Agents

As we previously noted, Michelle Tessler has started her own agency. In her MediaBistro profile, she highlights her biggest strength: a strong background in the business part of the business. Her self-described start-up agency follows the same process that made her successful at Carlisle & Company. Tesslers likes the smart fiction with a strong voice. Not so much the genre fiction. Likes non-fiction that surprises the reader and goes beyond what’s expected. Read the full profile for all the dirt on the agency. Pitching an Agent: Tessler Literary Agency (Note: AvantGuild members only) The Tessler Agency

We still haven’t looked at yesterday’s news and were barely able to skim this morning’s. We did try to play one of the Internet’s many debate drinking games, but things backfired almost immediately. We sent the husband off to open a bottle of wine, thinking he’d immediately head for the Two-Buck Chuck. We gave up hopes of overindulging because what he heard, bizarrely, was, “Please open the most expensive bottle on the rack — the one we keep around just in case we have to impress a serious wine snob.” Now we have to acquire another dummy bottle of we-drink-this-stuff-all-the-time

At this point in the morning (where we are just now able to type something without the operating system going “nanny nanny boo boo” at us), we assume it’s the height of wildness to be using a PC. This, we suspect, doesn’t make us an idea candidate for Susan Golomb. She likes her authors on the edge (in some cases, literally) but alive. This is why, while she’s had an Oprah author or two, she’s not crazy about the new requirements for the book club. Along with agents Kim Goldstein and Sabine Hrechdakian, Golomb focuses on adventurous fiction and interesting

Did you know there were two books about lobsters out there? In addition to the zillion other lobster books, we mean. Apparently one lobster book has gone back for seven printings. Not bad for an animal we’re afraid of (ever since the night one, trying out for our dinner, waved at us — we were intimidated indeed). No really, the things we learn from the Pitching series at MediaBistro are amazing. Sorry, channeling Rodney Bingenheimer there. What we meant to say is if you do smart non-fiction (probably not about lobsters — we suspect the market is getting saturated) or

We end our updates with something that isn’t an update at all. We like to keep our readers guessing. MediaBistro has profiled The Creative Culture for its “Pitching” series. Agents Debra Goldstein, Mary Ann Naples, and Nicole Austin focus primarily on non-fiction (they do represent a small number of fiction authors) on a broad range of subjects. Their respective areas of interest include mind-body, health and lifestyle, and arts and entertainment. As always, check out the full story to learn more. Pitching an Agent: The Creative Culture (AvantGuild members only) The Creative Culture

Publisher’s Lunch also reports that after dating for several months, the parties that formed InkWell Management will finally move in together. Because we believe in saving time and effort, we’ll help you out with the new address: 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10175. You can’t say we don’t give everything to make you happy.

We have spent hours (hours!) working our way backward through all the important email that piled up while we were out earning funds to pay for the premium cat food required in our household. According to the subject line on the next message in the queue (PW Daily for Booksellers), we are only on Wednesday. And mail just keeps coming. At this rate, we will finish last week some time next month. So we’re abandoning our goal of a clean inbox and moving onto weekly updates (the husband is muttering things like “we need to clean this place up”, so

We’d love to linger over org chart updates this week, but, frankly, we have a credit card tapping its little toes, reminding us we have a date with a bookstore this morning. We have to spend some quality time together — she’s already jealous that we’ve scheduled another date (with a pool and a book) this afternoon. We’re popular, what can we say? So read fast as time’s a wasting: Manie Barron is ditching William Morris and joining the Claudia Menza Literary Agency. Good for him. He’ll focus on street literature and works targeting black urban men. As always, we

We can traipse down the path of updates and such. We start with the latest from MediaBistro’s Pitching series. Have we recommended a subscription lately? Consider it done. Today, we focus on the Laura Dail Literary Agency. Agents Laura Dail and Talia Cohen like smart fiction, some YA stuff (also smart), and non-fiction. Lots of non-fiction. Dail focuses on practical non-fiction, while Cohen likes something a bit quirkier. We, as always, leave it to you to determine the difference between the two. Pitching an Agent: Laura Dail Literary Agency Laura Dail Literary Agency

We admit it — we’re not hip. Yeah, it’s hard to say, but there you have it. We like to think it’s a side effect of our innate cynicism, but it’s probably just that we can’t be bothered. Back in the day, cool was effortless…today it requires constant maintenance. We can barely keep up with our car’s oil changes. This leads us to reluctantly conclude that we may not be the right client for The Agency Group. But don’t let our lack of cool stop you from checking out the details about the agency and its principles Marc Gerald and