Pub Rants

STATUS: Happens every time I come to New York City. I must look like I know where I’m going because invariably a stranger will come up to me and ask for directions. This time a lady was looking for Wall Street while we were standing in the east Village.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? NOTHING COMPARES 2 U by Sinead O’Connor

This entry is going to make me think of Frank Sinatra’s “Love is better the second time around” (which might be oddly appropriate for Valentine’s Day).

Lately I’ve been fielding a few requests from authors who have revised a full manuscript that I’ve read and passed on but would like me to give it another look.

I’m usually willing to if I thought the work was a near miss the first time around; however, when I look at my statistics, I have yet to sign somebody up when that has happened. (Although, oddly enough, I’ve had agent friends who have consequently signed them after I had given a thorough revision letter. Go figure!)

That got me thinking about the why behind that statistic. It’s not impossible but it is harder to feel the love the second time around and mainly I think it’s because the work doesn’t feel “fresh” because of the previous read.

That initial feeling of excitement is always a little tinged because one knows the storyline (and the possible flaws that may or may not have been fixed).

It’s hard to create that “first read” distance with a second round. I’m still convinced it can happen though which is why I’m always willing to give it a try because there is an author out there who will blow that statistic out of the water!

STATUS: You guys are going to laugh but I plumb forgot to blog yesterday. I’ll blame it on all the snow Denver is getting. I’m having a huge affair with Starbuck’s eggnog chai I must add.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SILENT NIGHT by Stevie Nicks

We keep track of all the full manuscripts we read, and we also keep a copy of the response letter. Since we do everything by email, you never know when a response might not have reached the writer. It’s even worse when the writer emails us six months later asking about the status. Oi. We feel terrible when that happens. The poor writer had to wait all those extra months to hear just because of an email snafu.

Out of idle curiosity, I looked in the file and so far we’ve read and responded to 52 full manuscripts this year.

Must be slacking! We looked at 57 last year.

Then I remembered that not all the reviewed manuscripts are included there. I had a record number of referrals from current clients, other agents, and even editors this year.

That added more than 10 other manuscript reviews to that total. All in all, I’d say we easily looked at about 70 full manuscripts (or proposals from already published authors).

We took on 6 new clients this year. That’s a new record for me. All of them sold except for the last client I took on and she’s only been with me for a week so there really hasn’t been time to do anything but formalize our agreement.

And probably the real statistics you’d want to know is how many authors I passed on that were picked up by other agents and sold. I have to say that I don’t really track that but I do keep a casual list if something sounds familiar or if I remember the project.

I have that I passed on at least five different authors. Personally, I’m glad they found the perfect agent to represent and sell them.

STATUS: TGIF! Sara and I did a bunch of holiday cards today. Tis the season!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WHITE CHRISTMAS by Bing Crosby

I don’t why it never ceases to amaze me how long it takes to put a project out on submission. It’s easily a two-day process.

1. First I always create the submission list. Yes, I have a database. Yes, I know lots of editors but I’m always super careful to tailor a submission list for each client/project. Sometimes I have to decide between one editor or another. In the children’s world (where they don’t like if you send to multiple imprints under the same publisher umbrella), I really have to choose who is the best fit.

That can take a bit of research or even my just ringing the editor to find out if this would be up his or her alley.

2. Then I format the manuscript. Basically this doesn’t take too long but I have a standard format and I include my agency info in the header on every page.

3. Up next is the submission letter that will go to the editors. I spend a lot of time on mine (as I hope you can tell). I write them mostly on my own. Sometimes I’ll grab the original paragraph from the writer’s query letter and use that as a place to start. Sometimes I ask the authors to create their own version of the pitch just to see what they focus on. For the most part though, I tinker, play, and rework the letter many times before it’s ready. I sometimes pop it over to agent friends for feedback if I want to get it just right. We’ll often read each other’s pitches.

4. Then it’s time to talk with all the editors. If I know them really well, then I’ll just pop out an email. If the editor is new to me or I haven’t spoken to him or her in a while, then it’s phone call time.

5. Submission goes by email. Every once in a great while an editor will request a hard copy. If that’s so, then I email the manuscript to my printer and he gets it to me by the next day. I send out via UPS ground. Thank goodness this doesn’t happen too often. Invariably I find that the editor needs to read more quickly and I send it by email anyway so I don’t want to spend a lot snail mailing it. I don’t charge my clients for this cost either. I just eat it.

6. Sometimes there is follow up in the next day or so. An editor was out when I called or took a couple days to get back to me. That happens.

So any one submission is easily a 2-day process without my being able to do much of anything else (except a very large fire). I should stop being surprised by that!