Dollars, Cents, and Being Left With the Bill: Jillian Medoff on Breaking Up With Her Literary Agent
lithub.com – Saturday August 6, 2022
In 2008, after 13 years together, my literary agent and I parted ways. (To preserve her anonymity, let’s call her Michael Ovitz.) Between 1995 and 2002, Michael Ovitz sold two of my novels, including my debut, Hunger Point. By any measure, our partnership was a terrific success. Michael Ovitz and I were more than just agent-writer, we were mentor-protégé, friends, confidantes. She invited me to stay in her country home. I corresponded with her daughter. She met my parents. We bought each other gifts. “You’re a part of the family,” she liked to say.
Business isn’t emotional, but people are. This is especially true in the highly subjective book industry, where an author’s imagination, manifested on the page, is the product. Michael Ovitz is an attorney, and the smartest, savviest woman I’d ever met, like Ari Gold from Entourage, but with a maternal affect. Near the end of our first conversation, she asked if I had any questions. I was so wowed I could barely speak. “Who else do you represent?” I blurted out. “Can I see a client list?” (This was before agents posted their client rosters on websites, but Michael Ovitz was way-old-school, anyway. She wouldn’t accept electronic submissions, corresponded only by hand on heavy cardstock, and didn’t adopt email until well into the aughts.) “Oh, Jillian,” she said, chuckling at my farm-girl faux pas. “That’s simply not done. Those names are confidential.”
What Does UTA’s Acquisition Of UK Agency Curtis Brown Mean For Talent & The Rep Business On Both Sides Of The Pond?
deadline.com – Tuesday August 2, 2022
When UTA announced its surprise acquisition of London-based Curtis Brown Group last month, it was heralded as an aggressive and strategic move into the UK talent space, causing the industry on both sides of the pond to sit up and take notice. U.S. agencies have been canvassing UK companies for a number of years, but this deal marks the splashiest effort yet and potentially draws UTA closer to major talent on Curtis Brown’s books such as Robert Pattinson, Margaret Atwood and John le Carré.
There are now question marks surrounding the sharing of talent, potential structural changes and what this might mean for UK agenting at large.
Writing Insights: Why don't agents tell you why they rejected your book?
authorlink.com – Monday August 1, 2022
Many writers ask why agents don’t give more specific reasons for rejecting a book submission. A standard answer is: “not the right fit,” though a submission is in the same genre they represent.
There can be a number of reasons why a literary agent rejects a work. When an agent says a work is not the right fit for them, it may or may not relate to the writing itself.
The agent could have more submissions than they can handle at the time, or they have just sold a similar title, or they know an editor is looking for a particular story angle, and your submission doesn’t fill that story angle. It could be that the agent doesn’t see the work slotting into a particular category they represent. There are different kinds of thrillers, for example. Maybe the agent knows they can sell psychological suspense but doesn’t know where to go to sell a medical thriller. Maybe the agent doesn’t feel the story targets a large-enough audience or the market is glutted with similar titles. It can also mean the agent simply doesn’t have time to thoroughly read your story, but a quick read tells them it doesn’t fit a need. Or, maybe they are tired and just had a bad day. Agents are human, you know. So, don’t take it personally.
5 Creative Cures for Writer's Block
psychcentral.com – Saturday July 30, 2022
It’s stressful when the words don’t come, when you’re sitting at your desk staring at the blinking cursor or the barren page. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like days.
Deadlines loom, and you’re still stuck and staring. A kind of dread begins building in your stomach and travels to your throat, and then peaks between your temples. It’s reminiscent of firecrackers exploding.
“Writer’s block, or any creative block, is really about fear,” according to Miranda Hersey, a writer, editor and creativity coach. The fear of not knowing where to start or we’re headed. The fear that we’re not good enough.
Blocks are tough. They can feel big and intimidating and impossible. But where there’s a block, there’s also a way out. Here are five ways to break through writer’s block.
New Literary Agent Listing: Loren R. Grossman
firstwriter.com – Friday July 29, 2022
Send one-page query, preferably by email (though snail mail is acceptable). No query-related phone calls.
New Magazine Listing: Tor.com
firstwriter.com – Thursday July 28, 2022
Most interested in pitches for essays, think pieces, list posts, reaction pieces, and reviews in the 1000-2500 word range (although also open to longer essays). If possible, please include 2-3 writing samples and/or links to your published work on other sites.
New Publisher Listing: WordCrafts Press
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 27, 2022
We publish fiction, nonfiction, and stage plays for both the Christian market and the general market. We do not publish erotica.
New Writing North to launch skills hub in £600k project
thebookseller.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
New Writing North, the creative writing and reading agency for the North of England, is launching a writing and publishing skills hub in autumn 2022, utilising a £600,000 programme to develop its reach.
Funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and other local sponsors, the hub aims to create a suite of educational and professional development opportunities for schools and teachers, students, young people and adult learners, and writers and small literary businesses in the region.
Taking place across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland, with accompanying online resources, the hub aims to open up opportunities for pupils interested in pursuing a career in the creative industries, in addition to offering networking and business skills training.
Meet the People Behind Some of Today's Best Small Publishers Specializing in Crime Fiction
crimereads.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
Bless the small press! We talk a lot about how to make the big publishers accountable and more diverse, but let’s not forget there is another level of publishing where people have the freedom to follow their taste rather than having to justify each book’s profitability. I think most people in the publishing business feel like they could put together a damned good imprint given world enough and time. I do. So I gathered the founders and publishers of some of crime and crime fiction’s best small presses: Paul Oliver of Syndicate Books, an imprint devoted to bringing forgotten authors back into print; Charles Ardai of noir publisher Hard Case Crime; Sara Gran, whose brand-new imprint is Dreamland Books; Gregory Shepard of reissue enthusiast Stark House; Jason Pinter of Polis Books; and the late but welcome addition of Michael Nava of Amble Press. We talked quality, representation, resurrecting old books and conjuring new ones.
Joyce Carol Oates calls out the censorship of white, male authors
thepostmillennial.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
Celebrated American author Joyce Carol Oates noted a literary trend on Sunday, which is that writing by white male authors is in a negative demand. She wrote that work by white male authors will not even be seen due to their race and sex. While Oates noted this issue on Sunday, it has been building in the arts community since at least 2004, as I wrote about in 2019.
"[A] friend who is a literary agent told me that he cannot even get editors to read first novels by young white male writers," Oates wrote, "no matter how good; they are just not interested. this is heartbreaking for writers who may, in fact, be brilliant, & critical of their own 'privilege.'"
Oates stated that this was "heartbreaking" for those writers who buy into the ideology of white privilege, and who may even be "critical" of it, but it is just as hard a pill to swallow for those white male writers who are not burdened by the inherent detriments associated with their race and sex.
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