All about Anthologies: A Roundtable Discussion
With Lilly Dancyger, Sari Botton, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, and Christine Taylor.
...more
Posts Tagged: literary agents
Literary Misguidelines
If you’re planning on submitting your manuscript to a literary agency, you might want to read Marcy Campbell’s updated guidelines over at Electric Literature first.
...moreA Good Literary Agent Is Hard to Find
Finding a literary agent isn’t easy. It might just be the worst thing ever. Over at Publisher’s Weekly, Ken Pisani looks at the troubling process he went through until he found an agent—one he went to high school with.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Bill Clegg
Author and agent Bill Clegg talks about his new novel, Did You Ever Have A Family, grief in fiction and in life, and why there is no finish line except the final finish line.
...morePowerhouse Spanish Literary Agent Remembered
The New Yorker has a retrospective on Carmen Balcells, a Spanish literary agent who brought writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Jorge Luis Borges to international fame. Balcells passed away last week at the age of 85. Balcells wasn’t just behind the books being written, she was actually in them—sometimes romanticized, sometimes villainized, […]
...moreSecrets of a Literary Agent
Guernica speaks with literary agent Chris Parris-Lamb, who built a career around selling Chad Harbach‘s debut novel The Art of Fielding for a reported $665,000. Since then, he has sold novels like Wolf In White Van and coming later this year, City of Fire, a 900-page tome for a rumored seven-figure sale. But Parris-Lamb was […]
...moreWhat Makes Editors Fall in Love?
There is this (correct) notion that the world is speeding up of late, that we no longer have the attention spans to wait for a story to get going. But even decades ago, Elia Kazan, award-winning director and novelist, said that film audiences gave him seven minutes to capture their interest. If they weren’t intrigued […]
...moreThe Ageless Problem of Agents
The Paris Review blog discovers that in publishing the “sky is always falling.” Every year is an abysmal year for books and a terrific year for books. Editors no longer edit, except when they do; publishers care only for their bottom line, except when they don’t; the three-martini lunch is always dead, always quietly continuing.
...moreDon’t Write for the Money
At a 2011 panel discussion, Erin Hosier, a writer and literary agent, said that she wrote for the money. She had just gotten a book deal to write a personal memoir, and was looking forward to receiving her advance. In a recent interview with The Millions, Hosier says she assumed that the memoir “would just […]
...moreLiterary Agents Are People Too
Authors aren’t the only ones facing rejection. Literary agents receive rejections after sending out their authors’ writing to editors, and they also get rejected by authors that they want to represent. Over at Plougshares, Eric Nelson reveals a few more insights into life as a literary agent.
...moreIn Defense of Literary Agents
The rise of self-publishing and smaller independent presses has left many writers questioning the value of literary agents and their fifteen percent commissions. The collaborative nature of publishing depends on these middlemen though, warns Bethanne Patrick at Beyond the Margins: …agents today do more than simply harvest a commission (if indeed they ever did only that). […]
...moreWhite People Everywhere
White male editors still dominate publishing and white male authors still dominate bestseller lists. Writing over at Plougshares, literary agent Eric Nelson explores the problem: I have frequently presented books as an editor to a room full of only white people. And even from the sixteen books I’ve sold in the past twelve months, less than […]
...more
Solidly Mid-List
So what happened? How did I get here? That’s really the mystery of this whole business, this amazing adventure we call writing.
...more
On Leaving Your Literary Agent
A few months ago, writer Patrick Ross made a difficult and possibly regrettable decision: he left his literary agent. He didn’t have another agent lined up, or even any strong leads on where to find one; he’s currently sending his book around and receiving rejections. What made him take such a risky leap? Read his […]
...moreAsk A Real Live Literary Agent
Rumpus readers will definitely want to read The Toast’s new series “A Literary Agent Answers Your Fevered Questions.” (NB—the questions cover a wide range of feverity, so if yours just kind of has a warm forehead, feel free to send it along.) Written by Ginger Clark, a literary agent at Curtis Brown, it offers valuable […]
...more