Hands-On Process

November 11th, 2004 · No Comments
by Booksquare

Previously, we established it was a given that all literary agents are seeking quality, innovative work. Frankly, this makes our job much easier — we can start to focus our thoughts on what distinguishes one agency from another. One would think this is easy: they all have different names, ergo they are all different.

Not so fast — when we talk about different, we mean the subtleties not easily discernible with the naked eye. Yes, the stuff we like to call reading between the lines. Let’s take, for instance Andrew Stuart and Jeffrey Kellogg of The Stuart Agency. Both are former editors who delight in working closely with clients. Coupled with the size of the agency, we can infer they prefer working closely with clients. Authors will receive the type of editorial guidance they crave from editors, but the love and support that can only come from an agent. Plus, we suspect, you’ll have an agent who thinks beyond labels:

Stuart handles a wide range of fiction with a focus on literary fiction. “Then again, the boundaries are so porous,” he says, “I don’t know what qualifies as literary or not literary anymore.”

Agency info: The Stuart Agency, 260 West 52nd Street, #24C, New York, New York 10010, (212) 586-2711, 212-977-1488 (fax). Our research indicates an investment in a domain, but not so much an investment in the website. The MediaBistro article offers more detailed information, included the ever-elusive agent email addresses.

File Under: Agents