forbid, feel ready to take on agenting yourself. The very thought frightens me!

Seriously. There are some rare exceptions but for the most part, agents learned this biz from other agents who have been in the biz for longer (or was a former editor who learned the ropes from the other side of the fence). Even though I went on my own fairly early in my agenting career, I freely admit that I wouldn’t be where I am now without the incredible selfless mentorship by several powerful agents who, just out of the goodness of their hearts and because we had connected on a personal level, guided me through many a hairy situation where I needed more expertise than I had at that moment in time.

Even though I share a lot on this blog, it’s not even half of what you would need to know to be a good agent.

So please, keep that in mind!

Now on a lighter note, I just couldn’t resist sharing pictures of Chutney in her new holiday hoodie. Just add bling!

Talking Head

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m still riding high from yesterday’s news!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? (SITTIN’ ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY by Otis Redding

And the good news just keeps coming.

Hank Phillippi Ryan’s FACE TIME has just been chosen as a January 2008 Book Sense Notable Book.

And PRIME TIME was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award.


And Hank isn’t my only client garnering nominations from RT. DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES by Linnea Sinclair has also been nominated for a Reviewer’s Choice Award in the Futuristic/Fantasy romance category.

Sheesh. I’m going to have high expectations for the beginning of next year.

And sorry in advance for the public service announcement but if you live in Colorado and want to hear me speak (or if you just want to come up and say hello—that’s cool too), here’s an event that my author Kim Reid and I are participating in at the Boulder Bookstore in about two weeks.
The Women’s Voices Series

“So, You Want to Write a Book”
January 20, 2008 – 3-5 p.m.
BOULDER BOOKSTORE (Boulder, Colorado)

Two authors, a literary agent, a publishing house acquisitions editor, and a publicist discuss the process from concept to published book and marketing. This is an outstanding opportunity to discover the inside story about book writing, from dreams to reality! Panelists will be:

Kim Reid, author of the narrative nonfiction memoir No Place Safe (Kensington 2007), her story of a childhood shaped by her cop mother’s investigation of an Atlanta serial killer in the early 1980s.

Kristin Nelson, literary agent, who established the Nelson Literary Agency in 2002. Since then, she has sold more than 65 books to such publishers as Random House, Hyperion, Harlequin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette/Warner and the Penguin Group. Her authors are RITA-award winners and New York Times and USA Today bestsellers.

Michelle Dally, author of the novel A Highly Placed Source (Ghost Road Press 2007), a satire that targets Colorado politics, media, and the religious right. She holds a JD from Georgetown, was part of the Denver Post team that won a Pulitzer for its coverage of Columbine, and has worked as a legislative aide to Senator John Chafee (RI), and a lobbyist for a children’s mental health hospital.

Jennifer Coffee, acquisitions editor at Sounds True, a multi-media publisher of tools and teachings for personal and spiritual transformation based in Louisville, Colorado. She holds a BA in Music and Religious Studies and an MA in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Language from Naropa University.

Bella Stander, promotional consultant and producer of workshops for authors of commercial trade books, is an author’s best friend. She is also a program organizer for the Virginia Festival of the Book and a long-time contributing editor at Publishers Weekly. Her book reviews have appeared in such publications as Entertainment Weekly, People, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Moderator: Rosemary Carstens, freelance writer, author, and marketing consultant. Rosemary Carstens is the editor of the quarterly e-zine FEAST, about books, art, film, food, and travel. She is the author of DREAMRIDER: Roadmap to an Adventurous Life (2003) and co-author of Sustaining Thought (2007). She has been published in regional and national magazines and is an avid adventure traveler. When not writing or hosting presentations and workshops, two of her favorite leisure activities are surfing the ‘Net and riding crosscountry on her motorcycle, the Road Goddess.

Top Dealmaker?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: What a way to kick off 2008! First I get an offer for a project I have on submission which is how I always like to start the year. Then I get the big, big news. Ally Carter’s I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU lands on the New York Times paperback bestseller list at #4 and CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY, which has already spent 5 weeks on the NYT hardcover list, is back on coming in at #9. Woohoo!!!!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I ALONE by Live

Thank you all for all your lovely blog comments on my last entry of 2007. I did have to chuckle though. Selling 22 books over the course of one year is not actually a lot. I have many agent friends who sell double or triple that number (although I have to add here that they’ve all been in the biz for a lot longer than I have).

It’s not a high volume and I have to admit that I don’t see myself as ever being a high volume agent. I don’t take on that many clients or that many projects in a given year so there’s a limited quantity of projects to sell. I don’t want to say quality over quantity because that’s not necessarily the case. I have many agent friends doing a quantity of high quality projects and deals. I imagine as my clients grow their careers, the number will increase over the years just on repeat deals alone.

But here’s what’s interesting and why I bring this up. Publishers Marketplace has a new feature called Top Dealmakers on their website. Let me tell you, this has caused some interesting consternation amongst agent friends and here’s why. Our agent reputations are the key to getting future good clients; we want to be known as top dealmakers! Publishers Marketplace can only rank top dealmakers on quantifiable criteria. In other words, they can’t verify that deals actually sold for the money highlighted by the editor or agent (or by the authors themselves) in the announced deal. The only criteria they can use for rating top dealmakers is based on the number of total sales in a given period (and that is, of course, only if the deals are reported). Many agents don’t report deals for a variety of reasons.

I like to think that might be the reason why Michael Cader implemented this new feature to begin with—to encourage deal reporting. Very smart on his part.

But it also means, quite sadly I have to say, that I’ll probably never be a top dealmaker on Pub Marketplace. Right now, I come in at #40 for Fiction as a whole, #26 for women’s/romance, #15 for children’s (that ain’t shabby I guess!), #8 for young adult.

You get the picture. And I have to admit, this entry is solely self-serving. Big smile here. I might not sell a lot of books in any given year but because that is true, I also have to sell what I take on for more money and that’s not captured in the Top Dealmaker ranking.

Is it better for an agent to sell many projects (but all in nice deals) or just a few projects in good, significant, or major deals—in Deal Lunch terms? And the answer to this is purely subjective because it really depends on how each individual sees it.

Unfortunately, Top Dealmaker on Pub Marketplace can’t use that criterion for obvious reasons (although when I was chatting with Michael before the break, we did talk about it).

Maybe that needs to be my 2008 goal. More deals and all for a lot more money. I’m sure my clients wouldn’t say no to that!

A Year In Statistics

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Vacation time!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CHRISTMAS WRAPPING by The Waitresses

Happy Holidays to all you blog readers. The agency officially closes today and won’t reopen until Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

I won’t be blogging again until the new year, but then I’ll be back and in rare ranting form!

Here are the stats for 2007:

22
books sold

29
foreign rights deals done (and that includes one pre-empt and one auction)

8
number of new clients

30,000
estimated number of queries read and responded to (and yes, that is up from last year)

74
full manuscripts requested (I miscounted the other day)

4
number of projects currently on submission

1
major motion picture deal

3
auctions

6
new deals for previously published clients

5
deals for new clients (4 of which were debut authors—as in not previously published)

200,000 +
number of copies in print for my bestselling title this year

7
conferences attended

1
number of New York Times Bestsellers

265
number of holiday cards sent

5
number of Starbucks eggnog chai consumed in the last week

Lots
number of late nights reading on the couch with Chutney

All
number of great days loving my job

Have a safe and happy New Year. I’m out!

A Work Stop Sort Of

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: One more day and counting…

What’s playing on the iPod right now? BACK DOOR SANTA by B.B. King

The time is near but I bet you folks wonder if agents really do stop working over the holidays.

The answer is “sort of.” Here at Nelson Agency I won’t be reading queries, sample pages, or even any client material (because I completed all that) but I will be popping in occasionally because of several outstanding tasks.

I have several projects currently on submission so I’ll need to check email and voicemail messages to see if there is any movement on them.

I’m in the middle of negotiating a contract and the contracts person has gone on holiday until the 26th. This means we can’t complete until that last week of December and yes, I will work on that.

I’m awaiting several payments that may arrive this week or next. Those will need to be processed and mailed promptly (or if it’s really close to Jan. 1st, I’ll let the clients make that call if they would prefer to receive it in 2008 instead.)

Then there is the accounting system upgrade. We won’t go there right now!

Tomorrow I’ll share the year in stats and then I’m outta here.