Category: *Start here if you are a beginner at trying to get published

Hello, readers —

Happy Flag Day, everybody! I’m not quite sure why flags NEED their own day, any more than, say, pandas do, but say what you like about the flag flying over the U.S. capitol, it’s certainly colorful. Festive, even, and perhaps that in itself deserves a commemorative day. Although why the fine folks who work in said capitol would have picked Che Guevara’s birthday to commemorate the U.S.A.’s flag is beyond me.

Speaking capitols and capitals, I’ve realized that I left a rather important piece of advice out of yesterday’s post on writing a synopsis. It’s not absolutely necessary, technically speaking, but most professional fiction synopses CAPITALIZE THE ENTIRE NAME of each major character the first time it appears. It is also considered pretty darned nifty (and word-count thrifty) to include the character’s age in parentheses immediately after the first time the name appears, resulting in synopses that read something like this:

“ST. THERESA OF AVILA (26) has a problem. Ever since she started dating multi-millionaire GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER (82), all of her friends have unaccountably decided that she is mercenary and hates Native Americans. Apart from JEANNE D’ARC (30), her wacky landlady-cum-bowling-partner, who uses every opportunity to pump Theresa for man-landing tips, none of the residents of Theresa’s swanky Upper East Side co-op are even speaking to her — at least until they start desperately vying for invitations to her exclusive wedding extravaganza, a lavish event to be held onstage at the Oscars, with THE REVEREND DOCTOR OWEN WILSON (42 if he’s a day, I would guess, but his press agent probably slashes at least eight years off that for the press’ benefit) officiating. How will Theresa find a maid of honor — and if she does, what will her jealous old boyfriend GOD (∞) do?”

Should any of you out there think you’re up to rounding out the plot above into some measure of coherence, please, be my guest. Really. It’s my Flag Day present to you.

For the rest of you, please note what I have done here: in preparing a synopsis for a comedy, I have produced a — wait for it! — humorous treatment of the material. And if I were creating a synopsis for a steamy romance novel with the same premise (although I tremble to think what a sex romp with that particular cast of characters would entail), you can bet your last wooden nickel that I would take some writerly steps to make my reader’s mouth go dry and his breath become short while perusing it.

Would I do this because I’m wacky? No, because — and brace yourself, because I’m about to divulge some serious words of wisdom here — the synopsis, like the first 50 pages, is a writing sample. The sensible writer’s primary goal in producing it is to demonstrate not only that it is a good (or at least marketable) story, an attention-grabbing yarn peopled with fascinating characters, but that the writer is a great storyteller.

Yes, yes, I hear you grumbling: from the POV of a novelist, 3 — 5 pages is hardly enough space to tell the story of a stoplight going from green to red with much panache. But you know something? Agents and editors think so highly of writers that they expect you to do it anyway.

Bless them for their optimism, eh? You’d think, after reading hundreds of these things per week, that their faith would waver a bit, but no. Even the most hardened publishing type retains a belief in the possibility of the perfectly entertaining synopsis so intense that it makes the average 6-year-old’s belief in Santa Claus seem like Voltaire-ish skepticism. And that is pretty darned impressive, considering that all too often, writers just state the premise of the novel in a synopsis, rather than taking the reader through the plot, blow by blow — and that can be mind-bogglingly boring.

“But Anne!” I hear you cry, and who could blame you? “My book is about a love affair between a bomb-defusing stockbroker who moonlights as a cat burglar and a former Miss America who now sits on the UN Security Council when she’s not designing speedboats or skeet shooting. How boring could a straightforward summary of THAT premise possibly be?

Oh, honeys, you would be surprised.

I read a LOT of synopses each year, and let me tell you, through sheer repetition, the plots of even the raciest potboilers can start sounding awfully similar after awhile. And the average agent reads as many of them in a day as I do in six months. Under such an assault of plotting, even if the reader is armed with the best possible intentions and the greatest conceivable love of literature to begin with, the eyes begin to glaze, passing indifferently over massacres and heretofore-unknown sex acts alike.

So how, given that your synopsis is inevitably going to be read in the midst of an avalanche of others with similar claims to a reader’s attention, can you make yours stand out? As any great storyteller can tell you (and will, at the slightest provocation), keeping the audience’s attention is largely dependent upon the storyteller’s skill in juggling a number of factors: pacing, character development, and detail, to name but a few. A storyteller who cannot surprise her audience from time to time is probably going to end up boring them, at least a little.

Work on cultivating the element of surprise. If the plot has twists and turns, so should the synopsis. Show the story arc, but do not merely summarize the plot as quickly as possible (as — sacre bleu! — most of the synopses any agent receives will). Try to give the feel of a number of specific scenes. Don’t be afraid to use forceful imagery and strong sensual detail, and try to make the tone of the synopsis echo the tone of the book.

Yes, yes, I know: it’s a tall order. But don’t forget that the synopsis is every bit as much an indication of your writing skill as the actual chapters that you are submitting. And don’t you want YOURS to be the one that justified the agent’s heavily-tried faith that SOMEBODY out there can tell a good story in 3 — 5 pages? The truly entertaining synopsis may be as hard to spot in the wild as the giant panda, but by golly, that’s what these agents and editors have set out to hunt.

More practical advice on the same subject follows tomorrow, of course. Hey, if you haven’t already done it, why not register for my Prepping Your Pitch class on June 24th? Check out the PNWA’s homepage for details.

And those of you who have not yet registered for the conference in July, please feel free to consult my rundown on the attending agents and editors who are available for pitching appointments. Those posts are in the archives, April 26 — May 26. (Wow, I hadn’t realized I spent a month of my life tracking down that information. No wonder it seemed like a never-ending task; by the end of it, I was having dreams about having high tea in Manhattan with Lauren Abramo, Jeff Kleinman, and a clouded leopard, with D.H. Lawrence bringing us crumpets and marmalade jam.)

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

A little bit of housekeeping before I launch into my promised nuts-and-bolts speech about synopses. First, many thanks to all of you who have been writing in to me here at the blog — it really is useful for me to know what pieces of advice you have found especially helpful. An especial round of thanks to those blog readers who let me know that their entries made it to the finalist round in the PNWA contest! Congratulations! (And if you haven’t already let me know, please do. I enjoy the vicarious thrill.)

If you do write in, for whatever reason, please do be aware that if you do not include your e-mail address in the body of your message, I cannot write back to you. Matter of policy. So if you are asking a very specific question, please do give me the means to respond directly.

Last housekeeping detail: yes, I know those of you who have already registered for this summer’s PNWA contest are probably sick of hearing about it, but for those of you who have not yet made your choices for agent and editor appointments, check out my series of posts detailing these fine people’s accomplishments: April 26 — May 17 for the agents and May 18 — 26 for the editors.

All right, on to today’s topic, crafting a stellar synopsis of your book. (And don’t worry, those of you who missed yesterday’s post: I SHALL be writing a LOT on pitching between now and the conference. However, since literally every writer in the world who deals with either an agent or an editor will need to produce a synopsis at some point — and that point is often immediately following meeting same at a literary conference — I want to drop some words of wisdom on synopsis-writing first.) Let me define synopsis, for those of you new to the term:

Synopsis: A brief exposition IN THE PRESENT TENSE of the plot of a novel or the argument of a book. Typically, synopses run from 3-5 pages (double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, in Times, Times New Roman, or Courier typefaces, the standards for the industry), depending upon the requirements of the requesting agent or editor.

When in doubt, stick to 3 or 4. Think about that. 4 pages in standard format is roughly 1000 words, enough space to give some fairly intense detail. By contrast, a jacket blurb is usually between 100 and 250 words, only enough to give a general impression or set up a premise.

I point this out, because far too many writers new to the biz submit jacket blurbs to agents, editors, and contests, rather than synopses: marketing puff pieces, rather than plot descriptions or argument outlines. This is a mistake. Publishing houses have marketing departments for producing advertising copy. In a synopsis from a heretofore-unpublished writer, what industry professionals want to see is not self-praise, or a claim that every left-handed teenage boy in North America will be drawn to this book (even it it’s true), but a summary of what the book is ABOUT.

Since the jacket blurb synopsis is such a common mistake, most agencies use it as an easy excuse to reject a submission unread. Yes, it’s unfair (as I mentioned yesterday, I do not run the universe, or nicer rules would prevail for writers), but the industry logic runs thus: a writer who doesn’t know the difference between a blurb and a synopsis is probably unfamiliar with other industry norms, such as standard format and turn-around times. Thus (they reason), it’s more efficient to throw that fish back, to wait until it grows, before they invest serious amounts of time in frying it. With such good bait, they really don’t stay up nights worrying about the fish that got away. They know you’ll come swimming back.

I apologize from the bottom of my heart for that analogy; it’s certainly unkind to describe any dedicated writer’s work that way. However, I have been listening to agents and editors talk about submissions for many years now, and I do believe the fish metaphor is, alas, a pretty accurate representation of most of the non-creative side of the industry’s attitudes. Ugly, isn’t it?

Because it’s so easy for a too-long or too-short synopsis to be dismissed, you should NEVER allow a synopsis to run over 5 pages or under 2. Since 3-4 pages is industry standard, a synopsis that is much shorter will make you look as if you are unable to sustain a longer exposition; if it is much longer, you will look as though you aren’t aware of the standard. Either way, the results can be fatal to your submission.

So what DOES work in a synopsis? It’s not going to sound sexy, I’m afraid, but here is the secret: for fiction, stick to the plot of the novel, include enough vivid detail to make the synopsis interesting to read, and make sure the writing is impeccable.

For nonfiction, begin with a single paragraph about (a) why there is a solid market already available for this book and (b) why your background/research/approach renders you the perfect person to fill that market niche. Then present the book’s argument in a straightforward manner, showing how each chapter will build upon the one before to prove your case as a whole. Give some indication of what evidence you will use to back up your points.

And that’s it. I know — it sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

Whatever you do, if you are writing a synopsis for a novel, avoid the temptation to turn the synopsis into either a self-praise session (“My writing teacher says this is the best comic novel since CATCH-22!”) or an exposition on why you chose to write the book. These asides are often deal-breakers for agency screeners.

Why? Because they are both SO common. If I had a dime for every novel synopsis or query I’ve seen that included the phrase, “it isn’t autobiographical, but…” I would own my own island in the Caribbean. (And if I had a dime for every time I’ve heard it in a pitch, I’d just buy the five major North American publishing houses outright.) When you’re reading 800 submissions per week, commonalities can get pretty darn annoying. At minimum, they can make the synopses that contain them all start to blur together.

Trust me, however true it may be, it comes across as a cliché, and besides, a good fiction synopsis is NOT a justification for having written the book in the first place: properly, it is one hell of a good story, presented well. Period.

For nonfiction, you will want to do some gentle self-promotion, to give an indication of why your book is uniquely marketable and you are the most reasonable person in the universe to write it (platform, platform, platform!) but again, try not to get sidetracked on WHY you chose to write it. A LOT of NF synopses go off on these tangents, to their own detriment. Given a choice, use the space to flesh out your argument.

In fact, there are very few contexts in the publishing world where launching on a lengthy disquisition why you wrote the book is even appropriate. First, within a nonfiction book proposal, it is sometimes a necessary component to making the argument that you are uniquely qualified to write the book you are proposing, to establish your platform. Second, within the context of an interview AFTER the book is released, writers are free to ramble on about it as long as they like. Interviewers LOVE hearing about writers’ motivations — which, I suspect is why aspiring writers so often want to tell everyone they see what is and is not autobiographical in their novels; we’ve all seen it in a million literary interviews. Third — and here is where talking about it will help you most in your professional progress — when you are chatting with other writers, or if you become very, very good friends with your agent or editor after the contract is signed.

I know it’s hard to accept, but actually, in a business sense, why you wrote the book is not very important to the industry. In their eyes, unless you are a celebrity cashing in on your name recognition, you wrote your book for one very simple reason: because you are a writer. From that rather cold (and, I have to say, not very imaginative) POV, a writer who goes on and on about the psychological impulses to tell a particular story (unless the book in question is a memoir) comes across as not very professional.

I hate this, because in my experience, most aspiring writers tend to blurt out their reasons for penning a book primarily because they are so isolated during the writing process. It is a positive relief to be able to talk about it to someone, isn’t it, especially when that someone is empowered to get the book published at long last? It’s natural, it’s understandable, and it’s probably even healthy. Go with that impulse.

But please, please take my word on this one: you should not do it in the presence of anyone employed in the publishing industry until after a contract is signed, unless you are responding to a direct question from an agent or editor, because publishing types tend to regard it as a sign of writerly inexperience, a symptom of unprofessionalism.

In other words: back into the pond, fish.

It’s a great idea to get your blurting out of your system BEFORE you walk into your pitch meetings. Vent to your kith and kin. Gather together a group of writing friends before the conference and have a vast personal revelation session. Make friends with the writers in the hallways of the conference. Come and see me at the pitch-practicing booth at PNWA. But do not, under ANY circumstances, either use your synopsis or your pitch meeting for personal revelations not integrally related to the content of the book.

Again, there are a couple of exceptions; obviously, if the agent of your dreams asks, “So, where did you get the idea for this book,” you may give an honest answer. Also, if you have some very specific expertise that renders your take on a subject particularly valid, feel free to mention it in your pitch or query letter — in fiction, that information does not really belong in the synopsis. If you are writing a novel, and you feel that you have an inside perspective that simply must be mentioned here, stick it at the end, where it won’t be too intrusive.

See? Working on your synopsis before the conference really does have fringe benefits: it helps you gain a gut feeling for what is and isn’t appropriate to mention when discussing your book. And that, my friends, is an instinct that will serve you well anywhere you go within the publishing industry.

More tips on synopsis building follow tomorrow. In the meantime, keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

P.S. to my correspondent in India: that’s a rather broad question; I would need more information about your book in order to answer it. In a sense, everything I have written in this blog has been advice on how to get books published. (You might want to read through the archives, especially for August and September, 2005, which would be most helpful for a writer of literary fiction.)

Hello, readers —

Did you miss me over the last couple of days? Technically, I am still on retreat — I’m trying to finish a novel; I’ve lost oodles of writing time over the last year to a series of groundless lawsuit threats against my memoir, so I’m doubling up on my weekly writing quotas this summer, to try to catch up — but as I mentioned in my last post, writers’ vacations tend to be working ones. So do editors’ — and if it makes you feel any better, I know a tremendous number of agents who spend their Saturdays and airplane trips home to visit parents plowing through manuscripts. This is just not a 9-to-5 business.

Thus it came about that while I am on retreat, I have also been reading submissions for a literary contest for which I am a judge. For those of you whose heart rates just shot up: no, it was NOT for PNWA. The finalists for this year’s PNWA contest have already been decided, and the happy few will be notified by June 15th. Those whose entries did not make it to the finalist round will receive their two sets of feedback AFTER the July conference. (Hey, it’s a volunteer-run organization; pulling together a contest AND a conference is very time-consuming.)

So I have been reading a WHOLE lot of first chapters and synopses this week — the typical contest-entry mixed bag. (Once again, I implore you: if you EVER enter a literary contest, make SURE your submission is in standard format! Deviations from standard format result in far more good entries being knocked out of competitive running than almost any other single criterion. That, and not adhering to contest rules.) I couldn’t help but notice that the fashion in synopses is running toward brevity this year — a fact I thought deserved comment, because until a couple of years ago, the fad ran in the opposite direction, toward over-long synopses.

Are you surprised that synopses, much like contest entries and submissions to agents, exhibit trends over time? Don’t be. Just as agents’ and editors’ tastes undergo wild fluctuations — anybody try to sell a historical novel to a mainstream agent in the year or two before COLD MOUNTAIN came out? Couldn’t give ’em away. — so do writers’. Partially, this is a reflection of the prevailing wisdom on the writers’ conference circuit, as well as in publications aimed at writers, which too run in fads.

All of this is fine, and to be expected. Since one of the biggest conference and class trends of the last five years has been screenwriters sharing their plotting tips with aspiring novelists, it was predictable that synopses would start getting shorter. In the movie-making world, the single-page plot synopsis is the norm.

However, I think the trend toward super-short synopses is not particularly helpful to the writer of books. For agents, yes, I do see some benefit: the shorter the synopsis, the less time required to review it. But since three- to five-page synopses are standard in the book publishing world, you should ask yourself: does a one- or two-page synopsis really impress the people you need to impress in order to get your book published?

Usually, no — and here again, we encounter another secret handshake of the publishing world. Most query screeners at most major agencies are trained to reject any submission that does not adhere to industry norms. So when an agency that represents novels receives a query with a one-page synopsis attached, will the too-short synopsis raise a red flag? It’s been known to happen, alas.

However, when asked about this phenomenon, most agency screeners will not state outright that if synopsis is not a certain length, they will conclude that the writer is not familiar with professional standards. Instead, they tend to report drawing an even more significant conclusion: if the synopsis is too short, they say, they assume that the author has not yet finished writing the book.

The logic behind this is rather abstruse, so stick with me here. A professional synopsis is NOT just a summary of the plot of the book, or even its major themes: it should include a few scenes recounted in a fair amount of detail, to give a representative taste of the flavor of the writing in the book. (Don’t worry, if this is news to you; I shall return to this topic in a future posting.) With few exceptions, a super-short synopsis will not include any individual scenes at all. Since few writers are reticent in describing (in print, anyway) the glories of their own plots, why would a writer NOT include descriptions of the best scenes in the synopsis, since the synopsis is first and foremost a sales document?

I think I can tell the screeners why: many writers confuse the synopsis with the jacket blurb, which also usually includes some summary of the plot. The jacket blurb does tend to be, in fact, about 250 words: in other words, a one-page synopsis.

Now, I am of the opinion that virtually no aspiring writer would confuse the two on purpose, but then, I am not an agent who reads 800 submissions per week, so I am inclined to be charitable. Agency screeners usually are not. Thus the common conclusion: if the synopsis is very short, or insufficiently detailed, they assume that the writer simply hasn’t finished WRITING the book yet. They assume, in short, that the reason the detail isn’t there is that it does not yet exist in the book.

And why is this conclusion a problem for the querying writer? Chant it with me now: because fiction agents do not represent unfinished novels. When confronted with an unfinished manuscript written by a previously unpublished writer (someone other than a celebrity, that is), virtually any agency’s screener will move it from the consider-me pile into the reject pile so fast that it will hardly touch the desk.

In other words: NEXT!

Yes, yes, I agree: this conclusion is unfair. However, in a sense, I can see the screeners’ point. The jacket blurb is marketing material, aimed at the general public; the synopsis is aimed at those who screen books for a living. Think about it from the agent’s POV: if you read 50 synopses for, say, murder mysteries in any given day, wouldn’t the plots all start to run together in your mind if NONE of the synopses included significant detail?

If you have been sending out very-short synopses with your query letters, DON’T PANIC. If you have been receiving form-letter rejections, you might want to consider the possibility that your submissions have been rejected unread, simply because your synopsis was too short. (Hey, I don’t make the rules: I’m just the messenger here.) It might well be worth your while to construct a longer, more detailed synopsis — then query your top agent picks again. Perhaps not the ones who rejected you in May, but certainly the ones who rejected you in March.

Don’t worry about the repetition bugging them, if it is a large agency: they receive far too many queries in a given month to remember (or catalog) them all. (I wouldn’t suggest mentioning in the query letter that you had queried them before, however.) And if they do remember yours from before, they will probably merely conclude that in the interim, you finished writing the book — thus the fuller synopsis.

Hey, sometimes, the industry’s cynicism works for you, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Since some of you who will be meeting with agents and editors at the PNWA conference (or other conferences) this summer will undoubtedly be asked to submit a synopsis with your post-conference submissions, I am going to revisit the issue of how to write a killer synopsis. But not right now — because, appearances to the contrary, I am on retreat! Watch this space, though.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Min

Hello, readers —

Ah, the bohemian life of the writer: we never really get vacations, do we? Or, to be precise, our definition of a really fabulous vacation tends to be a few days off in the middle of nowhere, where we can shut ourselves off from outside stimuli and write. Preferably with room service.

This is actually a working vacation for me, but with the conference so close, I thought I should post, anyway. The very fact that the term “working vacation” has made its way into our collective vocabulary makes me wonder about how much the computer has actually improved our lives. It used to be that when you traveled for business, you got to read a book on the plane — now, you work on your laptop instead. One of the charms of being on vacation used to be that you were NOT reachable by phone, but we now regularly hear cell phones ringing on beaches. It makes one think.

I am allowing myself a certain leeway of topic, though, to mark the casualness of the occasion. So, in keeping with the summer vacation spirit, where everyone’s knees are visible in Bermuda shorts, I’m going to tackle a fun topic today: what you should wear to a conference in the dead middle of summer.

Several of you have written in, asking about what to wear to your meetings with agents and editors at the upcoming PNWA conference. (And, if you have not already had a chance to register, remember: registration forms postmarked by TOMORROW will mean $50 off the price of admission!) It’s an excellent question, because in many ways, these meetings are job interviews — you want to look professional, not as though you have just stepped off the aforementioned beach.

Does this mean you should wear a suit? No, not unless you will be pitching a book about business skills, or another sort of NF book where your credibility as an expert is a strong element of your platform. If not, overdressing can come across as insecurity, rather than professionalism, especially to a NYC-based agent or editor.

Why? Well, just as being naturally good-looking makes a BIG difference in first impressions on this coast (come on, admit it), being well and appropriately dressed is important in making good first impressions on Manhattanites. Seriously, one way that people identify others like themselves back East is by dress — if you work at a fashion magazine, you dress one way; if you work in a brokerage firm, you dress another. So to an NYC-based agent, if you wear a suit, depending on the designer’s label within, you might to an observer be identified as a high-powered attorney, a minor official at a state agency, or a shoe salesman.

So while this means that you might as well skip the makeup and wear your glasses to your meeting (because that’s what writers look like normally, right?), this is not the time to be shabby. Neatness counts. Nice pants or a skirt (but not a super-short one, unless you are pitching erotica), avoid showing too much cleavage or chest hair, and go light on the cologne. Unless you are pitching a book about mountaineering, I would avoid jeans or hiking boots. No need for women to wear heels or nylons, though. Don’t dress up as if you were attending an afternoon wedding — a corsage would be a BIT much — but don’t show up in shorts and a T-shirt, either.

I am about to make a prophecy: you will remember this advice vividly when you walk into the conference, because there you will see many, many people there in jeans and T-shirts proclaiming their favorite bands or 5K runs for charity. The PNW is a pretty casual place. Do as I say, not as they do, because even if EVERYONE else is dressed down, you will still make a better impression if you are appropriately dressed than if you are not.

Basically, wear what you might to the first major reading of your book in a bookstore.

This is a terrific rule of thumb anytime you will be meeting with anyone in the industry, actually, because you will be demonstrating to an agent who is considering taking you on as a client, or an editor who is considering your book, that you have enough social sensitivity that they don’t have to worry about you showing up to future interviews or signings in your pajamas.

Believe it or not, the ability to dress appropriately is equally helpful whether you write gardening advice or cyberpunk. People in the industry want to work with authors whom they can send into a variety of promotional environments — if you doubt this, pay attention to what the presenting writers, agents, and editors will be wearing. You’re not going to see a while lot of prints on the women, for instance; I’ve never been to a writers’ conference where at least one of the publishing professionals WASN’T wearing a plain, clean-lined pantsuit.

So this is not the best place to trot out the big floral prints (you’ll think about that, too, when you see how many people show up in them), or clothing bearing the insignia of a business or sports team. I don’t want to see your knees at all, under any circumstances, so even though it will be July, just don’t pack the shorts or flip-flops with your conference gear. Trust me on this one. (The meeting rooms will be air-conditioned, anyway, sometimes to pneumonia-inducing levels of chill.)

I hear some of you out there grumbling, and rightly so: for most of the conference, you will be sitting around on folding chairs, listening to speakers. So wouldn’t it make MORE sense to wear something comfortable, rather than fussy nice clothes?

In a word, yes — to the parts of the conference where you can reasonably expect to be sitting around on a folding chair, listening to speakers. But for your meetings, no. There’s no law, however, that says you can’t leave your nicely-pressed shirt on a hanger in your car, or in the closet of your hotel room, to change into an hour before your appointment, is there?

Two caveats about the preceding. First, if you plan on taking the brave route of accosting agents to pitch at them in the hallways, do plan on being dressed up a bit the whole time, so you are always ready to make a good impression.

Second — and this may seem a trifle frivolous, but it is nevertheless true — the lighting in virtually every conference center in North America makes everyone look ghastly. Red tones tend to do better in that light than yellows. And if you’re like me, and pale, you might want to spring for a little rouge or lipstick, so you don’t look as though you have spent the last year typing away on your opus in a crypt. (Unless, of course, you write about vampires, in which case you may feel free to look a trifle Goth.)

Speaking of which, I now notice that the sky outside is a glorious Copen blue, and I should go outside. Happy June!

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Yesterday, I was talking about what really happens (as opposed to the pervasive fantasy about what happens) if an agent falls in love with your book at a conference. (For an explanation of what an editor from a major publishing house does in the same situation, see my post for May 22nd.) Contrary to popular belief, the pitch meeting is not generally where decisions to sign an author are made: it is merely the first step in an ongoing conversation.

However, by having that conversation, and being able to write REQUESTED MATERIALS — PNWA on the outside of your submission, your work will be able to skip several steps in the querying process. Which alone is worth the price of admission.

Incidentally, you do not need to have a meeting with or pitch to an agent who attends the conference in order to benefit from having seen him at the conference. Agents ADORE writers who attend conferences — in their eyes, it’s a mark of professionalism in a writer, a desire to learn the marketing side of the business. So if you see several agents whom you like at the agents’ forum, but feel too shy to buttonhole them for a quick pitch, go ahead and query them right after the conference, mentioning in the FIRST LINE of your query letter that you enjoyed hearing them speak at PNWA. This will assure that your submission goes into the savvy conference-goers pile, rather than in the pile with the other 99% of the week’s submissions.

One caveat, however: NEVER write REQUESTED MATERIALS on an envelope addressed to an agent or editor UNLESS the recipient has actually asked you to send the material. True, agents are often so swamped at conferences, particularly big ones like PNWA, that they will not necessarily remember every pitch they heard, or even every pitch they liked, by the time they get back to their offices, but it’s NEVER a good idea to start a new relationship on a lie.

Which makes it very much to your advantage to approach as many agents in your area as possible at the conference. It’s been my experience that an agent caught after a class, on the dais after the forum, or even in the hallway is marginally MORE likely to hand a business card to a writer than an agent seated comfortably, hearing several hours of pitches in a row. In the pitch meetings, your pitch is being measured against the other 15-minute meetings, where there is quite a bit of time to consider the book concept — and sometimes reject it. The more they can winnow submissions at that point, the less work for them and their staffs after the conference.

But when an agent’s in motion, her instinct is usually to get through the interaction quickly — and what’s the quickest way for an agent to part with an aspiring writer on friendly terms? Why, to hand the writer a business card and say, “Why don’t you send me the first chapter?” It’s a win-win situation.

Yes, yes, I know — we would all prefer that the agent of our dreams fall in love with our book on the spot, so it seems almost underhanded to use an agent’s overbooked schedule as a means to obtain a reading. But to be brutally honest, the 30 seconds or minute you take of the agent’s time in the hallway is approximately the same amount of time the screeners at her agency spend on reading the average unsolicited query letter — shocking, isn’t it? — and that informal in-person meeting is statistically far more likely to result in your being asked to send manuscript pages than would the same book pitched the same way in a query letter.

As long as you’re polite, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with using the hallway pitch to get your work read. Try to avoid buttonholing agents who are obviously rushing into the bathroom, of course, or juggling a food plate and a drink in a buffet line, and always ask if this is a good time. If they say no, ask when would be a better time — or would they prefer it if you just sent the first chapter? To an agent trying to help himself to his third bowl of pasta salad, the latter option might seem just dandy.

Seeing a pattern here?

It’s always nice to begin a buttonhole pitch with a specific compliment: “I know that you must be swamped this weekend, but I just loved what you said in the agents’ forum about X. I couldn’t get an appointment with you, but would you mind giving me a couple of minutes, to hear about my book, either now or after you finish your dessert?” Be profuse in your thanks, regardless of whether they say yes or no, and then leave immediately. (This last part is essential, to avoid giving the impression of being a stalker. Oh, and perhaps this goes without saying, but to prevent any possible confusion: DON’T STALK THESE PEOPLE. Approach them only in the well-lit, well-populated areas of the conference, and with respect.)

Think about the interaction I’ve just described from the agent’s POV. It’s kind of flattering, isn’t it? People LOVE to be told that they made a good point in a speech, as long as the compliment is sincere — almost everybody has some fears associated with public speaking, even people who speak in public regularly.

I hear some of you out there grumbling: if it’s that easy to charm an agent, why isn’t it possible to charm one so much that he will want to grab the manuscript now and read it on the airplane home? Or in his hotel room, so he can sign me before another agent at the conference snatches me up?

The airplane question has a very, very simple answer: because manuscripts are heavy. Ever tote more than one 400-page manuscript in your shoulder bag? Agents have. They know better than to add three or four more to their carry-on luggage. Far, far better to allow the stalwart shoulders of the USPS to bear the burden.

As for an agent’s reading the book in his hotel room… well, perhaps my view on this is colored by the fact that I have been attending literary conferences since I was very young and VERY cute, but in my experience, agents and editors who use the phrase “in my hotel room” have not usually been talking about literature at the time. (For the benefit of those of you who are new to the conference scene, or just very young and very cute, there is NO legitimate book-related reason that a writer would need to visit an agent, editor, or anyone else in the publishing industry in his hotel room at a conference. Nothing you could possibly do there, other than lock him outside until you write a brilliant novel from beginning to end, will help you get published. If anyone at any writers’ conference ever tells you otherwise, walk away as fast as you can.)

The only exception I have ever encountered on the conference circuit was an eager-beaver agent who practically assaulted the winner of the night’s literary biggest prize immediately after it was awarded, demanding to see the book that instant. The nonplused writer rushed home (thank goodness she was local), printed out a copy, and rushed back to deliver it. The agent did in fact read the first chapter that night, gushed over it the next day — and then took it back to Los Angeles, where she took three weeks to read it.

In the end, from the writer’s POV, despite all of that nocturnal running around, the eager-beaver agent ended up doing precisely what most of the other agents at the conference did, reading the book after she got back home. So, in the long run, what was the difference between merely asking the author to mail her the book, and demanding it on the spot, other than inconveniencing the writer?

There endeth today’s lesson. For those of you who are planning to attend the conference: yes, the conference is not until July, but remember, registration is $50 cheaper if your form is postmarked by June 6th.

And yes, I’m going to repeat this, to the boredom of those of you who have been reading through the whole series: if you are looking for information about the agents and editors coming to the conference, so you can choose your appointment preferences wisely, check out my posts about the scheduled attendees, April 26 — May 12 for the agents and May 18 — 26 for the editors.

If I seem to be harping on the contest in general and registration deadlines in particular, it is because I would like to meet as many of my readers as possible at the conference — yes, I will be there, well marked with a nametag and eager to answer people’s questions. I’m going to be running a pitch practicing booth, where you can get feedback on your pitch BEFORE you give it to an agent or an editor, so come on by and say hello.

And had I mentioned: on June 24th, I’m teaching a PNWA Writing Connections class (translation: free) on how to polish your pitch for the conference. Advance preparation REALLY pays off when you’re sitting face-to-face with an agent, so do try to attend, if you can.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

My, I’ve been receiving a mountain of e-mails from your collective selves of late! It really seems to have hit home for a lot of you that conference season is now officially upon us. Summer is the time when serious writers’ minds should turn to marketing their work.

If you are still vacillating about whether to attend this summer’s PNWA conference, do bear in mind that if you can make a commitment by June 6th (that’s five days from now, according to my calendar), you will get $50 off the price of admission, and a whopping $100 off if you are a member. Regardless of whether you decide before or after next Tuesday, do take a gander at my write-ups about the agents scheduled to attend the conference (posts from April 26 — May 12; check the archives), as well as the editors (May 18 — 26), to help you decide whom to rank where in your conference choices.

At the risk of sounding like a tape recorder, do bear in mind that the information I have compiled on these fine people was gleaned from the standard industry databases and conference circuit talk, neither of which are noted for being 100% accurate. The main deals database, for instance, reflects the publishing world’s understanding of what a book is GOING to be, as of the point at which it is sold, not the book as it is when it is ultimately published. The deals lists are like book proposals that way: the originally projected image is not always identical to the eventual product.

I mention this not merely to give you a heads-up, but to admit that I was apparently misinformed about something I reported in my piece on agent {name removed at agent’s request; if you liked the books I am about to mention, I can only suggest that you contact the authors directly and ask who represented them.}I can only suggest that you c: I received a very nice e-mail the other day from his client Don Hoglund, DVM, author of the very interesting-sounding NOBODY’S HORSES (check out my post of May 9 for details), informing me that the coauthor listed in the deals database ultimately did not end up collaborating on the book! I’m making arrangements this very minute to change that tidbit in the archives, Dr. H, and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

The Mystery Agent’s clients seem to keep a very close eye on their web presences — which is an extremely smart thing for an author to do these days, now that the Internet has made every reader a prospective book reviewer — because I received a darling message from ANOTHER of his clients this morning. Bob Tarte, author of ENSLAVED BY DUCKS (certainly one of the best titles ever produced by human pen), mentioned in his courtly note that he had just finished final edits on his next book, FOWL WEATHER (another grand title), due out from Algonquin in the spring of 2007.

I was delighted by his timing, because this information provides a lovely and apt example of the post-signing timelines I was discussing yesterday: a LOT of time can pass between signing a contract and the book’s coming out, as all of you who have been following my memoir’s saga are no doubt already aware. If the databases are correct, Algonquin acquired FOWL WEATHER in February, 2005. Now, in June, 2006, the final edits have been completed, and it’s coming out next year. Just so you know, this is a fairly standard timeline — print queues are established months and months in advance of actual printing.

It just goes to show you: if you plan to see your work in print, expect something of a wait after each time you sign something major. It’s a long, long road, so do celebrate each milestone on the way to publication. (It also goes to show you, I suppose, that a nice little thank-you note to someone who mentions you online is never amiss. Your mother was right: good manners pay off. Incidentally, if you want to see a great example of an offbeat-but-professional writer’s bio, Mr. Tarte’s bio is quite an excellent example.

All right, enough about my past advice — on to the future. Since I was so full of grim realities yesterday, today I want to talk about what happens when an agent falls in love with a pitch at a conference.

We all know the fantasy version, right? Timid author creeps into meeting, clutching manuscript, blurts out a few halting sentences about the plot — and the agent climbs onto her chair, screaming at the top of her lungs, “At last, the book I have been seeking for my entire professional life!” She signs the author on the spot, of course, and the book is published before the end of the year. Career made!

Um, no.

I have very mixed feelings about the verbal pitching process, precisely because its immediacy does raise this kind of expectation — which, in turn, leaves good writers new to the game disappointed when they get an ordinary positive response. Verbal pitching by authors, as I have mentioned before, is not all that common in the publishing industry; it’s really the province of screenwriters and literary agents. This is a printed page-based industry, not one based on elocution, or even electronica, although increasingly, books are marketed via the latter two means. Still, most of the industry prefers the old-fashioned ways: the paper query, the printed-out manuscript, the rejection letter handled by someone in a postal uniform.

Which is why, incidentally, many agencies still do not accept e-mail queries: they simply prefer to deal in paper. Of those who do, most are either newer agencies, searching for younger, hipper authors, or more established agencies that suddenly became post-shy after that rash of anthrax threats a few years back.

There are pluses and minuses to dealing with agencies that accept e-mail queries. Undoubtedly, e-mail queries are more convenient and planet-friendly — but they are also far, far easier to reject. One keystroke, and your heartfelt plea is deleted. It actually takes someone licking an envelope to reject you the traditional way.

While I’m on the subject, do be wary of agents or editors who ask you to send significant parts of your manuscript electronically for their review. In the first place, the same ease of rejection applies as with e-mailed queries: the first word that displeases them, and they can hit the DELETE key. The second reason has greater long-term ramifications. Since forwarding e-mail is so easy, you have absolutely no way of knowing where your work will end up, and since copyright consists partially in controlling where and when your work is available to be read, e-mailing chapters is not particularly smart legally, at least until you already have a signed contract with those to whom you are sending it.

It is considered perfectly acceptable within the industry to respond to a request for an electronically-transmitted chapter with a polite note saying that you have just dropped a printed copy in the mail, along with a SASE. This is legitimate, even if you originally contacted the agent by e-mail.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. Let’s assume that you and your book made an exceptionally favorable impression on the agent sitting in front of you. What happens next? Well, 99% of the time, the agent will smile warmly and slide his business card across the tabletop toward you. “Send me the first chapter,” he will say. Or the first 50 pages. Or, sometimes, the whole book. “I’m pleased to have met you.” Then your meeting will end.

And you will rush home, read every syllable of those requested pages OUT LOUD and IN HARD COPY (I hadn’t harped on THAT in awhile, had I?) to make sure that it is utterly error-free, in standard format, and charming to boot, and carry it to the post office. Make sure to include a SASE and a cover letter thanking the agent for his interest and reminding him both where he met you AND that he asked for the manuscript. Take the largest marking pen provided by the USPS and write REQUESTED MATERIALS on the outside of the envelope or box, too, so it does not languish in the unsolicited manuscript pile when it gets there.

Not nearly so dramatic as the fantasy version, is it?

And then you will wait while your submission makes its way through the levels of screeners at the agency (the agent is seldom the first reader). And in the summertime, that can take a while, but there is absolutely no way that any agent is going to pick up a book without having read it. Because, really, books are not sold to agents on the author’s ability to make a persuasive verbal pitch, no matter how good the premise. They are sold on the writing — and there are plenty of people out there who speak well but who cannot write. And vice versa.

See why I advised you a few days ago to have a writing sample in hand at your meeting? A well-constructed sentence is the lingua franca of the realm you are entering. Come to the meeting with your pockets fairly jingling with that kind of coin, as well as with a killer pitch on the tip of your tongue, and your follow-though will be as productive as your serve.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

P.S.: For those of you PNWA contest entrants who have been wondering, the finalists will be notified by mail by June 15th, I’m told. So if you were holding off on early registration for the conference, pending learning whether your nametag would be graced with a rainbow-hued ribbon, you might want to reconsider your strategy.

Hello, readers —

Remember last week, when I was going on about pigs in pokes, and the undesirability of buying them? I mentioned that I had no idea what a poke was. Well, I opened my work e-mail over the weekend, and fabulous and intrepid reader Janet had TOLD ALL:

“A poke is early type of paper bag–something to hold candy, peas and other types of loose foodstuffs. It is essentially a square piece of paper folded into a cone. The bottom point is folded up so that the candy or dried beans won’t fall out. The sheets of paper came in different sizes 4″, 8″ and 10″. Apparently, the shopkeep could figure out costs per weight this way.”

Have you ever seen a clearer description of anything? But wait, Janet did even more research on the subject:

“The pig in a poke is a great image as you would really have to stuff the pig into poke pretty hard. Be pretty tight. General stores used these for years until a girl in New England invented the type of squared paper bag with a floor some time after the Civil War. As for the poke, I’m told that in Germany you can still get food this way.”

Janet, please find me at the conference, if you will be attending: I want to buy you a drink, or at least a cup of coffee, because now, I have the pleasing image in my head of all of those American agents and editors who travel every year to the Frankfurt Book Fair, buying pigs in pokes from street vendors. After hearing them spout the truism for so many years, that image makes me absurdly happy.

While I am praising wonderful readers, Arleen, who has apparently TAKEN classes with Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick (who will be offering Pathways to the Novel on the Sunday following the conference), was kind enough to send in the class’ website. Not only that, but she provided a link to more info about co-teacher Jack Remick Add to this her rave review of the class she took, and I think I can safely say that this constitutes a recommendation.

Do remember, the Sunday classes fill up fast, so if you are interested in taking one, please sign up soon. Also, don’t forget that registering for the summer conference BEFORE June 6th (better known as a week from today) will give you a $50 discount on the cost of attending! If you have not yet picked your top choices for agent and editor meetings, check out my blogs about the scheduled attendees, April 26 — May 12 for the agents and May 18 — 26 for the editors.

And, while I’m at it: if you have not already put the first 50 pp. of your work into standard format, so it is ready to send out to any agents or editors at the conference who might conceivably ask to see it, check out my post of February 19. If you do not already know why this is an EXCELLENT idea, consider my recommendation of the previous sentence multiplied a thousandfold. (Not adhering to standard manuscript format — which is DIFFERENT from book format — has cost a lot of good writers a fair reading from agency screeners.)

My, that was a lot of housekeeping, wasn’t it? I actually do have a topic for today: what materials should you bring with you to the conference — and, more importantly, to your agent and editor meetings?

At minimum, of course, you’re going to want a trusty, comfortable pen and notebook with a backing hard enough to write upon, to take good notes, and a shoulder bag sturdy enough to hold all of the handouts you will accumulate and books you will buy at the conference. I always like to include a few sheets of blank printer paper in my bag, so I can draw a diagram of the agents’ forum, and another of the editors’, to keep track of who was sitting where and note a few physical characteristics, along with their expressed preferences in books.

Why do I do this? Well, these fora are typically scheduled at the very beginning of the first day of the conference, a very, very long day. By the time people are wandering into their appointments at the end of the second day, dehydrated from convention hall air and overwhelmed with masses of professional information, I’ve found that they’re often too tired to recall WHICH editor had struck them the day before as someone with whom to try to finagle a last-minute appointment. Being able to whip out the diagrams has jogged many a memory, including mine.

I always, always, ALWAYS bring bottled water to conferences — even to ones like PNWA, where the organizers tend to be very good about keeping water available. When you’re wedged into the middle of a row of eager note-takers in a classroom, it’s not always the easiest thing in the world to make your way to the table with the water on it, nor to step over people with a full glass in your hand. A screw-top bottle in your bag can save both spillage and inconvenience for your neighbors.

If I seem to be harping on the dehydration theme, there’s a good reason: every indoor conference I have ever attended has dried out my contact lenses, and personally, I prefer to meet people when my lenses are not opaque with grime. I’m wacky that way. If your eyes dry out easily, consider wearing your glasses instead.

Even if you have perfect vision, there’s a good reason to keep on sippin’. If you are even VAGUELY prone to nerves — and who isn’t, in preparing to pitch? — being dehydrated can add substantially to your sense of being slightly off-kilter. You want to be at your best. Both conferences and hotels, like airports, see a lot of foot traffic, so the week leading up to the conference is NOT the time to skip the vitamins. I go one step further: at the conference, I dump packets of Emergen-C into my water bottle, to keep my immune system strong.

If this seems like frou-frou advice, buttonhole me at the conference, and I’ll regale you with stories about nervous pitchers who have passed out in front of agents. Trust me, this is a time to be VERY good to yourself. If I had my way, the hallways would be lined with massage chairs, to reduce people’s stress.

You will also want to bring some easily transferable pieces of paper with your contact information printed on it — why, come to think of it, a business card would be perfect for that! Seriously, it is VERY worth your while to have some inexpensive business cards made, or to print some up at home, for two excellent reasons. First, unless you make a point of sitting by yourself in a corner for the entire conference, you are probably going to meet other writers that you like — maybe even some with whom you would like to exchange chapters, start a writers’ group, or just keep in contact to remind yourself that we’re all in this together. The easier you make it for them to contact you, the more likely they are to remain in contact.

It’s just that simple.

Second, it’s always a good idea to be able to hand your contact info to an agent or editor who expresses interest in your work. They don’t often ask for it, but if they do — in a situation, say, where an editor from a major press who is not allowed to pick up an unagented book REALLY wants to hook you up with an agent — it’s best to be prepared.

I shall no doubt return to this topic between now and the conference, but let me start the chant now: avoid the extremely common mistake of walking into ANY writers’ gathering thinking that the only people it is important for you to meet are the bigwigs: the agents, the editors, the keynote speakers. Obviously, if you can swig a one-on-one with Ann Rule, go for it — I once spent several hours stranded in a small airport with her, and she is an absolutely delightful conversationalist. But don’t let star-watching distract you from interacting with the less well-known writers teaching the classes, who are there to help YOU, or the writer sitting next to you in class.

I have met some of the best writers I know by the simple dint of turning to the person rummaging through the packaged teas on the coffee table and saying, “So, what do you write?” Believe me, it’s worth doing. Someday, some of your fellow conference attendees are going to be bigwigs themselves, and don’t you want to be able to say that you knew them when?

And even if this were not true (but it is), writing is an isolating business — for every hour that even the most commercially successful writer spends interacting with others in the business, she spends hundreds alone, typing away. The more friends you can make who will understand your emotional ups and downs as you work through scenes in a novel, or query agents, or gnaw your fingernails down to the knuckle, waiting for an editor to decide whether to buy your book, the better.

Even the most charmed writer, the one with both the best writing and the best pure, dumb luck, has days of depression. Not all of us are lucky enough to live and work with people who appreciate the necessity of revising a sentence for the sixth time. Writers’ conferences are the ideal places to find friends to support you, the ones you call when your nearest and dearest think you are insane for sinking your heart and soul into a book that may not see print for a decade.

So stuff some business cards into your conference bag (if you file a Schedule C to claim your writing as a business, the cost of having the cards made is usually tax-deductible — and no, you don’t have to make money as a writer in every year you file a Schedule C for it. Talk to a tax advisor experienced in working with artists.), along with a folder containing several copies of your synopsis AND five copies of the first five pages of your book, as a writing sample.

Why? Well, not all agents do this, but many, when they are seriously taken with a pitch, will ask to see a few pages on the spot, to see if the writing is good enough to justify the serious time commitment of reading the whole book.

They don’t like, you see, to buy a pig in a poke.

Having these pages ready to whip out at a moment’s notice will make you look substantially more professional than if you blush and murmur something about printing it out, or simply hand the agent your entire manuscript. Don’t bother to bring your entire book with you to the conference, UNLESS you are a finalist in one of the major categories. You will never, ever, EVER miss an opportunity by offering to mail it instead, and in fact, agents almost universally prefer it. This is true, even if they insist that they want to read it on the airplane home.

Why the exception for the contest finalists? Well, agents tend to be pretty competitive people. Literally the only reason that an agent would ask for the whole thing right away is if he is afraid that another agent at the conference will sign you before he’s had a chance to read it — and I can tell you from experience that the category winners and placers at the PNWA do get mobbed by agents. (In case you didn’t know, one of the main prizes that the first-place winners receive, in addition to the nifty gold pin, is a breakfast meeting with ALL of the agents and editors. Awfully easy to chat about your work over fruit cup, I always find.) So I have known agents to read a chapter or two of the winners’ work in their hotel rooms.

Otherwise, don’t hurt your back lugging the manuscript box around; the sample will do just as well. From the writer’s POV, the sole purpose of the writing sample is to get the agent to ask you to send the rest of the book, so make sure that these pages are impeccably written, totally free of errors, and in standard format. (Again: if this is news to you, rush into the archives immediately, and take a gander at my post for February 19th.) If you feel that an excerpt from the end of the book showcases your work better, use that, but if you can at all manage it, choose the first five pages of the book as your sample — it just exudes confidence in your work.

More conference preparation tips follow, of course. In the meantime, keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Today, I am switching gears, moving from the agents who are scheduled to be at this summer’s PNWA conference to the editors. (If you missed any or all of my posts on the agents, check out the archived blogs for April 26 to May 17.) Typically, all conference attendees are scheduled for one appointment with an agent and one with an editor, but all too often, aspiring writers make their preference choices for these appointments blindly, or based solely upon the blurbs that the agents and editors provide. My hope, in showing you how much other information is out there about these people, is to help my readers get in the habit of researching publishing industry professionals before meeting with or querying them. The more you know about them, the more likely you are to find a good fit for you.

Why is a good fit so important? I’ve said it before, and I shall say it again: there is no such thing as a universally good agent or editor, one who will be the perfect choice for every single marketable book on the planet.

Why? Well, I grew up in a winemaking family, so a food and wine metaphor strikes me as most apt. If you ate a delicately-flavored fish with a very heavy red wine, such as a Cabernet Franc, the fish would not appear to its best advantage: the taste of the wine would overwhelm it. Conversely, if you drank a light Sauvignon Blanc with a powerfully-flavored meat dish, such as a cassoulet or a juicy steak, the taste of the wine would be overpowered by the food. However, if you paired the fish with the Sauvignon Blanc, and the Cabernet Franc with the steak, the result would be two distinctly different combinations of partners of equal strength and complementary qualities. You would enjoy your meal more, because all of the aromas and flavors would be shown off to their full advantage.

See where I’m going with this?

As a writer, you want your book to be paired with the agent and editor best suited to bringing out your work’s many excellent qualities. Yet much of the time, writers become so intimidated by the array of choices or frustrated by the long road to signing with an agent that they will snatch at an agent or editor simply because s/he IS an agent or editor. The result, often, is like an exquisite white fish in beurre blanc absolutely drowned by a tannin-rich red wine: they just don’t merge well enough to produce an enjoyable experience for anyone concerned. And, since the writer is typically the person with the least power in the situation, it’s usually the writer who suffers.

However, hooking up with the right agent — instead of just any agent — and with the right editor — ditto — can make a book shine, and this is as true whether we’re talking about work intended for the rarified palate of the literary fiction reader or the meat-and-potatoes tastes of the mainstream reader or the exotic taste buds of the SF/Fantasy reader. An agent who does not understand a book can rarely sell it, no matter how marketable the concept is, and an editor who really wants a different kind of book than you want to write will push you toward a compromise volume that satisfies neither.

This is why I am so adamant that knowing merely the general genre preferences of an agent or editor is not enough: the prudent writer needs to learn what SPECIFIC kinds of prose appeal to them — and, in an industry as subject to fashion as publishing, what KINDS of prose appeal to them right now, as opposed to a decade ago. To that end, I have been passing along information about individual sales for the various agents. And now, insofar as I am able, I am going to share information about individual acquisitions that the editors have made recently, so you may judge for yourself who of these people is the right fit for you.

As usual, bear in mind that I have gleaned this information from the standard industry databases and resources, which are not always completely accurate or up-to-date. I am not making recommendations here, merely passing along data. And, also as usual, I’m going to start with what the editors say about themselves, if they have posted blurbs.

Alphabetically, the first editor scheduled to appear at PNWA is Colin Fox of Warner. Here’s what he has to say for himself, in the post elsewhere on this fine website:

“Colin Fox (Editor) has worked at Warner Books for nearly six years, editing both fiction and nonfiction. His list of novelists includes such folks as the Pacific Northwest’s very own Robert Dugoni, along with David Baldacci, Brian Haig and Donald E. Westlake. On the nonfiction side, Colin has edited Billy Crystal, Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Henry Louis Gates, the family of Terri Schiavo, comedian David Cross and country star Gretchen Wilson. His primary areas of interest include commercial fiction, politics, current events, gambling, narrative nonfiction, pop culture, sports, business and humor.”

Hmm. He works with some pretty heavy hitters, but he’s trying not to be intimidating (“such folks” is a nice down-to-earth touch). I’m not sure that the NF list tells us much about how he would work with a writer new to the biz, as presumably “such folks” were pretty well-established as celebrities before he worked with them. Also, current event books are almost invariably written by well-established journalists, pundits, or political players, another kind of celebrity.

Let’s take a gander at what he’s acquired in the last three years, to see what he’s looking for in non-celebrity books, as well as what flavors of commercial fiction he favors:

Fiction: “Co-author of THE CYANIDE CANARY Robert Dugoni’s debut legal thriller A MATTER OF JUSTICE, billed as ‘in the tradition of Scott Turow and Brad Meltzer.'” (Acquired 2005, in a 2-book deal; if this deal sounds familiar, it was because it also appeared on the sale list of agent Meg Ruley.); Donald Westlake’s next three books (acquired 2003).

NF: Politics/Current Events: “Parents of Terri Schiavo Mary Schindler and Robert Schindler and siblings Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler’s untitled memoir, promising to ‘share their love and sorrow, joy and pain, and some shocking revelations as they honor Terri’s life, mourn her death, and finally tell the whole story.'” (Acquired 2005 by Jamie Raab at Warner, but Colin Fox was the actual editor.)

NF: Gambling: THE PROFESSOR, THE BANKER AND THE SUICIDE KING author Michael Craig’s THE FULL TILT POKER STRATEGY GUIDE: Tournament Edition, “a comprehensive tournament strategy guide, featuring tips from the site’s high-profile pros (including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, and Ted Forrest) on all of the varieties of tournament poker.” (Acquired 2006, for buckets of money, as I suppose is appropriate for a gambling book.); Card Player magazine columnist Matt Lessinger’s THE BOOK OF BLUFFS: 66 Poker Bluffs and Why They Worked, “a detailed look at the fine art of bluffing your opponents out of monster pots.” (Acquired 2004)

NF: Sports: Head writer of The Huddle.com David Dorey’s FANTASY FOOTBALL: THE NEXT LEVEL, “going beyond the stats and projections to offer the underlying tools, principles, and strategies for creating an optimal fantasy team year in and year out.” (Acquired 2006: please note that this book was sold to him by an agent who is scheduled to come to the conference, Byrd Leavell.)

NF: Humor: “Star of Fox’s Arrested Development and HBO’s Mr. Show David Cross’s first book, a collection of essays and stories.” (Acquired 2005); Comedian Billy Crystal’s 700 SUNDAYS, “based on his Broadway play of the same name, a poignant and personal portrayal of his youth.” (Acquired 2005, again by Jamie Raab, but Colin Fox was the actual editor.)

NF: Religion/Spirituality (which, please note, was not on his general interest list): LA Times Rome bureau chief Tracy Wilkinson’s “untitled book about the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth, and the new generation of exorcists who are following him, along with tracing the history of exorcism from its roots in the early days of Christianity to its current revival.” (Acquired 2005)

NF: Memoir (which, please note, was not on his general interest list): Country music singer Gretchen Wilson’s GRETCHEN WILSON: I’ll Tell You What a Redneck Woman Is, co-written by Allen Rucker, “telling her rags to riches story and offering a roadmap to living the fun, independent and empowering life of a Redneck Woman.” (Acquired May, 2006 — for publication this coming November! Lightning speed that makes the 1-year sprint to get the Schiavo book out for the first anniversary of her death look like a casual mosey…)

Don’t be surprised that this list is not longer — editors, even at major houses, simply do not acquire very many books in any given year. Thus the tough market. However, since Mr. Fox is listed on several sales here as the editor, with someone else doing the actual acquisition, it is possible that I’ve missed some books. However, I couldn’t find any narrative NF or business books at all, and his main sports seem to be couch- or chair-based.

Also, don’t be too put off by the fact that most of these books are written either by celebrities or people with tremendous, already-visible-at-the-time-of-acquisition platforms. Two of these books — the fantasy football book and Robert Dugoni’s thriller — were sold by agents coming to this summer’s conference, Byrd Leavell and Meg Ruley, respectively. Which opens up the very real possibility of a backstage-at-the-conference deal (which happens more than you might think). If Mr. Fox hears a pitch in an appointment that he really likes, he might well give one of these agents a heads-up about the author and the project.

Which, in case you don’t know, is usually what editors at the major houses do anyway, when they find a project at a conference; in Mr. Fox’s case, we simply have a better idea of which agents he might pick. Given Warner’s list in general and Mr. Fox’s list in particular, I would be astonished if he directly acquired any book at any conference, rather than referring a book he liked to an agent.

Why? Most of the major publishing houses have firm policies against acquiring unagented books, although some editors have been known to find ways around such rules. For this reason, you are far, far more likely to have your work picked up by an editor from a small press at any literary conference than an editor from a large one.

And yet there are a couple of very good reasons that you might want to try to get an appointment with an editor like Mr. Fox from a major house. First, as I said, if he falls in love with your project, he may well help you find an agent to sell it to him. Books discovered at conferences have in the past been sold in this way, over drinks while the conference festivities are still roaring away. You might get lucky.

Second, and infinitely more likely, you may well end up working with one of these editors one day, and it is a real advantage if, when your agent is drawing up a list of editors to whom to send your book, you can say, “Oh, I know her — we met at the PNWA conference two years ago.” This has happened twice to me in the last two years, in fact, and in both cases, the fact that they could put a face with the name proved helpful. Also, having spoken with these editors in the past, I had some idea of what they might be like if we did indeed work together.

This leads me to a piece of advice I have literally never seen in another other forum devoted to writers: think of your conference meetings as a chance to impress agents and editors with your personality, as well as your work. Or at least. as a time when it is extremely important not to make a bad impression. Negative first impressions, I have found, linger FAR longer than positive ones, and you certainly don’t want to be the writer who is remembered for having lost her temper and thrown a glass of water at someone in a group meeting. Be as charming as you can without being smarmy.

If you meet an editor from a major house at the conference who strikes you as someone you might want to work with down the road (as in, after you land an agent), go ahead and send her an effusive thank-you note after the conference. Couldn’t hurt, and such graciousness is so uncommon that the editor may well remember your name later on, when your agent slides your manuscript across her desk.

And, as always, remember that you want to walk out of the conference with as many invitations to send your first chapter or proposal as you possibly can. It’s usually easier to finagle an extra editorial meeting than an extra agent one, so keep checking in with the appointment table at the conference; since the editorial meetings are done in groups, there is often a spare chair to be had at the last minute. Yes, that editor from the major house with the agented-work-only policy probably won’t pick up your book, but there’s always the off chance that he’ll refer to you a terrific agent. Not to mention being a great opportunity to practice your pitch, and hear what other people are writing.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

PS: Jot it on your calendar now: on June 24th, I am going to be leading a seminar for PNWA members on how to polish your pitches before the conference. Details follow.

Hello, readers —

Finally, here is the last installment of my series on the agents scheduled to attend this year’s PNWA conference! If you are joining us late, and are interested in seeing my take on who represents what and why among the scheduled attendees, feel free to check out these posts in the archives on this site: the series has run from April 26 to today, May 17. Phew!

The final agent on our list is Joe Veltre of Artists Literary Group, and I have to say, apart from not having posted a blurb about himself on the PNWA website (and the fact that the name of his agency really ought to have an apostrophe in it, because the first word is possessive), he seems at first glance to be the kind of agent I like to see at conferences. He has broad interests, and a solid track record of taking chances on previously unpublished writers. He has a strong sales record — how strong, you ask? Well, he was able to start his own agency a couple of years ago. (If you are interested in the hows and whys of his setting up Artists Literary, here is are links to articles about him and it.) His sales are from across the publishing industry (rather than concentrating on just a few houses, as some agents do), and he has a history of taking positive steps to help aspiring writers. He has even written a series of articles for RomanceTimes.com, intended to enlighten those who would enter the industry.

Since he didn’t post a blurb on the PNWA’s website, I lifted one from elsewhere. Here’s what it says about him on Publishers Marketplace — or at least part of it; I weeded out the information that is primarily about the agency, was not relevant for our purposes, or could apply to any agency in the biz. The guy’s gotten around:

“Joe Veltre is the founder of Artists Literary Group… Veltre began his career at St. Martin’s Press, where he was a Senior Editor, overseeing several imprints, including the Dead Letter/Minotaur Mass Market Mystery program. At St. Martin’s, he acquired books across a wide range of genres, including literary and commercial fiction, thrillers, mysteries, narrative non-fiction, sports books, and pop culture. He then worked as a Senior Editor at HarperCollins, where he acquired and edited high quality non-fiction, working with business writers, journalists, and academics. From there, he went to Miramax, serving dual roles as Director of Development for Miramax Films and Editor-at-Large for Miramax Books. Immediately prior to founding ALG, Veltre served as a Literary Agent and the Foreign and Film Rights Director for Carlisle & Company, a boutique literary agency in New York. There he worked with a wide range of commercial and literary authors, built strong relationships with publishers overseas, and film and television producers, studios, and agents. Veltre’s depth of experience working with major publishers and film companies is the perfect combination for working with authors as their literary agent.

“As the head of ALG, Joe regularly speaks at conferences around the country on topics vital to both aspiring and experienced authors. He is constantly looking for new authors, focusing on a wide range of subjects, including: commercial fiction & non-fiction, literary fiction, thrillers, women’s fiction, mysteries, narrative & political non-fiction, academic and historical non-fiction, romance, suspense, business & how-to non-fiction, and young adult books. He works closely with artists on their literary needs, including: academics, historians, journalists, novelists, filmmakers, sports figures, photographers, doctors, interior designers, TV personalities, business consultants, and military personnel.

“Veltre graduated from Emory University and also attended the University of Alabama’s Graduate English Program, where he taught literature and writing.”

Okay, here’s a quiz to see who has been paying attention all along: who out there recognizes the code term in the last paragraph? And what does it mean? Hint: remember a month or so ago, when I was talking about author bios?

Pencils down, everybody: the code term is “attended,” as opposed to “graduated from.” Mr. Veltre is, I gather, a grad school dropout, which is actually QUITE common in the publishing industry. Especially amongst editors, who are often former English grad students who did not finish their dissertations — thus the nicknames ABD (all but dissertation) and professor manqué. (It is also quite customary for people who DID complete all of the requirements for a Ph.D., such as yours truly, to twit such people about it.) I don’t know at what point our friend Mr. V. left his program, though, or why.

I bring this up, however, not for twitting reasons, but because Mr. Veltre mentions in his blurb working with academics, which is rather unusual for an ABD; it is far more common for those who have fled academia screaming to be more than a touch hostile to your garden variety Ph.D. holder. For this reason, if you are an academic or writing for the academic market, I would recommend sounding him out a little before you pitch. You might, for instance, want to stand up and ask him a few pointed questions during the agents’ forum. If he is indeed someone savvy about academia who LIKES to work with academics, leap over people, if you have to, to give him your pitch. However, before you go to the trouble, let’s go through his recent sales to see if he is still working with academics on a regular basis.

Since Mr. Veltre lists SO many interests, a savvy writer’s first instinct should be to double-check that he sells consistently in all of those areas — that’s a pretty hefty array of contacts to maintain for someone who occasionally likes to pause in his networking long enough to sleep and eat. So here’s what I found for the last three years, broken down by category, in more or less the order he’s listed them himself. As usual, do bear in mind that the standard industry databases are not invariably infallible, and the dates listed are for the initial sale to the publishing house, not date of publication. Please note, too, that Mr. Veltre’s sojourn with Carlisle & Company ended in mid-2004 (mysteriously, he also lists a sale with Inkwell Management in that year), so sales prior to mid-2004 may reflect those agencies’ policies and preferences, rather than his own.

Fiction: PUG HILL author Alison Pace’s THROUGH THICK AND THIN, “about two estranged sisters — one a single, Manhattan workaholic, the other a newly suburban stay-at-home mom — brought back together as they embark on a mutual weight-loss quest that will either finally break them or bond them forever.” (Berkley, sold 2006); LITTLE and THE HIAWATHA author David Treuer’s THE TRANSLATION OF DR. APELLES, “in which a lonely translator discovers a manuscript written in a ‘dead’ language that only he understands and unravels a story leading to his own first true love.” (Graywolf, sold 2005); U Va. Poe/Faulkner fellow and NYT journalist Taylor Antrim’s debut THE HEADMASTER RITUAL, “focusing on the political machinations inside a prestigious prep school as experienced by a first-year history teacher.” (Houghton Mifflin, sold 2005); Robyn Harding’s first novel THE JOURNAL OF MORTIFYING MOMENTS, “about a young woman living two lives–independent and successful in her advertising career, an insecure wreck with her boyfriend–who writes down her worst moments with men over the years to see where she is going wrong, with those ‘moments’ serving as a structure for the book, as she strives to reconcile the two sides of her persona.”(Ballantine, in a 2-book deal, sold 2003; just once, wouldn’t you like to see a female protagonist who is good at BOTH her job and her relationships, or perhaps bad at her job and good at her relationships? Just for variety.)

Fiction: Thriller: Crown editor Jason Pinter’s debut THE MARK, “about a young reporter who becomes a fugitive after being accused of killing a cop, and who must team with a headstrong female law student to uncover a story that could shatter a city.” (Mira, in a three-book deal, sold 2006); Nick Stone’s MR. CLARINET, “set predominantly in the voodoo landscape of Haiti, an ex-cop turned P.I. travels to investigate the strange disappearance of a wealthy family’s missing son.” (William Morrow in the US, Penguin in the UK, for an amount of money I have heard nebulously described as hefty, sold 2005); Sarah Langan’s first novel, THE KEEPER, “in the vein of CARRIE, about two sisters – one who wreaks vengeance upon the small town that wronged her and the other sister who must find a way to stop her.” (William Morrow, at auction, sold 2005)

Fiction: Women’s/Romance (again, the official databases lump both categories together): “21-year-old former fashion model Amanda Kerlin’s SECRETS OF THE MODEL DORM, a year in the life of a young, aspiring model living in a small apartment rented by a modeling agency exclusively to its new clients, as she navigates close quarters among competitive strangers, fueled by alcohol, drugs and obsessive dieting habits.” (Atria, sold 2006; imagine being a former anything at 21.); Jennifer van der Kwast’s first novel POUNDING THE PAVEMENT, “in which a smart, cynical young woman fights to survive in the New York film world, as she looks for work and love, while trying to stay one step ahead of her wicked boss.” (Broadway, at auction, sold 2004, when Mr. Veltre was still at Carlisle and Co.); Grad student Lauren Willig’s THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE PINK CARNATION, “in which a young American grad student travels to London to research the famous Napoleonic spy the Scarlet Pimpernel, where she finds an even more alluring historical story…. and a ‘hero’ of her own.” (Dutton, in a 2-book deal, in 2004, while in the employ of Carlisle & Co.; one wonders if the reason she sours on the Scarlet Pimpernel is that she discovered in her research that he was a fictional character, not a real person — and that he was NOT a Napoleonic spy, but rather an English aristocrat, and thus on the OPPOSITE side from Napoleon, as well as being active years PRIOR to Napoleon’s coming to power, rather than during his reign. The protagonist couldn’t have been a very GOOD grad student without having discovered THIS much while still on THIS side of the pond, no?)

Fiction: Suspense: Journalist Bob Morris’ BAHAMARAMA, “about a guy who just left prison after serving two years on trumped on charges and wants to see his girlfriend, currently overseeing a magazine fashion shoot in the Bahamas, but he arrives to find her kidnapped and has to try and rescue her.” (Minotaur/St. Martin’s, in a three-book deal, sold 2003; he probably means “trumped-up.”)

Fiction: SF/Fantasy (which, please note, was not one of his listed areas of interest): Talia Gryphon’s SHADOW THERAPY, “the first of a series about a paranormal psychologist and sexy blonde, who is drawn into the case of a ‘Fangxiety’ ridden vampire who hopes to save his soul through therapy and, of course, her body.” (Ace, in a three-book deal, sold 2005)

Fiction: I have no idea how to categorize it (Chick lit? Paranormal romance?): Valerie Stivers’ debut BLOOD IS THE NEW BLACK, “about a young woman at a glossy fashion magazine who discovers that the reigning tastemakers have a thirst for blood, pitched as THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA & MEAN GIRLS meets BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.” (Three Rivers Press, at auction, sold 2006)

NF: Narrative: Journalist Shana Alexander’s VERY MUCH A LADY, “looking at the dark truth behind the killing of Scarsdale Diet Doctor Herman Tarnower, the high drama of a sensational trial, and the fate of Jean Harris, a complex woman doomed by love and her own desire.” (Pocket, sold 2004)

NF: Political: Jennifer Abrahamson’s SWEET RELIEF, “about Marla Ruzicka, the 28-year-old American relief worker and founder of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict) killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber in April — after having collaborated on the first part of the manuscript.” (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, following the sale of the film rights to Paramount, sold 2005; this is technically listed as a biography.)

NF: Business: Consultant and seminar leader Andy Wibbels’ EASY BAKE BLOGS, “a ‘business blogging cookbook’ on how to leverage blogs to build and market your business.” (Portfolio, sold 2005); NY Jets head coach Herman Edwards with Shelly Smith’s YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME, “the life lessons he lives by and uses to motivate others throughout his successful career.” (McGraw-Hill, sold 2004, with Inkwell Management)

NF: General: Ted Steinberg’s AMERICAN GREEN: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, “a historical and muckraking look at the lawn industry, a billion dollar subculture, including the disastrous environmental effects and the humorous lengths to which people will go to have the perfect lawn.” (Norton, sold 2005)

NF: Pop Culture (which, please note, was not one of his listed areas of interest): British photographer Alison Jackson’s DOUBLE TAKE, “an Americanized version of her successful UK book presenting satiric photographs of dead ringer look alikes of public figures in odd, compromising, and humorous scenarios, including look-alikes of President Bush, Colin Powell, Martha Stewart, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.” (Crown, sold 2004 when Mr. Veltre was still at Carlisle and Co.); Julia Bourland’s TWIGS: The Go Girl’s Guide to Nesting, “a lively guide for smart, young women on decorating their first homes or ‘nests,’ be it a studio apartment or suburban home, featuring tips on making your ‘nest’ both a spiritual dwelling and an enjoyable place to entertain.” (Perigee, sold 2004, when Mr. Veltre was still at Carlisle and Co.; whew — aren’t you glad they went to the trouble of defining ‘nest’for us? We might NEVER have figured it out.)

NF: Memoir (which, please note, was not one of his listed areas of interest): Veteran producer Ed Feldman with Tom Barton’s TELL ME HOW YOU LOVE THE PICTURE: A Hollywood Life, “a revealing and humorous memoir by a producer who has worked with everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Harrison Ford and Glenn Close, on such films as ‘Save the Tiger,’ ‘Witness,’ and ‘The Jungle Book,’ ‘The Truman Show.'” (St. Martin’s, sold 2005); Blogger and photographer Stephanie Klein’s STRAIGHT UP AND DIRTY: The Life of a Young New York Divorcee, “a humorous tell-all tracing the author’s return to single life as a “firm, fashionable, and let’s face it — fetching” twenty-something, plus a memoir based on the author’s childhood experience at Fat Camp.” (Regan Books, for scads of money, sold 2005); Matthew Polly’s AMERICAN SHAOLIN, “a memoir from the first American — a 90 pound weakling at that — to study kung fu with monks at the original Shaolin temple in China, in a two-year martial arts odyssey that includes grueling days of training, a forbidden romance with a local woman, and ultimately a challenge match against a rival kung fu master with the Temple’s honor at stake.” (Gotham, sold 2005); T.J. Waters’s CLASS 11: Inside the Largest Spy Class in CIA History, “about how he was moved to action by 9/11, leaving the business world to join the CIA, becoming the eldest member of one of the Agency’s most diverse training programs at 37 (joining a pro athlete, a 9/11 widow, a chef, a single mom, and Navy Seals, among other trainees), providing an insider’s look at what it takes to become an elite agent in the revamped CIA.” (Dutton, at auction, sold 2005); First Gulf War veteran Buzz Williams’ memoir SPARE PARTS, “following his 28-day transition from a student on a college campus to a warrior in Kuwait, providing an inside look into the preparations and experiences of the hundreds of thousands of reservists who fought in the conflict-and who increasingly represent a core part of our military force strategy.” (Gotham, sold 2003); Journalist Malcolm MacPherson’s ROBERTS RIDGE, “the true story of US Navy SEALs who, seeking to bring home a wounded soldier, get caught in a ferocious battle with Qaeda forces trying to hold their position atop an Afghanistan mountain, told through the perspective of three young warriors, of whom only one survives.” (Bantam Dell, sold 2003; I believe he means al Qaeda and Afghani.)

YA: Brian Tacang (writing as Simon P. Binaohan), BULLY BE GONE: The Misadventures of Millicent Madding, the first in a series “about a young inventor who belongs to the Wunderkind – her school’s most ‘talented’ kids — who look to Millicent’s latest invention for help defending themselves against bullies, which leads to an even bigger disaster which only Millicent can mend.” (HarperCollins Children’s, sold 2003)

No, I cannot tell you why Mr. Veltre (or whoever inputs his sales into the standard industry databases for him) is so fond of putting things in quotation marks that are not in fact quotes. However, I’m inclined to forgive him — did you happen to notice how many first-time authors there were on this list? I may greet this guy at the airport with a fruit basket, on general principle… note, too, the number of vampire titles, those of you who write about bloodsucking creeps.

I do have some reservations, though, based on this list. In answer to our earlier question, I could not find any academic sales at all for the last three years — which, once again, reminds us that it is ALWAYS a good idea to check any agent’s stated representation categories against his recent sales. Nor could I turn up any historical NF, literary fiction, or mysteries. The only How-to book I found under his name was sold in 2001, and the only YA book I found was not particularly recent.

This does not mean that you should not pitch works in these categories to Mr. Veltre, of course — but you might want to do it in the hallway or after the agents’ forum, rather than expending your precious single agent appointment on someone who may or may not be interested in your area. Since he did not provide the PNWA with a blurb, it is probably best to err on the side of caution.

As I have said before, when in doubt, go to the agents’ forum and listen carefully. If you like what you hear from Mr. Veltre, introduce yourself and ask if you can pitch to him. In the past, the agents who did not post blurbs tended not to have all of their appointments filled, so it is always worth checking with the appointment desk about an agent who wows you at the forum.

What do I make of the fact that after so many successful memoir sales, Mr. Veltre is no longer listing memoir as an interest? Simple: it’s the worst period in my lifetime to be trying to sell a memoir, for a million little reasons. If I were looking to find an agent for a memoir at the moment, I would seriously consider sticking the book in a drawer for a year, until the publishing industry has stopped panicking about a few isolated incidents of fraud. If you do want to go ahead with a memoir now, be prepared for questions about whether you have signed releases from every living person you mention.

Oh, and speaking of embattled memoirs, in case you’ve been curious: to the best of my knowledge, my memoir (A FAMILY DARKLY: LOVE, LOSS, AND THE FINAL PASSIONS OF PHILIP K. DICK) was NOT released last week, contrary to Amazon’s assertions. That fine emporium’s website is now saying that the book will ship in 1 to 3 months — let’s hope that they’re right about that. My publisher has not yet given me a specific release date, for a whole slew of very complex and very boring legal reasons. (If you want to learn about the memoir’s blood-curdling saga on its road to publication, please see my posts of March 20 and April 18.) I shall keep you updated, though.

Tomorrow, on to the editors! Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Only three agents left in my ongoing series on agents scheduled to attend the upcoming PNWA conference, to help you make your meeting choices. Kudos to our good webmaster Andrew, who has now made it possible for those of you who have not been following the whole series for the past few weeks to check them out in the archives. Thanks, Andrew!

Today, I’m stepping out of alphabetical order a little, because two of the three remaining agents are very, very difficult to track down. The third was gloriously easy — sales pouring out of the standard databases as though I’d just stuck a nickel in the right slot machine — and hey, I’m only human. As a reward, #3 gets a blog all to himself.

Perhaps it isn’t fair to lump the other two together — one has a blurb posted on the PNWA website, and one does not; one has a listing in the standard agency guides, and the other does not. What they do seem to have in common is not posting their sales on the standard industry databases; neither apparently has a website. So really, I have had to rely almost exclusively upon their own promotional statements (where they exist) and a whole lot of web surfing to find out anything about them. Which, as you may have noticed, does not put me in the best of moods.

Speaking of which: I notice that there are a few more agent blurbs now up on the PNWA’s website, including more pictures, as well as blurbs for Farley Chase and Byrd Leavell. Check them out, if only so you can recognize them by sight at the conference.

The first agent for today, and the one who took the time to post a blurb on the site, is Ann Tobias of A Literary Agency for Children’s Books (how, oh HOW do they come up with these names?). Here’s that blurb:

“Ann Tobias (Agent) is both a children’s book editor and literary agent. She heads A Literary Agency for Children’s Books, which was established in 1988 in Washington, D.C., and is now located in New York City. As an agent, she represents authors and artists of books for children of all ages –from infancy through adolescence — picture books, mid level novels, young adult fiction, and selected nonfiction and poetry.

“Ann is also the Executive Editor of Handprint Books, a start-up children’s book publishing company in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Handprint Books specializes in picture books but has begun adding novels for the mid-level reader to its list as well.”

As I said, I wasn’t able to pull up any sales for her or her agency on the standard industry databases, and in doing some research, I found out why: she is listed in the standard agency guides as preferring not to share information about specific sales. Hmm. Makes it a trifle hard for prospective clients to figure out what she likes to represent, doesn’t it?

(Since I have been going on regular diatribes for several weeks now about how much more useful SPECIFIC preference information is than general category information, I will spare you the repetition of it here. Suffice it to say that EVERY marketing category contains a broad range of possible books.)

So: if you write for the children’s or YA markets, I would suggest that you try to pitch to Ms. Tobias at the conference. I wish I could narrow it down more than that, but without either a stronger indication from the lady herself or a list of recent sales, I’m afraid I cannot.

Sorry.

Let me share what I was able to find out. She does seem to sell pretty consistently in her chosen field: 12 last year and 23 in 2002, and with her editorial connections, that makes abundant sense: Ms. Tobias used to be a children’s editor for Harper & Row (THAT’S how long ago it was!) and Scholastic. She has also freelance-edited for William Morrow and Dial. The good editorial connections cut both ways, however: she has said in past agency guides that she obtains most of her clients through recommendations from editors.

She has also apparently submitted the same piece of advice to The Guide to Literary Agents for years on end, advice so unusual that it bears repeating here:

“Read at least 200 children’s books in the age group and genre in which you hope to be published. Follow this by reading another 100 children’s books in other age groups and genres so you will have a feel for the field as a whole.”

It’s probably good advice, although I would suspect that as an expectation, it is a standard that would rule out from authorship any parent who had a child under the age of 6. Even if you read to your kids like a fiend, when would a working parent have time to read that many books?

Her overall point is well-taken, though: it does behoove an author to know her target market. And evidently, Ms. Tobias does commit very heavily to those writers she does sign: I found an interview on the web where she stated that she does submissions to only one editor at a time, rather than a mass submission, and lets each editor have it exclusively for 2 months. (Which, interestingly enough, is the length of time her agency guide listing says to expect as a response time for queries. This is not an agency for impatient souls, I’m guessing.) She also indicates that she does quite a bit of editorial work on her clients’ books before sending them out.

Actually, that web interview was rather interesting; if you are planning to pitch a children’s book at the conference, you might want to check it out.
Two statements she made there struck me as yielding useful information about how to pitch to her:

In response to a question about what impresses her in a new manuscript: “Everything else –plot, characterization, setting, pacing, language — emanates from the theme. So, one of my first questions when I get a manuscript is, ‘What does this author want kids to think about?’ If an author can extend a kid’s thinking without preaching, then I’m interested in that manuscript.”
Later in the interview, she returned to this notion: “I’m talking about writing that does what it sets out to do. If the theme is strong and the writing makes it all work, then that is what I’m looking for.”

I find these very telling statements, even though they sound general at first blush: good writing alone is not enough for her to pick up a book, nor is a good story, necessarily. I would guess that she prefers a children’s book that has a moral over one that does not. And all of the charming Roald Dahl-ish embellishment in the world may not help win her over to a book without a point.

So if I were planning to pitch to Ms. Tobias, I would practice and practice my pitch until I sounded like the reincarnation of Aesop. The FIRST words out of my mouth at the meeting would be a one-sentence statement of theme, followed by another sentence explaining what a child could learn from the book. THEN I would start to talk about characters and plot.

I would also guess that she has a strong preference for books that read well out loud, based upon another statement in that interview: “I’m looking for writing that is honest, where the author has paid attention to the language and the rhythm. I’m not talking about poetry, but internal rhythm that good prose has. I’m looking for writing that moves me, writing that makes me think, that shows me something funny even.”

Rhythm and surprise are crucial to reading out loud, so it might be a good idea to test-drive your work on some children (public libraries and elementary schools usually LOVE it when authors want to read their work to kids) between now and the conference. That way, you can nonchalantly work in an anecdote during your meeting about how the kids gasped this part of the plot or cheered that character. (It’s not a bad idea in general to see how your target market responds to your work; the prospect of pitching to Ms. Tobias will just give you additional incentive.)

And that is absolutely everything I was able to dig up on her.

Which brings me to our next agent, Alice Volpe of the Northwest Literary Agency. She has not posted a blurb on the PNWA site, so I went looking for information on her. As nearly as I can tell, NW Literary is not listed in any of the standard agency guides, nor does it apparently have a website. It also evidently does not routinely list its sales on the standard industry databases, and its clients are not, I gather, given to boasting about their connection with the agency in interviews.

In short, I’ve known employees of the NSA who were more forthcoming with information. How secret could anything any reputable agency does POSSIBLY be?

And it IS a reputable agency, very much so; that’s the strange thing. I’ve met Alice Volpe at several conferences (where, come to think of it, she had seldom posted blurbs), and I have found her charming, gracious, knowledgeable, and funny. My impression of her is that she is not the type of agent who exaggerates what she can do for a client (as some do, you know): she seems to shoot from the hip, and she represents some quite successful authors. I genuinely like this person.

So it was really, really bugging me that I couldn’t find a blurb for her; I wouldn’t care, if I didn’t think she might be a good agent for some of you out there. Since I remember having heard Ms. Volpe speak before, I went rifling through my notes from past conferences, to see if I had jotted down any preferences she may have expressed in passing back then. As I do not write (and seldom edit) much genre work, my notes on her are sketchy, I’m afraid, apart from this cryptic notation from 2003: “She likes fiction that keeps her awake.”

Sorry. Apparently, she didn’t mention WHAT keeps her from drifting off.

Eventually, I did find blurb she had posted for another conference, one where she was a speaker. To give credit where credit is due, this blurb was borrowed — for a good cause! — from the Write on the River conference, so do think of the fine people who put up that website with kindness:

“Alice Volpe has worked in book publishing for the last 30 years. She began her career ‘on the inside’ of the industry in New York, working at Macmillan, Harcourt Brace, and Time-Life, as well as in Tokyo, Japan for Time Life Books, Kodansha International, Harper, Britannica and Grolier.

“She has held the positions of book publicist, staff writer, editor and publisher, and opened Northwest Literary Agency (Northwestlit@aol.com) in the 1980′s to help bridge the chasm between lone author and remote, corporate publisher. Her clients include J.A. Jance, Carola Dunn, Judith Smith-Levin, J. Carson Black, Lee Lofland, Jeffrey Layton and many others.”

There, that didn’t threaten national security, did it?

If you are a big fan of any of the writers listed above, but would like more information before you commit to ranking Ms. Volpe high on your meeting choice list, I have a humble suggestion. As you may have noticed, Ms. Volpe as listed an e-mail address in the blurb above. An enterprising writer COULD conceivably use that address to ask for a list of what the agency is looking for in a book at the moment. Heck, you could invite her to chat over coffee at the conference.

If, like most writers, you are too shy (or fearful of offending someone who might be interested down the line in representing you) to do any such thing, I can only repeat some advice that I gave earlier in the series: go to the agents’ forum on the first full day of the conference and listen very, very carefully to what Ms. Volpe says she wants pitched to her. And if you answer her description, dash on up to the dais after the forum is over (or speak to her after she gives a class, if she gives one), and ask if you can give her your elevator speech (which is the 30-second version of your pitch; don’t worry, I’ll write about it before conference time).

I know that this may seem rude to some of you, inconsiderate of other writers at the conference, or just plain pushy. I’m not going to lie to you — if you accost an agent outside of your scheduled meeting time, other writers will probably glare at you, and if you do it too far into the conference, the agent may be too tired to hear your pitch. Naturally, you should observe some basic rules of etiquette, such as not cornering an agent in the bathroom (I’ve seen it happen) and allowing them to eat their dinners unmolested.

However, if you are serious about using the PNWA conference — or any literary conference, for that matter — in order to find yourself an agent, being too polite may cost you vital opportunities. You really do want to walk out of the conference with permission to send SEVERAL agents your work, not just one. Hanging all of your hopes upon your single agent appointment elevates it emotionally from a nice conversation at a conference to the most mind-bogglingly stressful fifteen minutes of your life.

The moral (to make Ms. Tobias happy): do you really want to put all of your eggs in one basket?

It is perfectly acceptable to introduce yourself to someone standing in a hallway at a conference, even if that someone happens to be an agent. Even if that somebody happens to be the agent of your dreams, the one whose approval would make you faint dead away. Again, be polite, and try not to catch somebody who is obviously dashing into a meeting or the bathroom, but do not be afraid to introduce yourself. The agents really are at the conference in order to meet writers.

In my opinion, it is even more important to take advantage of this kind of hallway pitching opportunity with agents who make it hard to find out about them through the standard impersonal means. An agent who has neither a blurb nor a website should expect to be mobbed after the agents’ forum, I think, because until that agent expresses a firm opinion (in SOME forum, somewhere) about what kind of book she would like to represent, it is simply not reasonable to expect conference attendees to guess. It’s my considered opinion that many of the agents and editors who reserve expressions of their likes and dislikes for conferences actually enjoy the rush of popularity after they have finally vouchsafed an opinion.

But hey, ask me again a few weeks from now, when I haven’t just expended a couple of fruitless hours in trying to track down who and what a couple of recalcitrant agents represent. My mood will probably be more generous then.

The last agent tomorrow, then on to the editors! Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Welcome back to my continuing series on the agents who are scheduled to attend this summer’s PNWA conference. Even if you are not planning to attend (heaven forbid! Had I mentioned that someone from the agency that represents yours truly will be there?)?), I hope that this series is being helpful to you, not in only familiarizing you with some agents you might conceivably want to query, but also in teaching you to look beyond the one-paragraph blurbs in selecting an agent. The more information you have about these people, the more likely you are to connect with the right agent.

One of the trends that I hope has been becoming apparent throughout this series is that blurbs are not infallible indicators of which agent is best for you. Blurbs are, after all, primarily PR for a business. They not always accurate reflections of sales preferences and practices — indeed, as we have seen, sometimes there are significant differences from the actual sales record, and in other instances, the agents change their minds over time about what they want to represent. So gleaning up-to-date information on their preferences is very important.

(And no, I don’t know why more agents don’t realize that it is in their best interests to be as honest, current, and specific about their preferences as possible. It’s one of the eternal mysteries, like the origin of evil and why you can never find your car keys when you’re in a hurry.)

As we get closer to conference time, I am going to write a post or two about how to listen to agents and editors when they speak from the dias, what is and isn’t a useful question to stand up and ask during a forum, and so forth. (And in case you are prone to last-minute jitters, some successful veterans of the querying wars and I are going to be at the conference, available to help you practice your pitch before you walk into your meetings; more news on that later.) The more of you who make good connections with agents and editors at the conference, the better, I say.

The next agent on our alphabetical hit parade is Susan Ann Protter of, you guessed it, the Susan Ann Protter Agency. (How DO they come up with these names?) Here’s her blurb from elsewhere on the PNWA site:

“Susan Ann Protter (Agent), a native New Yorker, has worked in the publishing industry for three decades. After a brief stint as a French teacher, she began her career at Harper & Row (now HarperCollins) as associate director of subsidiary rights. In 1970 she left and became a consultant to Addison-Wesley requiring her to commute weekly to Massachusetts. In the course of these trips she met several authors who were at a loss as to how to proceed with their manuscripts. She advised them that although she had never been an editor she knew many people who were and would be happy to introduce them. And so her literary agency was born.”

Anne interrupting here for a moment. I’m going to alter the next paragraph of her blurb a little, in order to insert publishing houses and dates for the sales she lists here. It will save repetition later on. (Please note that these dates are publication dates, not initial sale dates for the book in question, as most of them were not on the standard deals databases, and sometimes, I was not able to track down the original hardback edition of the book.)

“Over the years she has handled a variety of books including the best sellers GETTING ORGANZIED (Warner, 1991) and THE ORGANIZED EXECUTIVE (Warner, 2001) by Stephanie Winston, THE HOUSE OF GOD BY Samuel Shem (Putnam, 1984) and THE PLANTATION BY George McNeill (Bantam, 1977) as well as the works of mystery writer Lydia Adamson: the Alice Nestleton series beginning with A CAT IN THE MANGER, the Dr. Nightingale series and the new Lucy Wayles series (There are many in these series, mostly published in the 1990s). She is the agent for FURY ON EARTH: The Biography of Wilhelm Reich, WALDHEIM: The Missing Years by Robert Edwin Herzstein (Paragon; 1989) and INSIDE THE MIRAGE: America’s Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia by Thomas W. Lippman (Westview, 2004). She also handles parenting and self-help books such as the classic THE TEENAGE BODY BOOK by Kathy McCoy, PhD and Charles Wibbelsman, MD (updated edition, Perigree, 1992). TWENTY TEACHABLE VIRTUES by Jerry L. Wyckoff and Barbara C. Unell (paperback from Perigree, 1995), THE REAL VIATMIN AND MINERAL BOOK by Shari Lieberman, PhD and Nancy Bruning (Avery 3rd edition, 2003), STOPPING SCOLIOSIS by Nancy Schommer (Doubleday, 1987) and SEW FAST SEW EASY: All You Need to Know When You Learn to Sew by Elissa K. Meyrich (paperback from St. Martin’s/Griffin, 2002). And she presently represents a number of prominent award winning science fiction writers and editors such as Ian R. MacLeod, John G. Cramer, Patrick O’Leary, Rudy Rucker, Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell.

“She is a member of the Association of Authors Representatives where she serves on the program committee. She is also an agent member of the Author’s Guild. Her agency deals with all publishers and maintains an office in Manhattan.”

This is undoubtedly an agent with a long and distinguished sales history, but I added the dates above to make a point: almost every agent will list sales in her blurb, but not all of them list their most recent sales. Sometimes, agents and editors will not update their blurbs for years on end (which may be the case here: Stephanie Winston, Samuel Shem, and Elissa Meyrich each have another book out since the ones listed.) It is always, always worth your while to check out not only the books the agent lists as having sold in the past, but what the agent has been selling in the last few years.

Why? In addition to tracking the agent’s current interests, looking up recent sales will also give you a clearer picture of what the agent’s connections are these days: junior editors come and go at publishing houses very frequently, so being able to sell a book five years ago will not necessarily mean the connections to sell a similar book to the same publishing house now. It is reasonable to expect that someone with a career as long as Ms. Protter’s would have long-standing connections with senior editors and publishers, however.

Here are the sales I was able to turn up for her for the last four years. (As always, bear in mind that not all agents or editors post all of their sales on the standard industry databases, and that those databases are not always 100% accurate.) It’s an interesting list:

Fiction: SF/Fantasy: David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, editors, YEAR’S BEST FANTASY 6, “including fantasy fiction by Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, Bruce Sterling and others.” (Tachyon Publications, sold 2006.); Rudy Rucker’s SF novel (Tor, sold 2003; Mr. Rucker’s NF: Science: LIFEBOX: THE SEASHELL AND THE SOUL, Four Walls Eight Windows, sold 2004, was apparently handled by a different agent.)

NF: Politics: “Former Middle East bureau chief for the Washington Post Thomas Lippman’s BEYOND THE MIRAGE: The American Experience in Saudi Arabia, examing the 60-year marriage of convenience between Saudi Arabia and the United States.” (Westview Press, sold 2003)

I couldn’t find any more, but as the standard agents’ guide lists her as representing 40 clients, I assume that she hasn’t been posting her sales regularly. (It does give me pause, however, that there are so many pre-2000 sales listed in her PNWA blurb.) That agents’ guide also told me that she does not represent westerns, romance, children’s, or YA.

But if you write SF or fantasy, she sounds like she would be a good choice. If memory serves, David Hartwell is — or was; as I said, people move around — an editor at Tor, and she has sold at least one book there fairly recently, so I would assume that Ms. Protter has connections there. (A cautionary note to those writing in these genres, however: she has specified in agents’ guides in the past that she is not interested in reping Star Wars or Star Trek™  based work.)

On to the next agent on our list, Rita Rosenkranz of, you guessed it, the Rita Rosenkranz Agency. Here is her blurb from the PNWA site; in the interests of fair presentation, I have added the dates for the titles she lists here:

“A former editor with major New York houses, Rita Rosenkranz (Agent) founded Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency in 1990. Her adult non-fiction list stretches from the decorative–FLOWERS, WHITE HOUSE STYLE: More Than 125 Arrangements by the Former White House Chief Floral Decorator by Dottie Temple and Stan Finegold (Simon & Schuster, published 2002) to the dark–SAVING BEAUTY FROM THE BEAST: How to Protect Your Daughter from an Unhealthy Relationship by Vicki Crompton and Ellen Zelda Kessner (Little, Brown; Books for a Better Life Award, 2003). Other titles include FORBIDDEN FRUIT: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus (Atria Books, essence.com bestseller, came out in paperback in 2005); OLIVE TREES AND HONEY: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World by Gil Marks (Wiley, 2005 James Beard Award winner); BRANDED CUSTOMER SERVICE by Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart (Berrett-Koehler, to be published this summer), BUSINESS CLASS: Etiquette Essentials for Success at Work by Jacqueline Whitmore (St. Martin’s Press, published 2005).

“She represents health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, popular reference, cooking, spirituality, and general interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets. She looks for projects that present familiar subjects freshly or less-known subjects presented commercially.”

Before I move on to Ms. Rosenkranz’s recent sales, allow me to pause and define the all-important concept of freshness for readers new to it. In the publishing world, a fresh concept is NOT an original one, as reason might dictate; a fresh concept is, as Ms. Rosenkranz is honest enough to tell us here, an unusual spin on a well-traveled subject. (The industry jargon for completely original book concepts is, I kid you not, “weird.”)

So if you are pitching a book that you believe to be fresh, here’s a good rule of thumb: find a couple of well-known books (or, even better, movies) in the area, and see if you can create a one-line descriptor of your book playing on that theme. As in: “It’s THE DA VINCI CODE set in China!” or “It’s A MILLION LITTLE PIECES meets Anita Hill!” This is what is known as a Hollywood hook, and it’s a great way to introduce a NF book project in a way that makes it sound fresh AND commercially viable.

On to Ms. Rosenkranz’ recent sales. She has a very strong adult NF list:

NF: History: “Pulitzer finalist and Deems Taylor award winner Betty DeRamus’s FORBIDDEN FRUIT: Loves Stories from the Underground Railroad, a collection of real-life stories about slaves, masters and slaves, and slaves and free blacks, using previously untapped sources including unpublished memoirs, family reunion publications and interviews with elders.” (Atria, sold 2003; she found elders old enough to remember the Underground Railroad in 2003?!?)

NF: Parenting: Lisa Chavis’ SHOULD I MEDICATE MY CHILD, “a guide for parents on how to handle common childhood illnesses and injuries – including specific over-the-counter medications/products and when to contact a medical professional.” (Perigee, sold 2002)

NF: How-to: Dr. Larina Kase and Harrison Monarth’s SPEAK UP!: From Scared Speechless to Spectacular Speaker, “which will help the reader overcome fear of public speaking, and to speak with confidence in all situations.” (McGraw-Hill, sold 2006; this was technically categorized as reference.); Christina Katz’s WRITER MAMA, “showing how moms can launch a successful and productive writing career while taking care of the kids.” (Writer’s Digest Books, sold 2005; also officially categorized as reference.); Wayfinding consultants Jan R. Carpman, Ph.D. and Myron Grant’s DIRECTIONAL SENSE: Learning to Competently Find Your Way Around, “explaining how to read maps, follow signs, ask directions, and recognize landmarks, so that everyone, including the directionally challenged, can find their way from here to there.” (M. Evans, sold 2004; again, categorized as reference.)

NF: Science: Kitty Ferguson’s A SECRET MUSIC, “which traces the legacy of the ancient philosopher and shaman Pythagoras and his followers, explaining how ideas whose origins are shrouded in myth can have had such an enduring impact on human thought and modern science.” (Walker, sold 2005)

NF: Business: Executive etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore’s MILLION DOLLAR MANNERS: An executive’s guide to turning contacts into contracts,
“a guide to using courtesy and good manners to stand out from the pack and flourish professionally.” (St. Martin’s, at auction, sold 2004)

NF: Reference: Jeremy Smith’s AMERICAN-BRITISH BRITISH-AMERICAN DICTIONARY, “a comprehensive (and humorous) translation dictionary.” (Carroll & Graf, sold 2005; this is, I suspect, an excellent example of a book that is fresh rather than weird; I believe we’ve all seen similar concepts before.)

NF: Cooking: “Founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine as well as chef, rabbi, historian and expert in the field of Jewish cookery Gil Marks’s A TREASURY OF JEWISH VEGETARIAN RECIPES FROM AROUND THE WORLD.” (Wiley, sold 2003); “Chief of communications at the FBI Pat Solley’s LIFE IN A BOWL OF SOUP, a cookbook with 100 recipes from around the world, with a look at the legends, science and history of soup through the ages, inspired by the author’s website www.soupsong.com.” (Three Rivers Press, sold 2003; again, this book could probably safely be described as fresh.)

NF: Spirituality: “Writer, scholar, and Andrew Weil website expert Lynne Bundesen’s WOMAN’S GUIDE TO THE BIBLE.” (Jossey-Bass, sold 2005)

NF: General: “2001 Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book Award for non-fiction Carolyn Michael’s ENCHANTED COMPANIONS: Stories of Dolls in Our Lives, a collection of men and women’s memories of their dolls, expressed in their own words and accompanied by photos.” (Andrews McMeel, sold 2002)

I didn’t find any health, music, or biography, but I did find several recent sales in categories not on her list:

NF: Gift: Artist Margot Datz’s SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR THE LANDLOCKED MERMAID, “an illustrated gift book offering humor and wisdom.” (Beyond Words, sold 2006)

NF: Sports: Darrin Gee’s ONE SHOT AT A TIME: Seven Principles for Transforming Your Golf Game and Your Life, “a golf instruction book, based on the author’s Seven Principles of Golf, these same principles also serve as the teaching philosophy for his nationally recognized golf school, The Spirit of Golf Academy, based on the Big Island of Hawaii.” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, sold 2005)

NF: Pop Culture: Mad Magazine contributor Arie Kaplan’s PICTURE STORIES, “a collection of profiles of comic book and graphic novel pioneers, as well as their contemporary counterparts.” (Chicago Review Press, sold 2005)

What are we to make of Ms. Rosenkranz’s selling so many books lately outside of her stated areas of interest? Well, I would guess that she is quite serious about being open to fresh takes on familiar topics (although I think that golf book sounds rather like a lot of other golf books, but hey, I don’t play the game). I seldom suggest pitching to any agent outside her stated areas of interest, but if you have a marketable NF concept with a twist, she might be a good choice for you.

I could not track down a website for Ms. Rosenkranz (nor for Ms. Protter), but I notice from her blurbs in the standard agents’ guides that she “stresses strong editorial development and refinement before submitting to publishers, and brainstorms ideas with authors.” Translation: if you sign with her, expect to spend some serious time incorporating her feedback. As in months. (See my earlier set of advice about making sure you find an agent whose critique style matches yours.)

Another gem of wisdom gleaned from a guide: she reports that she is seeking authors “who are well paired with their subject, either for professional or personal reasons.” Translation: she is going to ask you right away what your platform is. So MAKE SURE you give some thought BEFORE you enter your meeting with her about why you are the best person in the known universe to write this particular book.

In fact, before you even consider pitching your NF book to ANY agent, you should have such a pat answer prepared for the platform question that you automatically blurt it out when anyone refers even remotely to your work. The guy who sits next to you on the bus should hear your platform 27 times between now and the conference. I am serious about this: find your selling points and get them down cold.

Happy Mother’s Day, everybody, and keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Boy, this is a long series, isn’t it? Of the 19 agents scheduled to attend the PNWA summer conference, we’ve gone through 12. Hurrah! And, after today, we will have gone through 14, so I hope to finish up with the agent round-up sometime next week. That way, you can rush right over to the online registration on this very website and make your choices!

Unless you want to wait until I go through the editors immediately thereafter — and, if I can find enough info on them, the fine folks who are teaching the Sunday seminars. (If any of you have ever taken a class with any of these teachers before, please take a moment e-mail me a review. I’ll be happy to preserve anonymity, if requested.)

The first agent du jour is Maura Kye-Casella of the Denise Marcil Agency. Here is her blurb, lifted from not far from here on the PNWA site:

“Maura Kye-Casella (Agent) has been working at The Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc. since 2001. The Denise Marcil Agency was founded by Ms. Marcil in 1977 and represents a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction. Titles range from award-winning crime novels to best-selling women’s fiction to parenting and business titles. With regards to fiction, Maura is looking for submissions in commercial and literary fiction (including chick-lit, thrillers, paranormals, women’s fiction and multicultural novels) and in non-fiction she is actively seeking memoirs, pop culture, adventure, cookbooks and food related writings, lifestyle, humor, parenting and self-help titles.

“Maura’s recent books include LOST IN THE AMAZON (W Publishing) by Stephen & Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick, DARN GOOD ADVICE Babies/Parenting (Barrons) by Jan Faull and ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT (Avon/HarperCollins) by Sophie Jordan.”

To Ms. Kye-Casella’s credit, the titles listed are all quite recent sales: LOST IN THE AMAZON was sold in 2004; Jan Faull published two books in Barron’s Educational Series DARN GOOD ADVICE in 2005, and ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT was published in 2006. In one of the standard agents guides, I found a bit more info on what Ms. Kye-Casella likes: “well-written novels with an edgy voice, quirky characters, and/or unique plots and settings.” (THAT narrows it down, doesn’t it?) “I’m particularly interested in representing books that would appeal to 20- and 30-year-olds.”

Okay, that’s a rather broad brief, but we can work with it.

The agency’s website provides more information about the kind of books they like to represent, a focus specific enough that it bears reproducing here: in fiction, they want to be relevant. They call for “thrillers, suspense novels, and women’s contemporary fiction books that reflect the lives, challenges, loves and family issues facing today’s women — from twenty-something’s (sic) to retirees.” In one of the agents’ guides, they add that they are especially looking for “Latina and African-American fiction and chick lit.” They are explicit that they do not represent SF or children’s books.

In NF, the agency’s website is also very pointed: they want to help people, so I would consider working that angle into a pitch. “We are currently seeking self-help and popular reference books, including parenting, business, spirituality, and biographies. We are looking for authors with national platforms such as national seminars, columns, television and radio shows.” They specifically state that they do not represent political NF (and in one of the guides, they say that they also do not represent science books, although they have in the past).

Did something in that list make a light bulb suddenly appear above your head? ALWAYS pay attention when an agent mentions platform: it means that you should be very, very sure that your pitch includes a strong statement about why you are the best person in the history of the world to write this particular book.

It is worth noting that in both fiction and NF, Ms. Kye-Casella’s stated tastes are considerably broader than those of the agency. That is not usually a problem — individual agents often have connections that the agency’s principals do not — but do bear in mind that agencies, like publishing houses, do gain reputations for bringing certain types of books to editors. As a result, it may well be harder for an agent to sell her first book in an area new to the agency than her second.

I’m just saying.

Let’s take a gander at what Ms. Kye-Casella has sold recently, to see if this theory bears out. The usual disclaimers about the thoroughness of the standard industry databases aside, something struck me as I was pulling up these titles: Ms. Kye-Casella’s e-mail address was listed as the contact on most of Ms. Marcil’s recent sales, so it was a trifle difficult to tell what she had been helping sell and what she had sold on her own. (She also might just have been the person who posted the sales on that particular database; it looked as though the agency actually might not report all of their sales to the primary industry sources.) Her name appeared in all of the following listings:

NF: Memoir: Wildlife photographer Stephen Kirkpatrick and Marlo Kirkpatrick’s LOST: A Photographer’s Daring Expedition into the Amazon Jungles and His Dramatic Battle for Survival, “recounting the true-life account of Stephen’s five-man expedition. Lost for twelve harrowing days in the remote jungles of the Peruvian Amazon, battling poisonous reptiles, torrential rains, hunger, brutal heat and an unforgiving landscape in a desperate attempt to find their way back to civilization.” (W Publishing Group, sold 2004)

NF: Parenting: Authors of THE BABY BOOK, Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears, and their sons, Dr. Jim Sears and Dr. Bob Sears’ THE BABY SLEEP BOOK, “promoting a new method of getting babies to sleep, matching the solution to the individual baby.” (Little, Brown, $$$,$$$, sold 2003); “Dr. William Sears’s weight and fitness guide to help parents fight the children’s obesity epidemic.” (NAL, $$$,$$$, sold 2002)

NF: Science: Dr. Gail Browning’s EMERGENETICS, “outlining her unique brain profiling program, which analyzes both the thinking styles and behavior of the individual based on her original studies and the latest scientific information about the brain.” (Harper, sold 2003)

NF: Business: “Former Chief People Officer of PepsiCo Worldwide Michael Feiner’s THE FEINER POINTS OF LEADERSHIP, outlining his leadership laws for managing relationships with subordinates, bosses and peers.” (Warner Business, sold 2002)

Fiction: Thriller: Peter Spiegelman’s BLACK MAPS, “in which continuing character P.I. John March seeks a truly evil, blackmailing Wall Street banker and the truth about a 20-year-old money-laundering scheme.” (Knopf, in a $$$,$$$ two-book deal, sold 2002)

What are we to make of this list, especially the fact that much of it is not very recent, and that it’s a trifle odd that an agency that lists itself as 50-50 fiction and NF would post so few fiction sales? Well, I think we must conclude that the Marcil Agency is a trifle lax about reporting its deals to the industry’s standard tracking clearinghouses. Which means that, even after scouring the databases and the usual agents’ guides, I can’t tell you too much more.

I’m sure that this agency IS selling books, though, including quite a bit of fiction. If you want to do more research on Ms. Kye-Casella, I would urge you to check out the agency’s website, listed above. (See why I think it is SO important for them to have websites? Generally speaking, I prefer to judge an agency — or indeed, any institution — by its actions, rather than just what it says about itself, but at minimum, in order to make distinctions between agencies, we writers need at least to be able to compare their PR.)

Try not to hold the difficulty in obtaining information too much against this agency, which is a fine one, I’m told. Given the literally millions of aspiring writers out there, there are surprisingly few who do in-depth research on the agents they query; as you may have yourself noticed, providing writers with specific information about their internal workings and desires is not exactly industry standard practice. It is indeed hard to get this information, across the board.

Which would bug me substantially less if agents and editors didn’t tend to walk into conferences and open their mail assuming that everyone who approaches them is familiar with their work. I kid you not, in the Herman guide, the Denise Marcil Agency’s listing actually includes the sentence, “Do your homework to assure that I represent your type of book.”

The next agent on the alphabetical list is Jandy Nelson of the NYC- and Palo Alto-based Manus & Associates. I’m not seeing a blurb for her on the PNWA website, so I would urge you to go to their website and check her and the agency out.

The interests she lists on the website are narrative NF, “innovative self-help,” memoir, and health, in the NF realm; as one of the standard guides puts it, “her list also reflects her passion for serious health and sophisticated self-help books for women.” Her stated interests in fiction are literary, multicultural fiction, and women’s. (Another thing to know: the principal of the agency, Jillian Manus, used to develop projects at Warner Bros. and Universal, so this would be a good agency for projects with film potential.)

Ms. Nelson is an agent I have met at conferences past, and in the interests of full disclosure, I should also add that she read the first three chapters of a novel of mine some years ago and declined with thanks. In fact, she (or, one presumes, two ms screeners at Manus & Co) read it twice. Kind of a funny story: Ms. Nelson had asked to see the chapters, then I heard nothing for a couple of months. Adhering to the rule of waiting twice the stated turn-around time, then asking, I sent a polite little letter, asking if they had received my manuscript. Seems they had misplaced it, but could I send the chapters again? A few weeks later, back came the chapters in my SASE: no, thank you. So I went on my merry way. Then, eleven months later, I received a second package, again in a SASE of mine, containing an identical rejection letter to the first. Apparently, they had been doing some housekeeping. And I STILL like Jandy Nelson, which should tell you something about her inherent charm.

Losing manuscripts is far from uncommon, incidentally; the larger the agency, the more likely it is to happen. That doesn’t make it any less painful when it happens to you — as anyone who has known the agony of the “Should I call today, since they haven’t gotten back to me in four months? Tomorrow? Never?” wait can tell you. This is yet another reason to make sure every page of your submission has your name in the slug line: lest some pages go astray. After this incident, I also began taking the extra precaution of enclosing with my requested materials a stamped, self-addressed postcard, bearing the name of the agency and two options from which the recipients could choose: “Yes, the manuscript arrived intact on ____” or “No, all that arrived here was this postcard.” Everyone got a laugh, and I received confirmation that my submission was indeed where it should be, at least at first.

Ms. Nelson’s tastes are genuinely eclectic, a good match for the West Coast publishers to whom she primarily sells. Here are the sales I was able to dig up for her within the last few years; as usual, bear in mind that the standard industry databases I used to collect this information are not always 100% accurate. Because part of the point of my going through all of these is to help my readers learn what to look for in a list, here’s a pop quiz: what is most striking about this list of books?

NF: Memoir: Andrew Pham’s EAVES OF HEAVEN, “the sequel to CATFISH AND MANDALA, about the author’s father, Thong Van Pham, and the reversals of fortune his family suffered during the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, the French colonial era, and finally the Vietnam War before they began a new life in America.” (Farrar, Straus, sold 2004; CATFISH AND MANDALA, published by Picador in 2000, won the Kiryama Book Prize); Terry Tarnoff’s THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, “an exuberant memoir of Tarnoff’s raucous and hilarious adventures in Africa, Asia, and Indonesia in the 70s.” (St. Martin’s, sold 2003); “Mineko Iwasaki’s life story (she is the geisha who was the source for much of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, and recently filed suit against Golden–and is the first geisha in over 300-hundred-year-old tradition to tell her story).” (Pocket, $$$,$$$, for world rights exclusive of Japan, interestingly enough, sold 2001); Al Martinez, I’LL BE DAMNED IF I’LL DIE IN OAKLAND (Thomas Dunne, published 2003).

NF: Health: MENOPAUSE: THE NEW OPTIONS, edited by Mary Tagliaferri, Debu Tripathy and Isaac Cohen, “a compendium that gathers together the leading experts on menopause and complementary health care to create a complete resource on alternative, complementary and conventional approaches to menopause in light of the WHI study that revealed the deleterious effects of hormone replacement therapy.” (Avery/Penguin, sold 2003); Nancy London, HOT FLASHES, WARM BOTTLES: FIRST-TIME MOMS OVER 40 (10 Speed, published 2001)

NF: Religion/Spirituality: LILY DALE author Christine Wicker’s new book, “which explores the inner-workings of a mega-church community.” (Harper San Francisco, $$$,$$$, sold 2005); Christine Wicker’s NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE: Inside the Hidden World of America’s Magical Community, looking at witchcraft, voodoo, wizardry, and more.” (Harper San Francisco, $$$,$$$, sold 2003)

NF: Pets? Nature? — Journalist Mira Tweti’s BIRDS OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Parrots And People, “an exposé of the world of parrots that reveals surprising scientific findings on parrot intelligence and behavior, the burgeoning global crisis of the illegal parrot trade and its dire consequences, the widespread emergence of bird clubs across the nation and the eccentric members of this hidden subculture among many other parrot fascinations.” (Viking, $$$,$$$, sold 2003; the phrase “an exposé of the world of parrots” tickles me no end.)

Fiction: Ronlyn Domingue’s debut THE MERCY OF THIN AIR, “a puzzle of a novel that pieces together two love stories that parallel and collide over two different periods in history in New Orleans, all narrated by a woman who while in the throes of a love affair dies in an accident and gets caught in The Between — a realm between life and the beyond.” (Atria, $$$,$$$, sold 2004); “Author of the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and Lambda Award winning THE WORLD OF NORMAL BOYS K.M. Soehnlein’s YOU CAN SAY YOU KNEW ME WHEN, about a son’s determination to uncover a mystery buried in his intolerant father’s past in order to find a connection with him after his death.” (Kensington, sold 2003); Tom Dolby’s debut novel THE TROUBLE BOY, “about a young gay screenwriter who traverses the worlds of New York nightlife, film, and public relations, and is caught in the middle of an accident that rockets through the tabloids, forcing him to make some tough moral choices.” (Kensington, sold 2002); Laurie Lynn Drummond’s UNDER CONTROL: STORIES ABOUT WOMEN, GUNS, AND FAMILY, “a collection of stories and one novella that explores the lives of women police officers based on the author’s many years on the force in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.” (HarperCollins, sold 2002; Harper Perennial reissued a short story collection called ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU in 2004, which I assume is the same book, but I could be wrong about that.)

Pencils down, everyone: what did you pick as the dominant eyebrow-raiser? There are actually a few possibilities here. Three of her stated interest categories (Narrative NF, Self-Help, and Women’s Fiction) don’t appear here, so points to you if you noticed that. Points, too, if you noticed that Ms. Nelson’s memoir tastes aren’t particularly domestic; these are some pretty exotic locales for memoirs. But you get the most points of all if you noticed either that I went back 4 years for this list, instead of my usual 3, and that the vast majority of books listed are from 2003 and before. This would make me suspect a leave of absence, especially since the one listed 2005 sale was in October, or at any rate, extremely selective client acquisition.

However, as we learned from Ms. Kye-Casella’s list above, agencies do not always post all of their sales in the usual databases. A quick trip to Ms. Nelson’s blurb on the Manus website would be the prudent next step, to scope for newer sales. The clients listed there: Andrew Pham, Al Martinez, K.M. Soehnlein, Lisa Huang Fleishman (author of DREAM OF THE WALLED CITY, Washington Square Press, published 2001; Vintage released a paperback of her THE LINOLEUM ROOM in 2005, but I have not been able to find a deal listing for it), Laurie Drummond, Terry Tarnoff, Mineko Iwasaki, Katy Robinson (A SINGLE SQUARE PICTURE, Berkley Trade, published 2002), Christine Wicker, Mira Tweti, Nancy London… in short, essentially the same group of names as the sales list revealed.

There are a couple of ways to interpret this: I choose the upbeat one, and vote for Ms. Nelson’s now being enthusiastic for updating her list with a bunch of new clients. She definitely has an eye for the unusual, so she would be among my top picks for memoir (the more exotic the better!), literary fiction, and health books aimed at women.

Again, as with Ms. Kye-Casella, I would urge you to do your own research on Ms. Nelson and her agency. Get thee to a bookstore and read a few paragraphs here and there of her clients’ works, to glean an idea of what kind of prose she likes. And again, shake your head in wonder that in an industry where writers are expected to be familiar enough with prospective agents’ work to target the right ones, it’s not made easy to find out who represents what. Wouldn’t it be in everyone’s interests, including the agents’, to be as open with this information as possible?

Just my humble opinion, of course, more of which follows tomorrow. In the meantime, keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

To readers who have come to this page looking for my former write-up on agent Jeff Kleinman: a year and 17 days after I originally posted a rather flattering overview of his work here, Mr. Kleinman contacted me to ask that I remove it. Naturally, I immediately honored his request, and I shall stop recommending him.

He said that something in it was inaccurate, but he did not specify what. Since 100% of the information contained in it came either from credible sources already available on the internet or in the standard agency guides, Mr. Kleinman’s own conference handouts, and things he had said publicly at conferences, I can only recommend that you contact him directly to verify ANYTHING you may have learned about him, here or elsewhere.

I am sorry if either the initial post or the removal of it causes anyone chagrin. What remains is what it left of the post after all references to him were removed.

Hello, readers —

A moment of silence, everyone: this is the day that my memoir is being released, according to Amazon. Hypothetically.

I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor, believe it or not: of all of the many, many aspects of the publication process over which the author has little or no control, the release date is perhaps the most shrouded in mystery. I have no idea why it should be kept a secret from me, when the marketing department is willing to speculate about it to such fly-by-night outfits as Amazon and Barnes & Noble; perhaps it has something to do with national security. My loose lips have never sunk any ships, to the best of my knowledge, but I guess you can never be sure.

By the way, are you given to toddling off to Amazon or Powell’s when you’re in the market for a book? Did you know that if you link through the PNWA website, the PNWA gets 10% of the sale? So you can donate indirectly to this fine organization by doing something you were planning to do anyway. How great is that?

{MATERIAL REMOVED AT AGENT’S REQUEST.}

…Which, I suppose, is understandable, and a good reminder to all of us that this is a business where manners really do count. So make sure to tell your mother on Sunday: she was right; you really should be polite to everybody.

I’ll let you know whether I have a book out as soon as I know for sure myself. In the meantime, keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Sorry to have skipped yesterday’s post; my sweet kitty passed away yesterday, and I wanted to spend her last few hours with her. A writer’s cat enjoys such an adversarial relationship with a writer’s computer — it’s the other pet, the one that sucks up all of that time and attention! — that a hiatus last night seemed appropriate.

All right, back to the grindstone: I have another double header for you today. The next agent on my alphabetical list, Kelly Harms, hails from the same agency as Meg Ruley, the Jane Rotrosen Agency, so it makes sense to tackle ’em together.

It particularly makes sense, because for the life of me, I have not been able to find a website for the Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Readers, if any of you manage to dig it up, please send me the link, and I’ll let everyone know.) It seems odd, in this day and age, that any agency wouldn’t have at least an embryonic website, but I suppose my thinking on the subject is largely colored by where I live. Even non-computer people know something about the web in the PNW, much as we pick up a certain amount of airplane jargon by regional osmosis.

By contrast, neither my agency nor my publishing house — neither of them small concerns — evidently employs an in-house computer expert. Nor is that at all unusual in NYC-based publishing: it is still to a remarkable extent a paper-based industry. Which is rather problematic sometimes, when one is trying to send documents back and forth across the country.

Still, industry computer phobia aside, it does make it significantly harder for a writer to learn about what an agency wants when it does not have a website — and, more to the point at the moment, it makes it infinitely more difficult for me to know what to suggest to you as the best means of approach. And in the case of this agency, that’s a pretty serious problem: according to the guide in my hand (which admittedly isn’t the most recent one), the Rotrosen Agency generally obtains its clients through referrals (as in, recommendations from a previously published writer of their acquaintance), rather than through queries.

Okay, I have the most recent agents guide in front of me now, and the entry looks remarkably similar. Except that they’re now accepting queries. However, their turn-around time info still apparently presumes that the people who solicit them have been referred. So I don’t know what to think. Go ahead and query ’em.

I’m not going to try to second-guess their internal policies (well, not much), but I do think it is absolutely safe to derive this much from the agency’s past history: if you have ANY interest whatsoever in this agency, MAKE SURE to talk to one of these agents at the conference, to ask if they’d be willing to accept synopsis from you if you sent it. Then write PNWA — REQUESTED MATERIALS in immense letters on the outside of the envelope, just to be sure.

You can’t be too careful in dealing with the exclusive.

Okay, let’s see what Kelly Harms has told us in her blurb (and no, I don’t know why so few of these agents seem to have proofread their blurbs before submitting them):

“Kelly Harms (Agent) is seeking all types of commercial fiction especially for the women’s market. She is new to the agent game, came from editorial but so far have authors writing mystery, suspense, romanitic suspense and women’s fiction, and one very sexy gang of vampires. She’d really like to have more thrillers and character driven mysteries and really smart, but not quite ‘literary’ women’s fiction is her favorite.”

Please, somebody, stand up at the agents’ forum this summer and ask what “really smart, but not quite ‘literary’ women’s fiction” is. (Beyond manuscripts devoid of semicolons, that is.)

Ms. Harms is being a bit modest here: she used to be an editor at Avon, recently enough that most of the sales that turn up for her in the standard industry databases are for books she acquired in that capacity, rather than as an agent. As in she seems to have switched teams in the middle of last year. So I shall break down the sales accordingly (do remember, please, that I only search for sales within the last three years, and the databases are not infallible.)

As an agent, she seems to have worked pretty closely with Andrea Cirillo (also of the Rotrosen Agency), so it might be worth your while to do some research on Ms. Cirillo’s tastes as well. Both of the sales I found were in the women’s/romance categories: Jennifer Estep’s KARMA GIRL, “the humorous adventures of an intrepid Lois Lane-style reporter whose forte is unmasking — and sometimes disrobing — America’s most illustrious superheroes” (Berkley, in a two-book deal, sold 2006); “Monica McCarty’s dark Scottish trilogy set around one real-life clan and their struggles with the English, battles for revenge, and epic seductions.” (Ballantine, sold 2005)

As an editor, Ms. Harms appears to have concentrated pretty exclusively on women’s fiction and romance as well, as befits an editor at Avon: Margo Maguire’s ISABEL’S CHOICE, “a medieval romance set in the beautiful Scottish highlands” (Avon, acquired 2005); “USA Today bestselling author and two-time Rita finalist Julianne MacLean’s next three historical romances” (Avon, acquired 2004; apparently, Ms. Harms had acquired books of Ms. MacLean’s in the past); Stephanie Lessing’s first novel SHE’S GOT ISSUES, “a humorous and occasionally over-the-top take on chick lit featuring a sweet and ditzy Manhattan 20-something with a sharp eye for fashion, who’s determined to work her way up from assistant to the assistant to…someone at Issues Magazine and one day become shoe editor; and she’ll have to do so while enduring the endless barrage of abuse hurled at her by her style-challenged boss and a deliciously evil array of female co-workers.” (Avon, acquired 2004)

So if any of you have been writing about heroes in kilts or shoes, I’d say Ms. Harms would be a terrific bet for you.

All right, let’s move on to Ms. Ruley’s blurb:

“Meg Ruley (Agent) joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency in 1981. The agency represents authors of commercial fiction, many of whom hail from the Pacific Northwest. She loves carrying heavy manuscripts in and out of Manhattan and hopes you will send her yours.”

Hmm. The agency’s listing in the most recent guide says it takes them two months to turn a REQUESTED ms. around; that’s a whole lot of toting in and out of Manhattan.

I have seen clearer indications of preferences, too. But then, a certain lack of accessibility perhaps should not surprise us, given the agency’s previously expressed preference for dealing only with referred authors and Ms. Ruley’s heavy-hitting client list, but let’s keep an open mind while we try to track down her authors who live in the glorious PNW. (Really, DO keep an open mind: it is not unheard-of for agents to come to conferences seeking authors for OTHER agents at their agencies. Do not automatically rule out agents from big agencies who seem to have a full complement of authors already signed.)

As you may see from what she’s been selling recently, I wasn’t kidding about the heavy client list. Because I am exceptionally devoted to my readers, I have even classified the sales by genre, so as to generate a list of preferences for Ms. Ruley. Don’t say I never did anything for you.

Fiction: Thriller: Michele Martinez’s COVER-UP, “in which the New York City federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas investigates the serial murders of the patients of a prominent Park Avenue plastic surgeon.” (William Morrow, in a $$$ two-book deal, sold 2005); “Co-author of THE CYANIDE CANARY Robert Dugoni’s debut legal thriller A MATTER OF JUSTICE, billed as “‘in the tradition of Scott Turow and Brad Meltzer,'” and FALSE JUSTICE. (Warner, sold 2005); Michele Martinez’s debut thriller MOST WANTED, “‘the first in a series featuring Melanie Vargas, in a wild race against the clock to solve a brutal Park Avenue murder while dealing with her own romantic and cultural complications.'” (William Morrow, sold 2003; someone should get Ms. Martinez a map of NYC — she’s evidently been stuck on Park Avenue for years now.)

Fiction: Mystery: Kaitlyn Dunnett’s KILT DEAD, “featuring a professional Scottish dancer who returns to her roots following a career-ending injury only to find herself suspected of murder.” (Kensington, in a three-book deal, sold 2005; the agency sure likes those kilts); Nancy Martin’s A CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED DEATH and a second untitled Blackbird mystery (NAL, sold 2005); two novels from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, to the same editor as bought her last (Ballantine, sold 2004).

Fiction: Women’s/Romance (hey, the databases lump them together): Nancy Thayer’s HOT FLASH HOLIDAYS, “a new novel of menopause, mayhem, and mistletoe.” (Ballantine, $$$, sold 2005); Eloquent in its simple adherence to facts: “NYT bestseller and Rita winner Jo Beverley’s three more historical romances,” (NAL, $$$,$$$, sold 2004); Nancy Thayer’s THE HOT FLASH CLUB, “about the friendship among four mature women with different life styles and problems who meet, eat, and scheme, and a second untitled novel.” (Ballentine, sold 2003)

Fiction: General: Amy Wallen’s debut novel MOON PIES & MOVIE STARS, “which follows a Texas woman on her madcap Winnebago road trip in search of her runaway daughter,” and a second untitled novel. (Viking Penguin, sold 2005); “Rob Dalby of Tupelo, Mississippi’s WALTZING AT THE PIGGLY-WIGGLY, a southern charmer featuring a quirky” (what were the odds?) “Mississippi town, a second chance romance, inexplicable weather phenomena, and ballroom dancing in the most unlikely places.” (Crown, sold 2005)

YA: Six books by bestselling YA author Lurlene McDaniel, to the same editors as bought her last. (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, sold 2003; please note, however, that most of the online agents guides say the Rotrosen Agency does NOT rep YA.)

NF: Memoir: Ellen Currey-Wilson’s OUTSIDE THE BOX, “a humorous and poignant memoir about what happens when a boob-tube-junkie mom vows to raise her son TV-free, with insights on parenting in a media-crazed world (and how hard it is to buck the trend).” (Algonquin, sold 2006)

NF: Diet: “Mother-daughter team Jackie Scott and Diane Scott’s THE CALORIE QUEENS, from women whose combined weight loss on their program is 300 pounds, presenting their formula for calorie consumption — delicious but healthy recipes and down-home advice, tested extensively at their Lexington, KY church group.” (Warner’s Center Street, sold 2005)

NF: Humor: Rosemary Atkins’ AROUND THE CORNER FUDGE IS MADE, “a compilation of dirty childhood ditties usually learned on the playground or in the back of the bus.” (Chamberlain Bros., sold 2005)

I don’t know how many of these authors live in the PNW; the only regional trend I see here is Southern. But the fact is, this is an agency with a track record of selling genre books quite well. (If you wish to investigate further, other listed clients include Susan Andersen, Rhys Bowen, Jennifer Crusie, Alisa Kwitney, Patricia Lewin, Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Susan Wiggs.)

Tomorrow, out of the Highlands and on to a brand-new agency. Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Have you been finding my series on how to read an agent’s blurb in a conference guide useful? I hope so, because it’s going to be a rather lengthy series, even if I rush through it: there are a LOT of agents coming to PNWA, 19 by my count.

In fact, the conference is known for high agent volume. At many smaller writers’ conferences, there are only one or two agents in attendance — and only a few writers are lucky enough to be able to get appointments with them. At PNWA, by contrast, there are always scads of agents and editors — and every attendee is guaranteed two appointments, usually one with an agent and one with an editor. Not to mention the relative ease of buttonholing the bigwigs in conference hallways.

If it sounds as though I’m pushing my own organization’s conference… well, I am, but not just because they are gracious enough to host my blog. I have been attending writers’ conferences all over the country for well over a decade, and I think PNWA’s is the most serious about helping writers make connections with agents and editors. (My favorite of the small, one-agent conferences, in case you’re wondering, is the Flathead River Writers’ Conference in Montana, a real gem.) The marketing and craft classes offered at PNWA are consistently strong enough, year after year, for writing “PNWA conference” on the outside of your query letters to agents who speak there (you know to do that, right, after you’ve seen an agent speak at a conference?) to make an actual difference in how a query letter gets read by agency screeners.

And that is not, as they say, something at which to sneeze.

Oh, and for those of you who have been following this series: both Lauren Abramo and Jennifer Cayea have now posted blurbs on the PNWA website. Hurrah! Please go and take a gander at them, to get a better idea of what they are coming to THIS conference seeking. (Ms. Cayea says, among other things, that she is very eagerly looking for a baseball book. Get writing that book proposal, all of you swingers!) I feel more comfortable about this, because it’s always better if people can tell you what they want in their own words.

On to the next agent (and back to the alphabetical list), Catherine Fowler of the Mill Valley-based Redwood Agency. Here is her blurb, lifted from elsewhere on this very website:

“Catherine Fowler (Agent) has more than 20 years of experience in book and Internet publishing having held senior positions for such prestigious companies as Random House, Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, Excite and WebMD. With Redwood Agency, Fowler is focusing on the core of her expertise and her passion: the development of high-quality projects, working with talented writers and editors, and negotiating contracts. Areas of interest include health, food and cooking, popular culture, women’s interests, narrative nonfiction, nature, parenting, aging, general reference, relationships, popular psychology, non-fiction “chick lit”, business, humor, lifestyle, cultural technology, quirky projects, memoir and the occasional novel.”

How’s that for a no-nonsense, straightforward blurb? (Although can anyone can tell me to a reasonable degree of certainty what NF chick lit is? Memoirs written by well-shod, bleached-blonde young professional women with man woes? Self-help books on how to coordinate your boyfriend du jour with your Prada handbag?) It tells us so directly who she is and what she wants (and kudos to Ms. Fowler for that!) that I have only two comments to make upon this blurb. (Okay, I have more, but I’ll save the rest until after I’ve gone through her client list.)

First, “the occasional novel.” I would take this very literally indeed, and consider very carefully about pitching fiction to Ms. Fowler, unless I were also planning on pitching an NF book in the same meeting. Yes, yes, there is always the possibility that a truly stellar pitch might wow her into falling in love with a novel at PNWA, but pitching is a high-stress activity: if you are new to it, it might be wise to stick to agents who are actively looking for your type of book.

Because, according to the standard industry databases, Ms. Fowler really isn’t kidding about the occasionally part. I found only one novel sale in the last three years, Sandra Kring’s debut novel UNDER THE TITTY MOON, “a tender, humorous story told through the innocent and wise voice of a simple-minded boy and portraying the complexity of life, death, war, prejudice, and family ties in a small-town family nearly torn apart by WWII.” (Delacorte, in a two-book deal, sold 2003)

Incidentally, as you may not be altogether astonished to hear, the title of this novel was changed: it was released as CARRY ME HOME. Hey, we writers have to pick our battles.

Second, if you are interested in pitching to Ms. Fowler, I suspect that it would be VERY prudent to check out her work at Excite and WebMD, at least enough to be able to conduct a reasonably well-informed conversation about it. Aside from the fact that it is always flattering when new acquaintances are already familiar with your work (you didn’t think I was going to all the trouble of listing agents’ recent sales just for the FUN of it, did you?), Internet publishing is a new enough facet of the publishing industry that writers’ conferences don’t tend to see a whole lot of experts on it. If you have any ambitions in that direction, Ms. Fowler might be a great connection for you to make.

I’m looking over the other sales Ms. Fowler has made in the last three years, and I have to say, she is apparently GENUINELY SERIOUS about liking quirky projects. Note, too, the recurring college theme:

NF: Health: Stella Mora-Henry, R.N. with Ann Convery’s THE EXPERT’S GUIDE TO LONG TERM CARE, “a comprehensive guide filled with personal stories to help caregivers make compassionate, informed decisions and tackle the toughest long-term care issues.” (William Morrow, sold 2004; I would have categorized this under Aging, but hey, I’m not the person who organizes the industry databases. Thank goodness.); Erika B. Hilliard, MSW, RSW’s SHY AND SUCCESSFUL: A Comprehensive Guide to Managing Shyness and Social Anxiety, “for consumer and therapists about shyness and social anxiety, as the author challenges the stigmatization of social anxiety and shyness in our culture and offers compassionate, alternative views.” (Marlowe & Company, sold 2004)

NF: Food and Cooking: Marcel and Shannon Biro’s THE KITCHENS OF BIRO COOKBOOK, “a companion cookbook by the stars of the upcoming national PBS restaurant reality and cooking series The Kitchens of Biro.” (Gibbs Smith, sold 2004); Restaurateur Sondra Bernstein’s THE GIRL & THE FIG COOKBOOK, “wine country-inspired French recipes and more from her restaurants, two of Sonoma County’s favorites.” (Simon & Schuster, sold 2003)

NF: Pop Culture: Whitney Shroyer, Letitia Walker, and Michael Traister’s THE SECRET LIVES OF SOCK MONKEYS: Daily Life at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter, “capturing an actual society of sock monkeys, including dioramic photos filled with humor and a bit of social commentary.” (Chamberlain Bros., 2005; I suspect that this MAY also have fallen under the category “quirky projects.”); Susan Marg’s LAS VEGAS WEDDINGS: History, Gossip, a touch of Elvis, and even a Chapel Guide, “a pop culture book about the creation, rise, myth and lore of Las Vegas weddings.” (William Morrow, sold 2003; this is another I strongly suspect of quirkiness.)

Another quirky project, this one technically categorized as NF: Other (hey, I told you, I don’t make up these categories!): Natasha Kogan’s THE DARING FEMALE GUIDE TO ECSTATIC LIVING, “a self-help book with an attitude that dares women to get as much as possible out of every aspect of their lives, with fun, inspirational, and practical dares, and filled with personal stories.”(Hyperion, sold 2004)

NF: Parenting: BLINDSIDED BY A DIAPER, edited by Dana Bedford Hilmer, “an anthology of original essays from notable writers, including Susan Cheever, Greg Behrendt, and Molly Jong-Fast, about the ups and downs and chaos in a couple’s relationship after baby arrives, and how to keep the partnership on track with a new little bundle of joy in the house.” (Three Rivers Press, sold 2006); Andy Steiner’s SPILLED MILK: Breastfeeding Adventures and Advice from Less-Than-Perfect Moms, “for and about ordinary mothers and their breastfeeding experiences, offering advice and solace from a variety of sources, with a sense of humor.” (Rodale, sold 2003)

NF: Reference: Natasha Kogan and Avi Spivak’s Students Helping Students six-book series, including Fishing for a Major, Have No Career Fear, Surviving Your Freshman Year, and Getting through College Without Going Broke, “all guides written and edited by college students and recent grads and full of advice on how to survive and succeed in college and beyond.” (Perigee, sold 2004)

NF: Advice/Relationships: “Seminar leader and personal growth coach Jane Straus’s THE TRUTH PARADIGM: A Bold New Approach for Living an Inspired and Truthful Life, a self-help title exposes the spiritual & emotional suffering triggered by deception and offers techniques to embrace truth as a guiding principle.” (Jossey-Bass, sold 2004); Susan Fee’s MY ROOMMATE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! Surviving the College Roommate from Hell, “a practical guide to solving the most challenging roommate conflicts and situations.” (Adams Media, sold 2004; I wonder if this guide would have told me how to deal with my college roommate, who stopped going to classes altogether — they interfered with her ability to be totally nocturnal — and held all-night colloquia in our room. She also, bless her heart, cherished a large rat named Anton who ran around free and ultimately ate her concert-quality violin.)

NF: Business/Investing/Finance: Ron Burley’s UNSCREWED: The Consumer Guide to Getting Your Way, “tools for consumers frustrated by customer disservice to fight back and win against unscrupulous, incompetent and faceless companies.” (Ten Speed Press, sold 2005); Frances McGuckin’s previously published Canadian bestseller (125,000 copies! Self-published! In Canada!) BUSINESS FOR BEGINNERS: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Starting a Small Business and Big Ideas for Growing a Small Business. (Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, sold 2004)

Kind of a fun list, isn’t it? I suspect, based upon it, that this might not be the best agent to pitch ultra-serious work — but an unusual or humorous spin on a familiar NF topic might find a home at this agency.

Another thing to note from this list: quite a few of these sales were to West Coast presses, indicating that Ms. Fowler probably has good connections out here. And since West Coast and East Coast publishing houses are known for having rather different tastes (because I love you, my readers, I shall spare you the tale of the months my agent and I expended in trying to get a NYC-based publisher to comprehend the concept of synergy, part of the basic LA vocabulary), if your book might appeal more to folks in this time zone, a West Coast-based agent might make a WHOLE lot of sense for you.

But — and this is a serious but, because I went through the databases in high hopes of learning something here — where is the NF chick lit? Am I never to learn what this elusive term means? Or where Barnes & Noble would place it within its bookstores?

This is not an altogether frivolous objection. You might have noticed, though, that a fair number of the areas listed in the blurb do not seem to have corresponding sales (Narrative, Nature, Pop Psych, NF Chick Lit, Humor, Lifestyle, Cultural Technology, and Memoir, to be precise; I think it’s safe to assume that THE DARING FEMALE GUIDE TO ECSTATIC LIVING would fall under “Women’s Interests.”) It is possible that there are Internet publishing titles in these areas that I missed, of course, but still, that’s quite a few categories.

What are we to make of this? Well, if Ms. Fowler is a good agent (and her past sales record indicates that she has been a VERY good one, especially in 2004), it probably means that she already has working relationships established with editors who are looking for these sorts of books. In other words, she has leads in these areas. (If she were not an agent with a solid sales record, I would suspect that these categories were gleaned from a quick perusal of the weekly bestseller lists, as all of these — except NF chick lit — are frequently represented there. But that would be a most uncharitable interpretation.)

Well, whatever NF chick lit is, I suspect its protagonists seldom sit up until midnight, typing away at their blogs. (Although their authors may.) I guess I am just not cut out for the chick lit life. In retrospect, finishing the dissertation was probably a mistake, in terms of developing my heroine chops to their fullest potential; graduate students are not known for their accessorizing prowess. If only I had thought ahead. But who knew non-fiction people would be expected to lead fictional lives?

And so, resigning myself to a lifetime of non-chick litiness, I bid you good night. Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Welcome back to my ongoing series on how to decide which agents to rank highest on your PNWA summer conference form. I’ve had to skip around a little (see yesterday’s post for why), but I’m trying to plow my way through the EXTENSIVE list as quickly as possible, so you may submit your choices soon. Those appointments have a way of filling up fast.

All right, on to the third of the skipped agents in my alphabetical list, Farley Chase. Since he and Byrd Leavell hail from the same agency, Waxman Literary, I am going to defy alphabetical order (and length restrictions) and cover them both today. Both have a strong track record of representing books aimed at men (which is a polite way of saying that their client lists seem to be awfully darned heavy on Y chromosomes), so it makes even more sense to present them together.

Again, the standard disclaimers, even more important in the case of agents who do not have blurbs up on the PNWA website: my information on these people comes from the authors’ grapevine and the standard industry databases; you can, and should, do further research yourself on any agent who truly interests YOU. In the interests of full disclosure, I should probably add up front: the books I will be talking about today are not my proverbial cup o’ tea, for the most part, so I am not as familiar with this area of publishing as I am with others. To avoid misrepresenting some of these projects, I am going to be quoting directly from their books’ marketing blurbs, whenever possible.

Here is Farley Chase’s blurb from the Waxman website. It’s a pearl of its kind, because it includes both a quote from the man himself and the standard blurb information, apparently compiled by somebody else:

“‘I’ve had the privilege of working in several facets of the publishing world, with a variety of talented colleagues. With some I fostered my passion for good writing and smart stories well told. And from others I gained an invaluable business perspective on the world of books. Most importantly, I’ve learned that these are not mutually exclusive propositions and as an agent I’m able to unify these points of view, working closely with writers to realize their aspirations without losing sight of what’s viable or realistic. I take pride in a deliberate and detailed editorial approach and a proactive attitude toward developing new ideas with our writers.’

“Farley Chase has worked in publishing for nine years. After an internship with Minnesota’s non-profit Graywolf Press, he worked for several years at the New Yorker magazine. He has worked at The New Press, Talk magazine and later became an associate editor at Miramax Books where he worked with Martin Amis and B&N Discovery authors Mark Ross and Lily Burana, among others. He has been an agent for three years, first with Goldfarb & Associates and now The Waxman Literary Agency. In addition to representing his own clients, he manages the foreign rights for the agency. He is a graduate of Macalester College.”

What can one say about this two-part blurb, other than that Macalester is a good school? Actually, his personal statement is quite illuminating: note especially, “working closely with writers to realize their aspirations without losing sight of what’s viable or realistic.” This is industry-speak for saying that he recognizes that there are a whole lot of wonderfully-written books out there that are not particularly commercially viable. (And he should know: those books are sort of Graywolf’s specialty.) It’s a nice way of saying that he is willing to nudge good writers into writing work that would be easier to sell.

Which would make him, in theory, a good pitching choice for all of us out there who have been dismissed with, “Well, the writing is great, but I can’t sell the idea.” Mr. Chase seems to indicate that he would like to continue the conversation AFTER that statement.

We would have to check his sales record, though, to see how this philosophy plays out in practice — because this kind of statement can also be industry-speak for being eager to work with well-known non-writers to turn their ideas into books. It just goes to show you: you need to do your homework on agents you wish to approach, not just rely upon what they say about themselves on their websites and in agents guides.

In his blurb, Mr. Chase has given a major hint as to how he likes to work with his clients: “I take pride in a deliberate and detailed editorial approach and a proactive attitude toward developing new ideas with our writers.” Translation: he is an agent who expects his clients to rewrite their work based upon his input BEFORE he sends it out to the market. This can be tremendous, for a writer who is open to it, but can be terrible for writers who resent outside tinkering.

Think carefully about which kind of writer you are BEFORE you have a conversation with any agent. You will be FAR happier in the long run if you find an agent whose editing tastes correspond with yours.

Checking the last few years of Mr. Chase’s sales, I’m kind of surprised he has TIME to edit his clients’ work, or that “is looking for the previously unpublished. He seems to work with a lot of journalists and celebrities, so maybe it’s their prose he helps to mold into marketability. Here are some representative samples, grouped by type of book:

NF: Sports: Golf instructor Jim Hardy’s THE PLANE TRUTH FOR GOLFERS MASTER CLASS (McGraw-Hill, sold 2006); John Andrisani’s THE MICHELLE WIE WAY: An Analysis of the Power Swing Technique of Michelle Wie, a close look at what PGA Champ and NBC analyst Johnny Miller says is “one of the top five best golf swings of all time,” (Center Street, sold 2005); Noah Liberman’s THE FLAT STICK: “The History, Romance, and Heartbreak of the Putter, — a humorous, anecdotal and illustration-rich look at an implement — just a fancified cudgel — that has bedeviled, mystified, and charmed golfers at every level since the beginning of the game” (My, aren’t we poetic? Harper, sold 2005); Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and ESPN The Magazine deputy editor Glen Waggoner’s A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME: How America’s Pastime Lost Its Way — And How It Can Head Home Again, “a candid look at the changes baseball has undergone in the past thirty years, from free agency to the ’94 strike, the home run race to the steroid scandal” (Harper, sold 2005); “Former senior editor at Golf magazine John Andrisani’s HEAVEN CAN WAIT: Jack Nicholson, Jack Nicklaus, Jack Welch and 22 other Golf Nuts Remember Their First Trip to Augusta, a collection of first-person narratives by professional golfers, celebrities, politicians, businesspeople, and others about playing America’s most fabled golf course for the first time.” (Thunder’s Mouth, 2004)

NF: Health (but really sports): TRUE FITNESS: A Customized, Scientific Approach, No Matter Your Starting Level, by five-time Olympic gold medalist Dr. Eric Heiden, Dr. Max Testa, and DeAnne Musolf (Harper — by auction, but then, not all of us have gold medals hanging around our necks — sold 2006).

NF: Business (but really sports): WSJ contributor and St. Paul Pioneer Press editorial writer Mark Yost’s profile of the National Football League, “chronicling the remarkable history and business decisions that have made the NFL the most successful organization in the sports industry” (unless, of course, you count the Olympics; Dearborn, sold 2005).

NF: pop culture: Tom Reynold’s I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO DIE: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You’ve Ever Heard (Hyperion, sold 2005).

NF: cooking: Photographer Melanie Dunea’s MY LAST SUPPER, “a collection of portraits of fifty world class chefs – including Eric Ripert, Mario Batali, and Marcus Samuelsson – with descriptions and recipes for the meal they would have if they could have only one more.” (Bloomsbury, at another auction, sold 2006).

NF: history: BBC journalist Nick Hacking’s BOUND BY DECEPTION: Spying Between the United States and Israel Since the End of the Cold War, “tracking the statesmanship and spycraft practiced by two supposed allies when their strategic interests conflict, showing disquieting machinations from both countries that have had a profound impact on world events.” (William Morrow, sold 2004).

NF: biography (but sounds a lot like the last): Gary Ecelbarger’s third book BLACK JACK LOGAN: An Extraordinary Life in Peace and War, “a biography of the seven-term Senator, victorious and popular General, and later a Vice-Presidential candidate, a transfixing public figure transformed by the events of the Civil War who later went on to found Memorial Day.” (Lyons Press, sold 2004)

NF: memoir: “Thirteen-year Cornell student Rob Shuck’s THE UNDERGRADUATE, written with GQ journalist Mickey Rapkin, exploring this real life Van Wilder’s strong belief that if college is supposed to be the best time of your life, then the rest of your life should be more like college.” (Broadway, another auction, 2005); “Esquire and Vanity Fair humor columnist Brian Frazer’s HYPERCHONDRIAC, a humorous account of a lifetime filled with pop-psych treatments, prescription medications, self-help programs, and oddball remedies (Atria, sold 2005); US ambassador to the UN’s Agencies for Food and Agriculture Tony Hall’s CHANGING THE FACE OF HUNGER: One Man’s Story of How Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and People of Faith are Joining Forces to Help the Hungry, the Poor and the Oppressed (try saying THAT title three times fast; W Publishing, sold 2005); Joe Sutter’s AIR BORN: How My Team of “Incredibles” Built the 747 and Other Adventures From a Life in Aviation, “a memoir from the ‘father’ of Boeing’s famed 747 aircraft.” (Smithsonian, sold 2005)

Fiction (and I found only two of these in the past three years, people): Roger Alan Skipper’s debut TEAR DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, “linked short stories featuring a young couple in fictional Union County, West Virginia and their powerful but conflicting determination to both escape Appalachia and to stay” (Soft Skull, 2-book deal, sold 2005; since short story collections are almost invariably collections of already-published stories, this is probably a writer he met through magazine work); Milton Burton’s first novel NEVER LOOK BACK, “in which a Texas man looking to exact a revenge that’s substantially more than financial finds his plans changed due to an oil strike, leaving him with a slew of unanticipated temptations to consider” (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s, sold 2004).

The moral of all this? A blurb that seems to imply willingness to work with little books may not actually be aimed at the writers of little books, but designed to reassure writers of big books. And, of course, if an agent has an impressive track record of selling books on sports, golf, sports, war, sports, frat boys, and sports, a wise writer might not want to pitch him, say, a sensitive coming-of-age novel about a young girl. But if you write on his subjects (or might at some future date, or are interested in the coffee table book market), he would be a great connection for you.

On to Byrd Leavell, also of Waxman Literary. Here’s his blurb from the agency’s website, also a two-parter:

“‘Early in my career I started to realize that a certain segment of the population, guys between the ages of 16 and 40, were being routinely dismissed by editors with the phrase “they don’t buy books.” It had become a self-sustaining cycle, but the readers were still there. It soon became clear that in this group of underserved readers lay an opportunity, one that could be tapped by utilizing the potential of an extremely talented and unapologetic group of writers who were plugged into this audience through the Internet, and had already established huge followings.

“‘As an agent these are the situations I live for — working with authors on books that attempt to reach undiscovered audiences. And it doesn’t matter whether that book is about cleaning up dead bodies, drinking seven nights a week, or church camp. It’s all about taking a great idea and then working together to turn it into something that people want to read – twice. I love writing that makes an impact and the work I represent covers a broad spectrum, from nimble, intelligent literary fiction like Euny Hong’s My Blue Blood, to Tucker Max’s blistering I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, and Erik Barmack and Max Handelman’s genre-defining Why Fantasy Football Matters.’

“A graduate of the University of Virginia, Byrd Leavell began his career at Carlisle & Company and then served as an agent at InkWell Management and Venture Literary. His clients include The Modern Drunkard, Tucker Max, and The Phat Phree. A fan of writing that makes an impression, he specializes in books that attempt to push the publishing envelope to reach new audiences.”

I find this blurb admirably straightforward: he wants guy stories amusingly told, plain and simple. How I wish that all agents were so up front about their desires! But how does this philosophy play out in his sales record? He has given us a few examples of his taste above, but let’s see if we can get a general impression of what he wants from what he’s sold recently:

NF: Sports: (Oh, my God, here comes more golf. Brace yourselves.) Curt Sampson’s GOLF DADS: Profiles of Fathers, Their Children and the Game that Binds them, “a series of 10 stories about the unique bond forged between fathers and children around the game of golf, including high profile athletes such as Nicklaus, Hogan, Singh, Trevino, and Sorenstam, as well as stories of lesser known golfers, such as in his recent “Back to the Mariposas” piece in Sports Illustrated about the son of a renowned lepidopterist” (Houghton Mifflin, sold 2006; a lepidopterist, in case you were wondering, studies moths and butterflies); Founder and head writer of The Huddle.com David Dorey’s FANTASY FOOTBALL: THE NEXT LEVEL, “going beyond the stats and projections to offer the underlying tools, principles, and strategies for creating an optimal fantasy team year in and year out” (Warner, at auction, for a whole lot of money, 2006); Sporting News columnist and CNBC commentator Erik Barmack and Fox Sports veteran Max Handelman’s TAKING A KNEE: Why Fantasy Football Matters and Our Lives Do Not, “a guide to the personalities, flawed strategies, tired excuses, excessive trash-talking, and compulsive behavior that goes along with managing a fantasy football team.” (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, at auction, 2004)

NF: Memoir: Tucker Max’s THE TUCKER MAX STORIES, “the true adventures of a man who built a following by indulging every whim, sleeping with more women than is safe or reasonable, and generally just acting like the drunkest person that ever lived.” (Kensington, 2004).

NF: Advice/Relationships: Reality show casting producer Brenda Della Casa’s CINDERELLA WAS A LIAR, “a hip, informative dating guide for women, in which she dispels the fairy tale myth and offers realistic advice for getting and keeping a prince.” (McGraw-Hill, 2005; PLEASE tell me it does not offer advice on hooking Tucker Max…)

NF: Reference: Co-founder of blog boingboing.net and editor-and-chief of Make magazine Mark Frauenfelder’s RULE THE WEB, “providing powerful and little-known tips, tricks, and workarounds the Internet offers.” (St. Martin’s, at auction, 2006)

NF: General/Other: Dax Devlon-Ross’s OUTSIDE THE BOX, “a collection of profiles of unique and inspiring African-Americans whose career choices go beyond the stereotypical molds associated with black America.” (Hyperion, 2004)

NF: Humor: Bob Powers’s HAPPY CRUELTY DAY, “a collection of 365 mini-short stories from his web site girlsarepretty.com, each full of dark and humorous guidance for how every day is to be celebrated.” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2005)

NF: Pop culture: Humor website ThePhatPhree.com’s LOOK AT MY STRIPED SHIRT! And Other Confessions of the Desperate, Lonely, Obnoxious, and Stupid, “biting social satire that ridicules people who make life less fun.” (Doubleday, another auction, 2005)

NF: Narrative: Gil Reavill’s AFTERMATH: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home,
a foray into the new field of bio-recovery (dial 877-TRAGEDY), in which the author will glove up, strap on a Tyvek suit, and work side-by-side with Aftermath technicians as he takes his readers on the journey of a crime writer who thought he could handle anything being confronted with the worst of everything.” (Gotham, 2005)

NF: Parenting (caught you by surprise, didn’t it?): Simon Rose and Steve Caplin’s DAD STUFF, “an illustrated guide to putting the fun back into being a father, full of useful explanations such as how to cope with the question — are we there yet?— and how to invent bedtime stories to lull your children to sleep.” (Broadway, 2004)

NF: Cooking: Frank Rich’s THE MODERN DRUNKARD: The Definitive Guide to Drinking in the New Century, containing such informative articles as “Drink Your Way to Fitness” and “How to Ace an Intervention” by the founder of Modern Drunkard Magazine (Riverhead, at auction, 2004, and no, I don’t know why this was categorized as cooking, rather than humor).

Fiction: Matt Marinovich’s first novel STRANGE SKIES, “about one man’s attempt to circumvent his life’s trajectory and the baby his wife is demanding they have by pretending he has cancer, which works brilliantly until he runs into a bald young boy and his mother in an airport bar” (Harper Perennial, 2006); I can’t resist including the description of Euny Hong’s MY BLUE BLOOD (Simon & Schuster, 2005): “the story of a descendent of Korean aristocracy living in NYC who, drowning in debt, tries her hand at courtesan-ship in the service of a Russian Madame and finds herself caught between a fiery classical violinist whose company she is paid to keep and a stuttering philosophy student who woos her with his intellectualism even as he repulses her with his plebian ways” (in other words, a slice-of-life novel);
Ryan Gattis’ KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL, “the cinematically vivid story of a high school where students must fight daily to survive, told in the voice of a fifteen-year-old girl who, along with her martial arts master cousin, must avenge her brother’s assassination and somehow escape a brutal gang war for control of the campus” (Harcourt, 2004); Erik Barmack’s THE VIRGIN, “about a man who lies his way onto a shocking reality-television show.” (St. Martin’s, 2004)

If you don’t see a trend here, I can only suggest that you go back and read that list again.

If you write for men 16-40 (or, to be precise, THIS type of man aged 16-40; I know a lot of men in that age group who read, and even write, literary fiction, but we’re talking mass market here), Mr. Leavell is your man (and you are probably his); if not, well, you might be better off with another agent choice. And obviously, if you have any insight into sports (particularly golf) whatsoever, you should latch yourself onto these fine representatives of the Waxman Agency the moment you spot them at the conference and cling for dear life.

Isn’t it fascinating, though, to see so many titles represented by a single agency all at once? Really allows you to see the overarching patterns in a way that is almost impossible otherwise. (Although I have to say, if I had preferences this strong and specific, I would have gone out of my way to let conference-goers know about them in advance.) When agencies say that they specialize in certain areas, they usually are not kidding: pay attention to these trends, and address your queries to only those agents who represent YOUR kind of writing.

Trust me, you’ll be a happier camper — and a less often rejected one — if you do. Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

Everyone, please give a round of applause to eagle-eyed super-readers Toddie and Dave, who each informed me independently that I had, to put it politely, made an error in compiling my agent list. Turns out that the list of agents (and editors, for that matter) from which one can choose when registering for the summer conference online does NOT entirely correspond to the website’s page of posted blurbs. The website discrepancy would be a less serious faux pas, I think, if the conference registration form listed the agencies from which these blurb-free additional agents hail, but it does not. Makes them a bit harder to find, even for the web-savvy, eh?

So by sticking to only the blurbed agents, as Toddie and Dave were quick enough to catch, I had skipped no fewer than THREE agents in my alphabetical list so far. I’m going to address a couple of those left-out agents today, and then integrate the rest into subsequent posts, as the tyranny of the alphabet dictates.

I should have caught this myself, because for the last couple of weeks, I had been wondering why my agency wasn’t sending anyone this year. They generally do. Had I gone registration form-searching, I would have seen: actually, they ARE sending an agent this year.

Which brings me to the first of the skipped agents, Lauren Abramo, who hails from my very own Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (where I am represented by — since some of you have been asking — the perpetually fabulous Stacey Glick). Regular PNWA conference attendees may recognize the agency — both Stacey and the firm’s principal, Jane Dystel, have graced our conference in recent years.

I have not met Lauren personally, but I have nothing but good to say about D&G in general and Stacey in particular — especially impressive praise, when you consider that the agency has stuck with me through what has surely been one of the most trying memoir-publication processes in human history. Not every author enjoys that kind of support; I have been very, very lucky.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that little rant out of my system, let me add: no single agency, however marvelous, is going to be a good fit for every writer. And as I’ve been explaining for the past few posts, every agent has individual tastes and style. You need to figure out who might be simpatico with you and your book.

That being said, and since there’s no blurb for Lauren Abramo on the PNWA site, I am going to quote her blurb from the agency’s website verbatim:

“Lauren E. Abramo joined DGLM after earning an M.A. in Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Prior to attending NUIG, she completed a B.A. in English at New York University.

“With two particularly impractical degrees under her belt, Lauren sought work in publishing, and DGLM has turned out to be a great fit. She is an avid reader of fiction, especially anything literary, smart and fun, as well as non-fiction designed to make you think or laugh – particularly history, politics, current affairs and philosophy. She also enjoys books on science, though she cannot claim she always understands them.

“Born in New York City and raised not far outside it, she now lives in Brooklyn.”

Okay, back to me again. I’m reluctant to dissect this one too much, since I’ve already done so much cheerleading for the agency above, but allow me to say: while a lot of agents say that they are in the market for funny writing, it has been my experience that everyone at D&G honestly has a sense of humor. So if you write humorous work, MAKE SURE YOUR PITCH TO HER IS FUNNY.

Ms. Abramo is relatively new to the agency (as in within the last year), and is, I’m told, actively seeking new clients. So far this year, according to the standard industry databases, she has sold 3 NF books (2 reference, 1 pop culture) and one novel:

To Adams Media, a NF: Reference book by founder and executive director of Animals 101 Michelle River, DO DOGS HAVE BELLY BUTTONS?, a trivia guide to man’s best friend.

To Simon Spotlight Entertainment, Post Road literary magazine co-founder Jaime Clarke’s anthology SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes. (I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark, and guess that this one is the pop culture sale.)

Another NF: Reference book, Founder and president of PrepMatters Ned Johnson and Emily Warner Eskelsen’s THE SAT FIX: WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEENS AND TESTS, an SAT resource guide for parents, sold to Palgrave.

And the novel, which sounds really cool: Lorraine Lopez’ FERMINA’S GIFT, “about four sisters who are each promised a ‘gift’ by their enigmatic Hopi caretaker and how they struggle with the responsibilities these ‘gifts’ entail, as well as the conflicts of sisterhood, love, marriage, and motherhood,” purchased by Warner/Solana.

I have met many, many aspiring writers at conferences who routinely avoid agents relatively new to the game in favor of the bigger wigs, but I think this is generally a mistake. The bigwigs might, at best, pick up one or two client at any given conference; they often pick up none at all, as their dance cards are already full. The lesser-known agents, on the other hand, are often “building their lists,” as the industry jargon has it, and thus might be open to a broader array of pitches. This in turn means that your chances of getting your work read and accepted are better.

Remember, too, that a new agent in a small agency and a new agent at a big, prestigious agency like D & G might easily have very different sets of connections. Just because an agent is new to the game doesn’t mean that she can’t help you; in fact, that is how agents BECOME big, usually, by discovering a great new author and riding together to the top.

I have a lot of territory to cover today, so on to the next skipped agent, Jennifer Cayea of Nicholas Ellison. Ms. Cayea is one of two agents at Nicholas Ellison, a subsidiary of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates; NE represents such bestselling authors as Christopher Moore and Olivia Goldsmith. Here is her blurb, borrowed from the NE website:

“Jennifer is building a select list of emerging authors of fiction and non-fiction. Prior to joining Nicholas Ellison, Inc. as an agent and director of foreign rights, Jennifer had a distinguished record as an editor at Random House, in the audio and large print division where she demonstrated a keen editorial eye and was known to be very aggressive in acquiring books. Her negotiation skills combined with her unique publishing background enable her to achieve the best possible results for the authors.”

Okay, this is a GREAT blurb for dissection, because it contains a lot of industry jargon. “Building a select list of emerging authors,” translated into English as she is spoke in these here United States, means that she is either a relatively new agent who has not yet built a client list, that she is just returning from an extended leave of absence, and/or is currently very open to representing previously unpublished authors on general principle (which is relatively rare). Let’s take a look at what she’s sold lately to try to figure out which is the most likely possibility:

December, 2004, Debut Fiction to William Morrow: Author K.L. Cook’s first novel THE GIRL FROM CHARNELLE, “following the family of a 16-year old girl after she is abandoned by her mother and her oldest sister, left to care for her father and three brothers while the family tries to regain its balance.” This book had some pretty hefty back-jacket candy, blurbs from the likes of Richard Russo, so I imagine this was a pretty sweet deal.

February, 2004, a pop culture book to Gotham, in a great big deal: “Legendary sound engineer Geoff Emerick and veteran music journalist Howard Massey’s HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE: A Legacy of Sound, Music, and The Beatles, with a foreword by Elvis Costello, from the man in charge of the recording of such seminal albums as ‘Revolver,’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ and ‘Abbey Road,’ with stories of the groundbreaking recording techniques he pioneered to give them their unique sound and his post-Beatles days (including working Paul McCartney & Wings).”

(And, no, I don’t know why the publishing industry’s databases are so very full of typos, considering that much of the input is written by EDITORS. Go figure.)

These are great deals, but I can’t find anything she’s sold since, other than the world Spanish rights to Father Albert Cutie’s REAL LIFE, REAL LOVE: 7 Paths to a Strong & Lasting Relationship. Perhaps we’ll find more information on her webpage, which does include a list of her clients. Other than the three listed above, this list includes THE LOVE DIET by Mabel Iam (Rayo/HarperCollins); a short story collection by the aforementioned K.L. Cook, LAST CALL (University of Nebraska Press); BURN, PICTURE ME ROLLIN’, and EXPLICIT CONTENT by Black Artemis (NAL); DIVAS DON’T YIELD and OSHUN’S ARRANGEMENT by Sofia Quintero (Random House); THE SISTA HOOD: On a Mission by E-Fierce (Atria Young Adult Books); TAKE BACK YOUR POWER: How to Reclaim It, Keep It, and Use It to Get What You Deserve and YOU GO, GIRL! How to Raise Powerful Women by Yasmin Davidds (Atria Books); THE CHALUPA RULES by Mario Bàsquez (Plume); ASCENDING TO POWER: How I Achieved the American Dream by Rosario Marin (Atria Books).

Most of these books were sold prior to 2000. I would assume from this that she is VERY serious about building up a new list — which may make her a very good audience for a terrific pitch right about now. As anyone who habitually reads agents guides can tell you, being actually EAGER to work with the previously unpublished is not a very common trait, and it should be cherished wherever it crops up.

I do wish that her blurb gave more information about her specific interests — “fiction and non-fiction” covers quite a bit of territory, doesn’t it? Since her listed books are not very recent, I’m not sure what to advise you about what kind of work to pitch to her, other than to refer you to the lists above.

Please don’t hold this against her, though, because interest ambiguity is far from rare in the industry. In fact, preference vagueness is extraordinarily common in agents’ public statements about what they represent — as, again, anyone who has spent much time reading agents guides can tell you. It’s one of the best reasons to go to literary conferences: there, agents and editors will usually be far more explicit about their interests than they ever are in guides.

You may have noticed this phenomenon yourself, in trying to figure out whom to query. Many, many agencies will list themselves as accepting practically every genre under the sun, out of fear of missing out on that one bestseller in a category that they usually don’t represent. I think being vague about their tastes makes the aspiring author’s job considerably more difficult, as it is hard to second-guess the tastes of someone you don’t know personally. But it is accepted industry practice, and one of the reasons that it’s a good idea to perform as much background research as possible on agents you may be meeting at a conference.

But for instructive purposes, I am rather glad that Ms. Cayea’s blurb is so vague, simply because it IS so common. What does one do, when faced with this type of generality, since we at the PNWA have to make our agent choices so far in advance?

My advice is multi-part. If the list above strikes your fancy, sign up for a meeting with her. If not, attend the agents’ forum at the conference, and wait to see what she — or any other vaguely-blurbed agent — SAYS she is looking to represent at the moment. Then, if she seems like a good fit for you, run up after the forum is over and ask if you can give her your pitch, either on the spot or by arranging an informal appointment later in the conference.

Never underestimate the power of the spontaneous pitch.

And, as always, if any particular agent intrigues you, do some internet research. It can be very, very helpful not only in figuring out which agent to query, but also in figuring out what is and isn’t important to you in an agent — now, before you are in a room with several of them.

Before I signed with an agent, I found ranking my choices for conference appointments very annoying — not just because I didn’t always have access to much information about the agents in question (although often it was that, too), but also because I hadn’t given much thought to what I wanted in an agent. To be absolutely honest, as the veteran of two bad agent-client relationships, my primary criterion was that the agent was interested in my work; until I had offers from several agents simultaneously (not a very common luxury; I had won a contest), I had not seriously considered that I SHOULD have selection criteria of my own.

But I did, and you should, too. Not every agent is going to represent your work well; that’s just a fact. So why not sit down — preferably BEFORE you make your agent choices for the conference — and come up with a list of qualities you would like to discover in your agent? (Hint: it is helpful if you seek a bit more specificity than “a person who will sell my books.” Do you want someone that you feel comfortable picking up the phone and asking questions at the drop of a hat, or someone who has a more formal relationship with her clients? Do you want an agent who will leave you alone to work on your writing, or would you be happier if you received regular updates about what is going on with your circulating work? Etc.)

I guarantee that it will help make the selection process easier — and help you appreciate what an embarrassment of riches we have coming to the conference. Truly. Imagine, having access to so many disparate agents that we writers can narrow down our choices in order to find the best fit. Really, it’s a great thing, even if the necessity of making ranked choices is a stressful prospect.

Thanks again to Toddie and Dave for the heads-up about the skipped agents. In gratitude, here’s a tidbit that I know that Toddie will like, as we’ve been privately discussing the case of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who’s been under heat lately due to charges of plagiarism regarding her chick lit novel. (There are blogs and blogs out there now devoted to comparing her book to those of Megan McCafferty, Salman Rushdie, Meg Cabot, and Sophie Kinsella. If you want to avoid the feeding frenzy and look at a straightforward textual comparison between her work and Kinsella’s,. For other, more gleeful comparisons, check out the Harvard Crimson article.

The latest news, hot off the industry grapevine: this afternoon, Little, Brown announced that they “will not be publishing a revised edition of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract.”

Ouch. So much for that immense advance — although one wonders if the Crime would have bothered to break the story if her advance hadn’t been so, well, large. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the mother of all chick lit books, BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY, primarily a rehash of the plot of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? I’m not defending Ms. Viswanathan (although I do hope that she sits right down and writes a book about all of this; it would be interesting to hear her perspective on being a 17-year-old who got away with such a thing for a couple of years), but if we’re going to be jumping on paraphrasing the ideas of others without credit, by all means, let’s be consistent about it.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

I missed posting yesterday — no, not because of a miraculous breakthrough with my memoir, alas, but due to one of the nice-but-stressful phenomena intrinsic to life represented by an agent: on Tuesday afternoon, I was asked if I was still interested in writing a book I had mentioned casually, almost in passing, months ago. (One of the cocktail party tricks one rapidly learns as a working writer is to propose any idea for a publishable work to one’s agent as soon as it occurs to one.) Well, apparently, this one stuck, and now, a publisher is moderately interested in it. Interested enough, at least, to ask to see a proposal.

For the sake of giving you an accurate impression of what to expect from the publishing industry, let me also add: it is my understanding that a certain amount of this interest stemmed from the publisher’s anticipating being confined to bed for some time with a lingering head cold, and thus bored; he wanted something to read. Hey, we take our opportunities as we find them.

In any case, my agent and the publisher’s both being New Yorkers, they asked if they could have the proposal by the end of business (East Coast time, natch) Wednesday, to catch the publisher’s cold-induced reading time before it expired. So, being a good little writer, I sat down and churned out a proposal in a day.

For the record, I do not recommend this. Thank goodness, I caught myself thinking while my fingers blurred across the keyboard, that I already have a usable author bio!

I had to laugh, remembering how I spent Tuesday’s blog haranguing you about the vital importance of being an upbeat, can-do kind of writer, the sort who says, “Rewrite WAR AND PEACE by Saturday? No problem!” Here was a perfect real-life illustration of the importance of conveying that kind of attitude. It enabled my agent to jump on an opportunity as soon as it appeared, for both of our potential benefits.

As the late great Billie Holiday so often sang, “The difficult/I’ll do right now./The impossible/will take a little while.” (Will it vitiate my moral too much if I add that the name of the song was “Crazy, He Calls Me”?)

While I was writing like crazy yesterday, I also thought about how lucky I was to have enough experience with the trade to be able crank out the requisite pieces of a formal book proposal with the speed of a high school junior BSing on her English Literature midterm. That facility is definitely a learned skill, acquired through having produced a whole lot of promotional materials for my work over the last decade. At this point, I can make it sound as if all of human history had been leading exclusively and inevitably to my acquiring the knowledge, background, and research materials for me to write the project in question.

The Code of Hammurabi, you will be pleased to know, was written partially with my book in mind.

A word to the wise: any promotional material for a book is a creative writing opportunity. Not an invitation to lie, of course, but a chance to use your writing skills to paint a picture of what does not yet exist, in order to call it into being. For those of you new to the game, book proposals — the good ones, anyway — are written as if the book being proposed were already written; synopses, even for novels, are written in the present tense. It is your time to depict the book you want to write as you envision it in your fondest dreams.

That I have this skill in my writer’s tool bag is very valuable to my agent — because actually, she is too prudent a character to have told the publisher he could have the proposal that quickly if she didn’t know from past experience that I could pull it off. (Agents tend to be prudent people; the publishing world is surprisingly full of risk-averse souls, as you may already know if you’ve been querying with a particularly innovative book lately.)

I mention all of this not for self-aggrandizement purposes (although I am pretty pleased with myself for finishing it in time, I must confess), but as inducement to you to write up as many of the promotional parts of your presentation package well in advance of when you are likely to be asked for them. This is a minority view among writers, I know, but I would not dream of walking into any writers’ conference situation (or even cocktail party) where I am at all likely to pitch my work without having polished copies of my author bio, synopsis, and a 5-page writing sample nestled securely in my shoulder bag, all ready to take advantage of any passing opportunity.

Chance favors the prepared backpack.

Okay, so after all of this build-up, I hope you are chomping at the bit to get at your own author bio. First of all, let’s define it: an author bio is an entertaining overview of the author’s background, an approximately 200-250 word description of your writing credentials, relevant experience, and educational attainments, designed to make you sound like a person whose work would be fascinating to read.

Let me get the standard advice out of the way: use third person. Start with whatever fact is most relevant to the book at hand, not with “The author was born…” Mention any past publications (in general terms), columns, lecturing experience, readings, as well as what you were doing for a living at the time that you wrote the book. Mention any and all educational background (relevant to the book’s subject matter or not), as well as any awards you may have won (ditto). If your last book won the Pulitzer Prize, for instance, this is the place to mention it.

To put the length in easier-to-understand terms (and so I don’t get an avalanche of e-mails from readers worried that their bios are 15 words too long), this is 2-3 paragraphs, a 1/3 — 1/2 page (single-spaced) or 2/3 — 1 full page (double-spaced). And, as longtime readers of this blog have probably already anticipated, it should be in 12-pt. type, Times, Times New Roman or Courier, with 1-inch margins.

Yes, you read that bit in the middle of the last paragraph correctly: unlike positively everything else you will ever produce for passing under an agent or editor’s beady eyes, it is sometimes acceptable to single-space an author bio. Generally speaking, though, bios are only single-spaced when the author bio page contains a photograph of the author. I shall talk about this contingency tomorrow.

Got that length firmly in your mind? It should seem familiar to you — it’s the length of the standard biographical blurb on the inside back flap of a dust jacket. There’s a reason for that, of course: increasingly, the author, and not the publisher’s marketing department, is responsible for producing that blurb. So busy writers on a deadline tend to recycle their author bios as jacket blurbs.

Before you launch into writing your own bio, slouch your way into a bookstore on your day off and start pulling books of the shelves in the area where you hope one day to see your book sitting. Many of my clients find this helpful, as it assists them in remembering that the author bio is, like a jacket blurb, a sales tool, not just a straightforward list of facts. If you write funny novels, read a few dozen bio blurbs in funny novels already on the market. If you write cyberpunk, see what those authors are saying about themselves. Is there a pattern?

In good bios, there is: the tone of the author bio echoes the tone of the book. This is a clever move, as it helps the potential book buyer (and, in the author bio, the potential agent and/or editor) assess whether this is a writer in whose company she wants to spend hours of her life.

Now, I should warn you now about a disappointment you are likely to encounter as you read through book jacket blurbs: there are a LOT of lousy bios out there, littering up the dust jackets of otherwise perfectly fine books. Reading these may seem like a waste of your time, but actually, you can learn a lot from the bad ones, which typically share some common traits. You can learn what to avoid.

What makes them bad quickly becomes apparent. The bad ones are too similar, which makes them inherently dull. At their worst, they are merely lists of where the author went to school, if anywhere, what the author did (or does) for a living before (or besides) writing, where they live now, and their marital status. So scores of writers end up sounding something like this:

“Turgid McGee was born in upstate New York. After attending the Albany Boys’ Reformatory, he served a term in the U.S. Air Force. After graduating from Princeton University, McGee attended law school at the University of Oklahoma.

“Now retired, McGee now lives in Bermuda with his wife, Appalled, and his three children, Sleepy, Dopey, and Sneezy. He is currently working on his second book.”

Yawn. But inducing boredom is not ol’ Turgid’s worst offense here — the biggest problem with this blurb is that it’s poor marketing material. Quick, based solely on that bio:

What is Turgid’s book about?

Why is he uniquely qualified to write it?

If you picked up this book in a used bookstore years from now, would you have any interest in checking the shelves to see what his second book was?

Turgid also made a subtle mistake here, one that perhaps only those who have read a whole lot of author bios — such as, say, an agent or an editor — would catch. Turgid says he attended the University of Oklahoma, not that he graduated from it. This is the standard industry euphemism for not having finished a degree program, and thus problematic, since (and knowing dear old Turgid so well, I can say this with authority,) he actually did obtain his law degree. But when a publishing professional reads “Daffy Duck attended Yale University” in an author bio, she is automatically going to assume that poor Daffy dropped out after a year.

Moral: if you graduated from a school, say so. (And as a personal favor to me, never, ever say that you graduated a school; retain the necessary preposition. I can’t tell you how many times I have been introduced as the speaker who “graduated Harvard.” It makes my molars grind together.)

Looking at my own bio on this website, I’m not sure that I’ve avoided all of Turgid’s mistakes, but as far as the industry is concerned, the 50-word bio and the 250-word bio are entirely different animals. The former does tend to be a list, but the latter is the author’s big chance to prove to the publishing industry that she is not only a talented writer, but a person who might actually be interesting to know. My personal rule of thumb: if the full-fledged author bio doesn’t give the impression that if you were trapped in a snowstorm for three days with the author, the author would be capable of keeping you entertained with anecdotes the whole time, the bio isn’t interesting enough.

And, perhaps, if you’re lucky, something in your bio will stick in your agent’s mind enough down the road that it will occur to her to pitch your offhand reference to it to a sniffly editor in an elevator. That’s the kind of thing that happens to interesting people.

I’ll go into the mechanics a bit more tomorrow. In the meantime, keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini

Hello, readers —

I’m feeling fairly optimistic today — and, as we all know, a tendency toward cockeyed optimism is an invaluable trait in a writer in the biz for the long haul. Today, though, I am optimistic for a reason — but because things are going better, I can’t tell you about them. Ironic, no? Once again, my memoir’s doings are shrouded in legally-induced secrecy (hypothetically, of course): shadowy behind-the-scenes negotiations are taking place in far-away rooms. Options are being discussed, you will be pleased to hear.

And all the while, yours truly, bedraggled champion of what I honestly do believe is a hell of a good story, keeps pushing for the right to have that story heard. The memoir’s saga is beginning to feel to me like a surrealistic update of one of those chivalric romances — you know, the ones where Sir Gawain or Lancelot have to undergo a seemingly endless series of tests before falling exhausted into the arms of their respective ladyloves and being offered a goblet of mead. Medieval ladyloves, like NYC-based publishers, are a testy lot: they liked to have their champions prove their devotion over and over and over again.

Yes, a writer’s life is indeed a romantic one. Just not the kind of romance most of us envision.

A few weeks ago, I had promised to talk about how to write an author bio, so you could have one all ready when an agent or editor asks to see it — at, say, a major conference taking place near SeaTac in a few months’ time. Or as a supplement to the rest of your novel, after someone at an agency has already fallen in love with the first 50 pages and asked to see the rest.

They will ask, in short, when your mind is on other things, like doing a lightning-fast revision on your book proposal so you can send it to that nice editor who listed to your pitch.

The request for a bio often catches writers by surprise. Agents and editors tend to toss it out casually, as if it’s an afterthought: “Oh, and send me a bio.” The informality of the request can be a bit misleading: your one-page author bio is actually a very important tool in your marketing kit.

How important, I hear you ask? Well, it’s not unheard-of for editors, in particular, to decide to pass on the book they’re being offered, but ask to see other work by the author, if the bio is intriguing enough. So actually, it is not a tremendously good idea just to throw a few autobiographical paragraphs together in the last few minutes before a requested manuscript, proposal, or synopsis heads out the door.

Which is, I am sorry to report, precisely what most aspiring writers do.

Big, big mistake: if the bio sounds dull, disorganized, or unprofessional, agents and editors tend to assume that the writer is also dull, disorganized, or unprofessional. Publishing types tend not to be the most imaginative of people. After all, they reason (or so they tell me), the author’s life is the material that he should know best; if he can’t write about that well, how can he write well about anything else?

A good bio is especially important for those who write any flavor of nonfiction, because the bio is where you establish your platform in its most tightly-summarized form. All of you nonfiction writers out there know what a platform is, don’t you? You should: it is practically the first thing any agent or editor will ask you when you pitch a NF book. Your platform is the background that renders you — yes, YOU — the best person on earth to write the book you are pitching. This background can include, but is not limited to, educational credentials, relevant work experience, awards, and significant research time.

For a NF writer, the author bio is a compressed résumé, with a twist: unlike the cold, linear presentation of the résumé format, the author bio must also demonstrate that the author can put together an array of facts in a readable, compelling fashion.

Tall order, no?

Lest you fiction writers out there think that you are exempt from this daunting challenge, think again. At least NF writers know in advance when they will be expected to produce an author bio: it’s typically the last piece of the NF book proposal. (For an overview on the basics of writing a book proposal, please see my blogs from August 23rd -29th, stored in the handy archives displayed on the right-hand side of this page.)

Fiction writers, on the other hand, are seldom warned in advance that they will have to write an author bio at all, much less that they will probably need it before anyone in the industry actually reads their work in its entirety. “A bio?” novelists say nervously when agents and editors toss out the seemingly casual request. “You mean that thing on the back cover? Won’t the marketing department write that for me?”

In a word, no. And readers, if you take nothing else from today’s blog, take this enduring truth and clutch it to your respective bosoms forevermore: whenever you are asked to provide extra material whilst marketing your work, train yourself not to equivocate. Instead, learn to chirp happily, like the can-do sort of person you are, “A bio? You bet!” Even if the agent or editor in question has just asked you to produce some marketing data that strikes you as irrelevant or downright stupid. Even if what you’re being asked for will require you to take a week off work to deliver. Even in you have to dash to the nearest dictionary the second your meeting with an agent or editor is over to find out what you’ve just promised to send within a week IS.

Or, perhaps more sensibly, drop me an e-mail and inquire. That’s what my blog is here for, you know: to help writers get their work successfully out the door.

Why is appearing eager to comply and competent so important, I hear you ask? Because professionalism is one of the few selling points a writer CAN’T list in an author bio — and to most people in positions to bring your work to publication, it’s regarded as a sure indicator of how much extra time they will have to spend holding a new author’s hand on the way to publication, explaining how the industry works.

How much extra time will they want to spend on you and your book, I hear you ask? (My readers are so smart; I can always rely on them to ask the perfect questions at the perfect times.) It varies from agent to agent, of course, but I believe I can give you a general ballpark estimate: none.

Yes, I know — all the agent guides will tell the previously unpublished writer to seek out agencies with track records of taking on inexperienced writers. It’s good advice, but not because such agencies are habitually eager to expend their resources teaching newbies the ropes. It’s good advice because such agencies have demonstrated that they are braver than many others: they are willing to take a chance on a new writer from time to time. Provided that writer’s professionalism positively oozes off the page and from her manner.

Trust me, the writers these agencies have signed did not respond evasively when asked for their bios.

Professionalism, as I believe I have pointed out several hundred times before, is demonstrated by manuscripts that conform to standard format. (And if you’re new to this blog and don’t know what standard format for manuscripts is, get thee hence without delay to my blog of February 19th. Submissions that are not in standard format tend to be rejected out of hand, without the courtesy of a full reading.) It is also, unfortunately for those new to the game, demonstrated through familiarity with the basic terms and expectations of the industry. Which most people only learn from experience.

So, as you have probably already figured out, “Bio? What’s that?” is not the most advisable response to an agent or editor’s request for same. Nor is hesitating, or saying that you’ll need some time to write one. (You’re perfectly free to take time to write one, of course; just don’t say so.)

Why is even hesitation problematic, I hear you ask? (Another terrific question; you really are on the ball today.) Well, let me put it this way: have you ever walked into a deli in New York unsure of what kind of sandwich you want to get? When you took the requisite few seconds to collect your thoughts on the crucial subjects of onions and mayo, did the guy behind the counter wait politely for you to state your well-considered preferences, or did he roll his eyes and move on to the next customer? And did that next customer ruminate at length on the competing joys of ham on rye and pastrami on pumpernickel, soliciting the opinions of other customers, or did he just shout over your shoulder, “Reuben with a pickle!” with the ultra-imperative diction of an emergency room surgeon calling for a scalpel to perform a tracheotomy with seconds to spare before the patient sustains permanent brain damage?

If you frequent the same delis I do, the answers in both cases are emphatically the latter. Perhaps with some profanity thrown in for local color.

NYC agents and editors eat in these delis, my friends. They go there to RELAX.

This regional tendency to mistake thoughtful consideration, or even momentary hesitation, for malingering or even idiocy often comes as an unpleasant shock to those of us who are West Coast bred and born. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we like to encourage meditation in daily life; there are emporia in the greater Seattle metropolitan area where the Buddha himself could happily hold a full-time job with no significant loss of contemplative time. “I’m here if you need anything,” the Buddha would say, melting into the background to think. “Just let me know if you have questions about those socks. Take your time.”

This is why, in case you are wondering, NYC-based agents and editors tend to treat all of us out here like flakes. In their minds, we’re all wandering around stoned in bellbottoms, offering flowers to strangers at airports and spreading pinko propaganda like, “Have a nice day.” I’ve met agents who are astonished that any of us out here have the mental capacity to type at all, much less write an entire book. I think my agent thinks I live in a yurt.

What does all of this mean, in practical terms, I hear you ask? That you should have an author bio already written by the time you are asked for it, that’s what, so you will not hesitate for even one Buddha-like moment when the crucial request comes. And that is my long-winded explanation of why I am going to spend the next few days teaching you how to write one. Write one now.

Keep up the good work!

– Anne Mini