Comments on: The $50 Proposal http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/ YA lit and some other stuff Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:17:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Do writers need agents? « As the World Stearns http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/#comment-21 Do writers need agents? « As the World Stearns Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:08:29 +0000 http://stupidblogname.com/?p=50#comment-21 [...] « A writer’s credo Do writers need agents? 24 September 2008 Over at Stupid Blog Name, Michael Grant does his cranky-pants best to persuade us that agents are unnecessary; that most of [...] [...] « A writer’s credo Do writers need agents? 24 September 2008 Over at Stupid Blog Name, Michael Grant does his cranky-pants best to persuade us that agents are unnecessary; that most of [...]

]]> By: Carol Snow http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/#comment-16 Carol Snow Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:53:42 +0000 http://stupidblogname.com/?p=50#comment-16 Michael, I gotta disagree with you on this one. If not for my agent, I'd still be toiling in obscurity. Okay -- in more obscurity. I might have even had to break down and get -- shudder -- a real job. Before I wrote fiction, I tried to make a living as a freelance writer, but the sales end of the profession sunk me. My agent lives in New York. I live in California. She meets with editors regularly & knows their tastes. I meet with my cats regularly and know their favorite flavors of Fancy Feast*. When I give my agent a manuscript, I know she will get five or six appropriate editors to read it within a few weeks. Not everyone bids, of course, but she sold my first adult book at auction & my first YA in a pre-empt (my other books were sold, unwritten, to the same two editors). I'm hardly getting rich off of my writing, but I'm positive my agent placed the books better & got me more money than I could have on my own. Certainly, there are writers who can represent themselves better than anyone else, but a lot of us do best staying away from the business side. *flaked tuna and chopped grill Michael, I gotta disagree with you on this one. If not for my agent, I’d still be toiling in obscurity. Okay — in more obscurity. I might have even had to break down and get — shudder — a real job. Before I wrote fiction, I tried to make a living as a freelance writer, but the sales end of the profession sunk me.

My agent lives in New York. I live in California. She meets with editors regularly & knows their tastes. I meet with my cats regularly and know their favorite flavors of Fancy Feast*. When I give my agent a manuscript, I know she will get five or six appropriate editors to read it within a few weeks. Not everyone bids, of course, but she sold my first adult book at auction & my first YA in a pre-empt (my other books were sold, unwritten, to the same two editors). I’m hardly getting rich off of my writing, but I’m positive my agent placed the books better & got me more money than I could have on my own.

Certainly, there are writers who can represent themselves better than anyone else, but a lot of us do best staying away from the business side.

*flaked tuna and chopped grill

]]> By: michael grant http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/#comment-14 michael grant Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:22:15 +0000 http://stupidblogname.com/?p=50#comment-14 So far agents have cost me half a million bucks and done nothing. I'm sure there are some very good agents. I have no doubt that you are one. You'll be good at anything you do, which automatically makes you the exception. Plus I know you to be honest, which makes you rare. I'd have no qualms whatever suggesting a writer sign with you. (I may yet do it myself.) But. Big but: so far agents have cost me money, wasted enormous amounts of my time and damned near destroyed at least one rather lucrative project. Been through five so far. Or six, depending on how you count. The flip side of aspiring writers having to pay $500 or so to get into the game, is writers being discouraged by wait times that can run to six months, bad advice, and lousy follow-through. For $500 they'd get actual consideration. It beats 6 months to hear from some jerk who doesn't remember their name and lost their manuscript. Let me put it this way: without agents I'd be richer and probably have another 2 or 3 books under my belt. So far agents have cost me half a million bucks and done nothing. I’m sure there are some very good agents. I have no doubt that you are one. You’ll be good at anything you do, which automatically makes you the exception. Plus I know you to be honest, which makes you rare. I’d have no qualms whatever suggesting a writer sign with you. (I may yet do it myself.)

But. Big but: so far agents have cost me money, wasted enormous amounts of my time and damned near destroyed at least one rather lucrative project. Been through five so far. Or six, depending on how you count.

The flip side of aspiring writers having to pay $500 or so to get into the game, is writers being discouraged by wait times that can run to six months, bad advice, and lousy follow-through. For $500 they’d get actual consideration. It beats 6 months to hear from some jerk who doesn’t remember their name and lost their manuscript. Let me put it this way: without agents I’d be richer and probably have another 2 or 3 books under my belt.

]]> By: Michael http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/#comment-13 Michael Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:18:49 +0000 http://stupidblogname.com/?p=50#comment-13 I don’t agree with this proposal at all, and I think it actually comes from a rather cynical place (”agents are less likely to know what the publishers want than the editors are”). It shifts a burden onto the authors and would-be authors and asks them to pay for the privilege of having someone glance at their pages. So an author would have to pay fifty bucks to be read at each house. After making the rounds, the author is out many hundreds of dollars and is she any closer to being published? Probably not. There are many very good agents out there who actually know and understand what makes for a good book. They watch the market, they meet with editors to find out what that editor is looking for <i>at the moment</i> (because that changes season by season), they find out how the house is retooling its lists (becase that, too, changes season by season in response to what happened to the previous season's lists). An author can't do that. And shouldn't be worrying about it. She should instead be sitting at her keyboard and writing her books. Agents do something incredibly valuable. Maybe not in your experience, but in mine? As an editor? I was plain grateful for the work done by Steven Malk, and Barry Goldblatt, and Gail Hochman, and a dozen others who submitted books to me that were exactly what I was looking for at a particular time. They served their writers well, and they helped me do my job better. Fifty bucks to get a read at a major house? No way. I don’t agree with this proposal at all, and I think it actually comes from a rather cynical place (”agents are less likely to know what the publishers want than the editors are”). It shifts a burden onto the authors and would-be authors and asks them to pay for the privilege of having someone glance at their pages. So an author would have to pay fifty bucks to be read at each house. After making the rounds, the author is out many hundreds of dollars and is she any closer to being published? Probably not.

There are many very good agents out there who actually know and understand what makes for a good book. They watch the market, they meet with editors to find out what that editor is looking for at the moment (because that changes season by season), they find out how the house is retooling its lists (becase that, too, changes season by season in response to what happened to the previous season’s lists). An author can’t do that. And shouldn’t be worrying about it. She should instead be sitting at her keyboard and writing her books.

Agents do something incredibly valuable. Maybe not in your experience, but in mine? As an editor? I was plain grateful for the work done by Steven Malk, and Barry Goldblatt, and Gail Hochman, and a dozen others who submitted books to me that were exactly what I was looking for at a particular time. They served their writers well, and they helped me do my job better.

Fifty bucks to get a read at a major house? No way.

]]> By: L.M. Steen http://stupidblogname.com/2008/09/the-50-proposal/#comment-7 L.M. Steen Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:32:47 +0000 http://stupidblogname.com/?p=50#comment-7 Gosh and Golly Gee, Michael. All I thought I had to do was write a good novel. Love your blogs! Also love that wife of yours. She needs every shred of humor she can muster up! Gosh and Golly Gee, Michael. All I thought I had to do was write a good novel. Love your blogs! Also love that wife of yours. She needs every shred of humor she can muster up!

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