Pub Rants

Category: news

Another Agency Milestone!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m having a terrific day with lots of good news!

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? GEORGIA ON MY MIND by Willie Nelson

Okay, I know you guys are probably getting sick of these announcements but I have to celebrate when milestones happen and what better way then to announce it on the blog.

This year has been an amazing one for Nelson Literary Agency and the New York Times List. We’ve had two authors debut for the first time on the list (and in the same month to boot!). Jamie Ford’s Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet has literally been on the regular NYT list or the extended list for 6 months straight.

I mean, holy cow.

Then today marks a new milestone. Today I have 3 authors on the NYT list at the same time. This has got to stop as the bar is getting raised seriously too high. Still, I’m grinning.

And for those of you who wonder how the NYT list works, the bestseller list is announced the week before it hits publication so today I’m getting the news for the May 9 list.

Huge congrats to:

Simone Elkeles at #3 for a second week in a row.

And to Gail Carriger who is back on the extended list at #33 after having one week off. That’s three weeks on the list.

And to Jamie Ford who is on the extended list at #32 (although for the last two weeks we’ve been really close to breaking the top 20 titles (as you have to be #20 or above for regular list).

A Milestone

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Some pretty great news today.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN by Cyndi Lauper

One of my agent friends is constantly chastising me for not taking a moment to celebrate when really big things happen at my agency.

For example, last week, we did a huge film deal and I barely broke stride. I have to admit, I didn’t even go out to a celebratory dinner or anything. I just kept my nose to the grindstone (in my defense, Bologna Book Fair is rapidly approaching—I have to be ready!)

But today, I really can’t just do that. Besides, I don’t want her to berate me again (and I know she’s reading this and will call me up).

Last week was big—no doubt. This week is a huge milestone for an agent and in truth, it doesn’t happen often so I really need to take a moment and acknowledge it so that’s what I’m going to do.

Today, I have two authors sitting on the New York Times Bestseller list at the same time.

Now, I’ve had one author with two books sitting on the NYT list at the same time but never two authors on at the same time.

Wow.

Great. Now I’ve just raised the bar and I’ll have to do 3 authors on the list at the same time or 2 authors with 2 different books on the list at the same time…. Naw. I’m just going to enjoy this moment.

Friday Fun

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Plowing through stuff.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? O HOLY NIGHT by Paul Potts

Hey readers, sorry for the blog silence yesterday. I was literally at the office from 9 in the morning until 10:30 at night. I just couldn’t muster the extra energy to squeeze in a blog entry. I, as well as many other agents, are working crazy hours to wrap things up by year’s end. Our agency always closes around the 18th, 19th, or 20th (depending on which date is that Friday) and we are closed until the new year.

No queries, no reading, no religiously checking emails, no nothing.

I do plan to blog all next week. Monday through Thursday, I’ll continue Q&A. I still have a ton of Qs from the last comment round but if I see some good ones in the comments over the next couple of days, I may add some. Friday will be our year-end stats and let me tell you, they are pretty sweet.

But today I’m doing Friday Fun with a shameless plug that has nothing to do with publishing but is just too cool not to share. Besides, it is peripherally connected to the agency because it’s about Sara Megibow, her husband Mark, and his band FACE.

FACE is premiering on TV this Monday, December 14 (8 pm EST) on NBC’s new show The Sing-Off. They will also be on Tuesday, December 15 and Wednesday, December 16.

Squee! They did a lot of filming in Colorado for the back story (you won’t see yours truly but Sara is definitely featured).

The show is set up kind of like American Idol. Monday and Tuesday night will be pre-judged elimination rounds but on Wednesday, it’s up to the viewing public to decide the winner.

FACE really rocks so I hope you agree and will tune in and vote for them.

Happy Monday Indeed!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Holy cow what a morning!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? EVERYTHING SHE WANTS by Wham!

I’m getting no work done because all I’m doing is sitting around and grinning like mad.

Remember back in July when I let y’all in on a little secret about how wonderful my colleague Sara Megibow is?

Well, I’m giddy to report that the baby boy arrived yesterday at 3:25 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2009.

Baby Trey is healthy. Sara is doing great. And the new parents are ecstatic and exhausted.

Everything is as it should be!

And if that weren’t news enough, this morning I read about Publishers Weekly choosing SOULLESS as one of their top 100 books for 2009.

And then if that weren’t enough, PW gives PROOF BY SEDUCTION a starred review saying

“Historical romance fans will celebrate Milan’s powerhouse debut, which comes with a full complement of humor, characterization, plot and sheer gutsiness.”

All this and HOTEL being on the NYT trade bestseller list for several weeks now, I honestly don’t know what to do with myself. Work? What’s that?

Happy Monday because I’m sure loving it.

We Interrupt This Royalty Statement Tutorial

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It was a great day I have to say.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WOMAN by John Lennon

To bring you a special squee moment!

Wait, I’m a professional.

I interrupt this royalty statement tutorial to give our client Jamie Ford huge congratulations for hitting the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list coming in at #15 for Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet (and after only being on sale for five days).

Yes, that’s more like it!


That makes it NLA’s third NYT bestseller for this year.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Three Articles Worth Sharing

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF—even if it’s cold in Denver.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? BARE NECESSITIES by Phil Harris

Sorry to interrupt our fun with royalty statements (and don’t worry, I’ll resume on Monday) but I saw these three articles and they definitely are worth sharing.

First article is a follow up to the one on Tuesday about FTC fining of blog reviewers for nondisclosure. Richard Cleland highlights that the FTC doesn’t have the authority to level fines, and he says, “the blogger or endorser would not be fined, but the advertiser would.”

Second is a blog entry on the HuffPo site from Steve Ross (Former President, Collins Division at HarperCollins and Sr. VP, Crown Division at Random House) asking why we can’t all just get along and responds to two recent blog postings by Chip O’Brien and Mark Coker with the following:

“Both blogs are, to this reader, rife with fallacious thinking, faulty reasoning, and/or tunneled perspectives that ignore the complex realities that publishers face during this turning point for the industry. But at a time when it is in the best interests of everyone who loves books to help the major houses endure, they’re being scapegoated, demonized and ridiculed for trying to survive with the crippling business model they’ve been handicapped with for decades.”

Last but not least, FrogDog Media does a children’s iStorytime ap for the iPhone—just in case you want your 3-year old to read instead of playing a video game on your iPhone. Kinda cool. And they are doing all picture books by new writers.

The Agent Crystal Ball Myth

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Reviewing royalty statements—of course.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL by Joan Jett

Agents really don’t have a crystal ball to anticipate the market. For example, 2 years ago when Gail came to me with her manuscript SOULLESS, I wasn’t sitting at my desk thinking, “wow, if Jane Austen were to write a Victorian Steampunk fantasy, this vampire/werewolf comedy of manners called SOULLESS would definitely be it and yessiree, this type of parody is the wave of the future.” Heck no. I just sat at my desk thinking, “wow, this is cool and I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Little did I know two years ago that in 2009, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies would hit a cultural nerve and climb the New York Times bestseller list and something like SOULLESS would be hitting the market at exactly the right time. Now I look like a genius who anticipated potentially the next “hot” trend. Uh…. yeah, that’s it.

SOULLESS is powerhousing out of the gate with thousands of copies sold in its first two weeks on sale. It’s number #21 on Bookscan’s fantasy bestseller list (and may have the potential to climb some—although it’s going to be dang hard to knock Charlaine Harris out of the top 10 slots with her Sookie Stackhouse/HBO’s True Blood series.)

It looks like I’ve had incredible foresight but the truth is that I didn’t know this was going to happen. Any agent that tells you differently is feeding you a load of you know what.

Now we can surmise, guess, analyze what is hot and what is still selling and make some assumptions about what might trend in the future.

But none of us actually know. Which is a good reason to never ask the question at a writers’ conference!

Congrats Gail on a stunning debut!

Blog Reviewer? Disclose Or Face Fines. Seriously.

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: My favorite—reviewing 50 pages of legalese in a film option contract. Not. Grin.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I’M GONNA BE (500 MILES) by The Proclaimers

Oh this is rich. This just in from Wired. The FTC is now telling Amateur Bloggers to disclose that they’ve gotten free review copies or ARCs or face fines.

FTC wants tweet disclosures as well.

What a happy can of worms to open. Can you say hard to enforce?

Florida Attorney General Sues Scammer

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Today was all about foreign contracts. It’s been stunning. We’ve done 38 deals so far this year in foreign territories. Wow.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? LEGS by ZZ Top

As I’ve been out of town, I haven’t been able to read my Publishers Lunch daily. This morning I was getting caught up on my emails and my industry reading when I came across this news item. I couldn’t help but crow in delight. Let another scammer bite the dust.

And be sure to spread the word and link to this so word gets out in the writing community (and especially to newbies) that they should never, never, never pay a fee to a literary agent.

Florida Attorney General Sues Writer’s Literary Agency and Robert Fletcher
The state’s crimes division “received more than 175 complaints from around the world claiming Fletcher and his associates, who claimed to act as literary agents and publishers, allegedly collected money from victims anxious to see their work published.” The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief as well as full restitution. (full article)

I was appalled to read that he was pulling in an estimated $600,000 a year for fleecing writers. Crime certainly does pay—until you get caught that is.

The Proverbial Cat Out Of The Bag

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF! And I’m really ready for a relaxing weekend. No white-water rafting or extreme sports scheduled.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WONDER by Natalie Merchant

When I was at RWA, three different people came up to me and said, “I think it’s absolutely amazing what Sara is doing.”

When I looked at them blankly, they said, “your associate agent, Sara Megibow. I think it’s amazing what she is doing.”

Aha, it finally clicked for me. I knew now what they were talking about but I couldn’t figure out how three totally different people at RWA knew.

It certainly wasn’t some deep dark secret that we were keeping hidden but nor had we made an announcement to the world either.

Except unbeknownst to me, we had. The Boulder Weekly newspaper ran an article on the amazing thing Sara is doing this year and my client Sherry Thomas saw the article and twittered about it.

So are you dying yet to know what it is that Sara is doing?

I won’t keep you in the dark. The cat is out of the proverbial bag anyway (especially if you follow Sherry’s tweets!).

So here at the Nelson Agency, we are definitely into make dreams come true. Sara just takes it to a whole other level to say the least and if you’ve met her, you’ll know that’s just how she rolls.

It’s amazing, every day, to have her as part of the agency.

The Boulder Weekly Article.