Pub Rants

STATUS: Finishing up a client manuscript tonight.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? ME AND BOBBY MCGEE by Janis Joplin

Truly a scintillating topic. Kind of like watching golf. Earlier this week, one of my agent friends was conducting an auction so of course that got the whole discussion going about what we preferred—round robin or best bids auctions?

Funny enough, it’s not an either/or question because what is preferred (or what is conducted) always depends on the situation that is unfolding around any given project.

Now what I can say to you for sure is that most editors hate best bid auctions.

Why? Because there is only one round of bidding. That’s it. And if your bid doesn’t come in the ballpark of what other houses are bidding, then you’re knocked out of the running early. I can see why that would be frustrating for editors if they are really keen on a book.

So why do them? It’s a great way to shorten up an auction when the agent has already done a lot of talking to the various editors interested in the work. In other words, a lot of the pre-auction elements are already clear (like the level of excitement, the anticipated advance, what the agent’s expectation is). Then the best bid auction is to simply see all offers at once and then allow the author to choose the best house (and not necessarily a winner based on something like advance alone). Saves a lot of time and energy. Best bids can also work effectively if there is uncertainty on how many houses might participate in the auction. Everyone who attends is supposedly putting best offer forward. Can save a lot of headache if a publisher doesn’t show up to the auction.

Most auctions are probably round robins. This is an auction with subsequent rounds of bidding by multiple publishers until either a clear winner is declared or all houses hit their bid ceiling and only one publisher is still willing to go forward. Round robins work most effectively when there are numerous houses bidding. Not as great a structure if the auction is small—like with only 2 houses bidding. Still, it can be done.

Not to mention round robin auctions can last for days (which is exhausting for everyone involved as nothing else can really be accomplished if an auction is going on). Also, if an author has a clear choice for the editor he/she wants to work with, round robin might knock out the favored house too early in the process. That wouldn’t be good.

Interestingly enough, I have done round robin auctions that then evolved into a final round best bid. Basically when the auction had gone on and on, I let all the editors know that I’m only going to entertain one more round of bids so make it your best and final offer. I think my Grandmother would call that **** or get off the pot bid.

For the most part, I like to negotiate elements of an offer even within an auction and that’s hard to do in a best bid situation so I don’t tend to favor that auction approach. I think a better idea is what I call a two-round best bids. Each house involved in the auction knows it will get 2 rounds of bidding. The first round is for everyone to feel out the field (and it also allows me to say where I think their offer might be lacking). The second round is for everyone to truly get serious about the next offer as this will be the final round of the auction. It feels more effective to me.

And here I’m just touching on the tip of the iceberg but all these different strategies is what we agents talk about when we talk auctions.

Are you still awake? Didn’t think so but if you want to see a group of agents get lively, this is a good topic.

STATUS: It is really freakin’ cold here in New York City. They think we have winter in Denver. Oh please. It’s six degrees. Wet. And the wind is blowing like 30 knots or something crazy like that. It’s never that cold in Denver or if it is, the sun is shining and everyone is happy. Although we went on a walk today, Chutney was unwilling to pose.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? DANCING WITH MYSELF by Billy Idol
(uh, I actually don’t own this song but the radio is playing at the moment…)

I know that blog readers love to hear the inside skinny on agent stuff. So how does an agent know that an auction might potentially unfold?

Easy. When a manuscript is sent out, some editors will take a look right away (especially those editors who know me and have had the experience of submissions from me moving fast). They tend to get on it quickly.

And if they like what they see, they email or call almost immediately to say that they love what they are reading and that they are either going to finish soon (like over the weekend) and get second reads or they are already doing so. They want me to keep them abreast of any new information regarding the project (as in other interest, an impending offer, etc.)

When this kind of communication happens from more than one house (and it has to be different houses because in-house imprints can’t bid against each other), then the agent knows it’s shaking. The project has it going on and an auction might unfold.

Now, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes multiple editors from different houses show interest and those editors aren’t able to get the support to buy (support being other readers who love it as much as they do or an editorial director or publisher on board). And yes, I have had that happen.

But when there is a lot of interest early on, it usually means multiple offers and the agent has time to get her deal game plan in place.

STATUS: I’m feeling good because I’m actually tackling the big items on my TO DO list.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? THE CHRISTMAS SONG by The Carpenters

I can finally talk about my big day from last week or should I say my big days since the auction lasted for two days.

Here’s the announcement from Deal Lunch:
FICTION: MIDDLE GRADE
Helen Stringer’s debut HOUSE OF MISTS, about a girl who lives with the ghosts of her parents in the north of England and when they disappear, along with all the ghosts in the world, it’s up to her, an always-in-trouble classmate named Steve, and the one remaining ghost (from 1912) to find out why, to Jean Feiwel at Feiwel & Friends, in a significant deal for two books, at auction, by Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency (NA).

This is the very first middle-grade project I’ve ever taken on so I was rather heartened that it caused quite a stir and lots of interest. As an agent I probably shouldn’t admit this but because it was my first middle-grade ever, I was kind of nervous when I submitted it. I obviously feel quite confident about my YA abilities but middle-grade is a whole other ball of wax so to speak. Now I can rest easy. At least in this case, I got what it takes!

So here’s how the auction went down.

1. Project was sent out on Wednesday. The first offer came a week and a day later.

2. All editors were notified of the offer on the table.

3. Several editors expressed serious interest, which signals that an auction might be imminent.

4. Another house makes an offer (but not a pre-empt), so now there are two offers on the table. Auction date is scheduled and that information is sent to all editors interested in participating.

5. A house with an offer already on the table attempts to pre-empt with a new offer. The Interest at this point is too high, the pre-empt is declined.

6. Agent sets auction rules and asks all interested parties to declare if they plan to attend or not. The rules are emailed to all auction participants.

7. Auction day comes and it’s a round robin one (which means participants can bid in subsequent rounds). Four participants are bidding. Auction continues until there is a winner but in this case, it came down two main bidders. As the auction continued on Friday, the publishers were asked if they wanted the option to put their best offer forward instead of doing subsequent round robin bidding that might last several more hours. Participants preferred that. Final offers were presented to the author and ultimately a final choice was made.

There can only be one publisher after all. Although I have to say, when all parties are excellent, it’s tough to call the “losing” publisher and potentially break that editor’s heart when he/she obviously has tons of enthusiasm for the project.