My wonderful intern Vina Castillo attended the Agency Interns Networking Toolbox, sponsored by AAR and came back with this report:
Brimming with eager interns alert to any advice and words of encouragement, The Agency Interns Networking Toolbox consisted of a panel of top notch publishers including Amy Einhorn, Jonathan Karp, Sarah Crichton, Julie Strauss-Gabel, and was moderated by agent Gail Hochman. After the esteemed panel members provided an insight into their successful careers, agent Hochman was curious as to what is the best possible relationship publishers look for with agents. All four publishers agreed that the bond between agent and publisher can only truly come to fruition when both sides are passionate about the manuscript and when both are aware of the constant work that is required to get it published. After all, its a long journey from acquisition to publication and beyond.
As for authors looking for agents, they had this advice: familiarize yourself with who you would like to work with. Do not look for an easy yes. Does the agent represent work that is in some aspects similar to your manuscript? Either in style, overall message, audience? Alas, as Amy Eihorn (Penguin) pointed out, it isn’t necessarily attractive if a manuscript resembles a known hit. Agents and publishers are looking for innovate, unique material that will surprise and them and can surpass past bestsellers.
The conversation then turned to the hot issue of the moment: YA. Young Adult books are currently at their peak, from Vampires to Dystopia. Curiously enough Julie Strauss-Gabel, VP and Publisher of Dutton Children’s Books who is responsible for award winners John Green (who quite possibly changed my life) and Scott Westerfeld, has been resoundingly declining Vamps and dystopias for strictly literary YA. There is no guarantee that vamps will live on, at least not with The Big Six publishers.
As an intern for Ayesha Pande whose literary taste breaks the current mold of bestsellers, this panel reinforced my belief that trends are temporary and for a manuscript to truly succeed it must be timeless.
– Vina Castillo
Recently I was asked to speak to a group of graduating English majors about possible careers in publishing and as part of my talk to give an overview of the industry. Here’s an excerpt from what I told them. Do you agree?
“I’d like to start things off with a question. Who knows who Amanda Hocking is?
She’s a 26-year old author who very successfully self-published her novels on Amazon as digital downloads and e-books and ended up landing a four book deal with St. Martin’s Press for more than $2 million.
Here’s another question: Who has heard of Barry Eisler?
He is a best-selling thriller author who recently turned down a half million dollar deal (from the same company, no less) to self-publish his work. In several long blog posts he made what seems like a very convincing argument that he could end up, in the long run, making more money by self-publishing his work rather than going the traditional publishing route and in addition be in control of how his books are published.
These two events occurred in the same week. To me they epitomize what’s going in the industry right now. An author who self-published her work digitally, available only via download, was able to generate sufficent revenue to prompt a publisher to pay millions of dollars for the right to publish her next work. And an author whose books routinely hit the print bestseller list and who gets six-figure advances for his novels has decided he no longer needs a publisher. He’s decided he can publish, market and promote his books on his own and in the process retain control over his creative output. Five years ago no one in the industry would ever have imagined that this could have happened. Publishing is an industry going through seismic changes, which is both confusing and also exciting. It means that it’s an industry in upheaval. It means also that there are opportunity for people who are creative and willing to take risks and are not sentimentally attached to the old ways of doing business.
As you probably know, two years ago the industry all but collapsed. Editors were laid off in droves and budgets were being cut. Now, even though things have stabilized and many publishers are hiring again, the after-effects linger. Borders is in bankruptcy and is closing hundreds of stores; indie bookstores are continuing to close, from a high of over 4,000 stores nationwide to about 1500 today, and sales of print books are still declining. Barnes & Noble has transformed itself from a bookstore chain to a content provider and gift and stationery store. If you’ve walked into a Barnes & Noble lately, you’ll notice that front and center of each of their stores is a Nook boutique. Their inventory of gifts and games is growing while they’re carrying fewer and fewer books. And newspapers have shrunk or done away entirely with book reviews.
But there are most definitely bright spots on the horizon. Digital sales are exploding – in some genres they are surpassing print sales – along with sales of the devices that deliver reading experiences. The market for YA books, that is books targeted at readers in their teenage years, is extremely dynamic which is a wonderful and hopeful thing because it means those prophets of doom and gloom who have proclaimed that young people are no longer reading were wrong. And the internet is helping authors do their own marketing and to connect directly with their readers rather than having to depend on the marketing and publicity efforts of publishers. Authors are blogging and engaging in dialogs with readers on twitter and facebook along with a plethora of reading sites like Goodreads, shelfari and others. There has been a proliferation of book bloggers who have filled the gap left by the closing of the reviews. There are many lively discussions about books online. As a result vibrant communities of book and literature lovers have sprung up, as well as start-ups that are delivering content in many different ways. Some examples are Red Lemonade started by publishing renegade Richard Nash, in which he is seeking to entirely revolutionize publishing’s business model. Then there is The Awl, a quirky online magazine, which has befuddled everyone by drawing so many readers that it has been able to attract enough advertisers to generate millions in revenue. In short, The business model for publishing seems to be changing completely but no one yet has any idea how it will end up. As someone who embraces change and has long believed the industry was in dire need of it, I am excited about what the future holds and I intend to be a part of it.”
