Agents

We were all over the interminable rights thing, then, thanks to a glass of wine or two, missed the boat. Luckily Sarah W. did all the work we fantasized we might do. Except she didn’t indulge in the dream sequence where a poor author ends up in a position where he or she has to take a job at the local 7/11 in order to pay commissions to multiple agents due to multiple interminable rights clauses. We suspect Sarah simply didn’t have enough wine in her system. Sarah also asks about the logic behind the clause. Not surprisingly, we have […]

Yes, Regal Literary is one of those agencies: they are looking for something that’s not the same old, same old. And they mean it. Agents Joe Regal, Gordon Kato, and Peter Steinberg want audacious (unfortunately, they don’t want audacious genre fiction; we suppose it depends on you define genre, however). As always, check out the article on MediaBistro for the whole scoop. Pitching an Agent: Regal Literary Regal Literary

Sobel Weber Associates, Inc. has added Mare Marino-McCullough as contract manager. Sobel Weber Associates, Inc.

MediaBistro focuses its attention on IMG Literary in its latest Pitching column (yes, members only, but it’s really not much to join; we find the information in their paid content to be worth the price). Agents Lisa Queen and Lisa Hyman (we are enjoying the potential for mixed-up phone calls) run their agency within a larger sports agency. But not to worry if you don’t do the sports book thing — they have broad interests. The agency represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction. Not to mention all those lovely connections with the parent agency — speakers’ bureau, media,

Our editor and agent updates for the week are on the skimpy side*. Maybe it’s the lingering holiday, we can’t say. All we know for sure is the streets were filled with fewer literary types hauling the contents of their desks to new digs. That’s not to say everyone stayed put: Peter Steinberg, formerly of JCA Literary Agency, joined Regal Literary (we do have a fondness for an agency fronted by a guy who funded his rock and roll career by agenting). * – Though, according to our update from MediaBistro, the magazine world continued to add and subtract personnel

It has been said that we’re obsessed with our blog. This is not true. Contrary to popular belief, our first actions of the morning have nothing to do with Booksquare. And that will continue to be the case every April through October. It is during those months that we rise and lament the inability of our fantasy baseball team to rise from its below average position (this year, we’re certain it has everything to do with the league leader being collusion with the devil or something equally nefarious). Then we read our email. Sometimes we see interesting tidbits for commenting,

The Darley Anderson Literary TV & Film Agency has hired Emma White, formerly of TransWorld, to handle foreign rights and film licensing. The agency focuses on mainstream works and accessible literary works (what does this mean?). In addition to their strong background in women’s fiction, they’re looking to expand their non-fiction base. The website is full of Flash (and we don’t necessearily mean that in a bad way), but the patient soul will eventually find what they seek. Publishing News Forum Darley Anderson

We start our morning thinking about certain aspects of the writing business. For example, the agent query. You know, where hapless young writers enter the void. We certainly applaud agencies that allow authors to query via email; it makes perfect sense to us (not to mention the number of trees saved!). What makes our skin crawl a bit is when an agency suggests they’ll respond to your email query if they’re interested. This leaves you, the hapless young writer, in a sort of limbo: did they get my email…did they hate my work? You simply don’t know if you don’t