Third Generation Writer Quits Writing to Become an Agent

Stephen Elliott bio ↓  ·  February 15th, 2009  ·  filed under books

Molly Jong-Fast, daughter of Erica Jong and granddaughter of Howard Fast has quit writing to become a literary agent. She wants to sell “celebrity-driven” books and bring in “‘really smart’ writers to help shape those public figures’ lives into books.” As for the literary part of being a literary agent:

“I’m trying not to do too much literary stuff–which is not to say I’m not taking smart things, but there’s a certain type of pretentious novel that I just hate, that I’d spent most of my career trying to write away from. . . .  I want to represent books that will actually reach people.”

She still owes one more book on her contract, though her editor was let go during last month’s purge. Mark Pritchard writes, “I’ll bet that’s going to be one fantastic book — composed by a writer who doesn’t want to be a writer anymore, and edited by whomever, it sounds like the equivalent of a Hollywood movie dumped in a few theaters during the slowest week of the year for a tax write-off.” (via Too Beautiful)

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Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books, including the memoir The Adderall Diaries, the novel Happy Baby, and the erotica collection My Girlfriend Comes To The City and Beats Me Up. He is the editor of The Rumpus. Sometimes he twitters. More from this author →

One Response to “Third Generation Writer Quits Writing to Become an Agent”

  1. Cedrick Oommen Says:

    I appreciate the previous cool post. It is mega refreshing.

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