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Writers and their agents: Three writers tell all

by Lynda Morgenroth

Three prominent writers shared their complex,
revealing, even humorous author/agent experiences at
the Nov event at the Boston Public Library,
co-sponsored by the NWU and PEN New England and
moderated by Charles Coe. Esmond Harmsworth of Zachary
Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency spoke from his
vantage as an agent during the panel's Q&A. Detailed
notes will be available by Dec 1: contact Barbara
Beckwith at BeckwithB@aol.com or 617-868-3143 if you
want a copy. Meanwhile, some tidbits.

Finding an agent: John Sedgwick, author of In My
Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an
American Family, didn't have to: an agent approached
him after reading his magazine pieces in the Atlantic.
Novelist Helen Elaine Lee, author of The Serpent's
Tale and Watermarked, found her first agent--an
African American woman-- through a friend. Lee, who is
African American, let her heart rule, assuming a
sisterhood between her and her agent. She eventually
left this agent, realizing that the author/agent
relationship "is ultimately about business, not about
sisterhood." Steve Almond, whose newest books are
Candyfreak (memoir) and Not That You Asked (essays),
says he was a "pushover" for the first agent who said,
"I like your stories." (Both he and Sedgwick compared
the author/agent relationship, especially the first
one, to adolescent romance.) Ironically, it wasn't
Almond's agent but an editor who found a publisher
for his first book of short stories, My Life in Heavy
Metal. When queried about how emerging writers access
agents, Esmond Harmsworth told the truth: "Most of
what I take on is referred from existing clients, or
were writers whose published pieces I read somewhere."

Book covers: marketing department and CEOs--not
authors, agents, and editors--generally rule, but
there are exceptions. Helen Elaine Lee, after
objecting to stereotyped cover art and finding a Jacob
Lawrence painting to replace one, did win cover
approval provision.gents can sometimes
influence a cover decision by knowing the market for
their author's book, and convincing the marketing
department.

Persist in your vision: Lee has been told repeatedly
that "people don't buy books about people in prison"
in response to the characters in her current mss. But
since Lee knows "you can't open a newspaper without
reading about people in prison, so it can't be
irrelevant," she has persisted. Since "markets are
created," according to Lee, her book could find its
audience--or make one.

A few "lessons" the authors have learned:

Before you sign up with an agent, talk with other
clients that agency has represented.

If you're wondering if your agent is actively trying
to place your book, you have a right to ask: what's
your plan for getting this book out to editors?

Expect to deal indefinitely with the conflict between
commerce and art.

If you write short stories, it helps to publish as
many as possible before you submit them to an agent as
a book . It also helps if they "read like a novel"
(have same character; set in same place). Same with
essays: it helps if they're connected so that they
"read like a memoir."

If you write a blog to promote your book, remember
that 300,000 hits matter, but 3,000 hits don't.

All the authors alluded to the strongly emotional
quality of the author/agent relationship, not always a
good thing, and John Sedgwick addressed the "odd
couple" quality of the pairing. Authors are
introspective by nature, said Sedgwick, leading quiet
domestic lives, living in their heads, in contrast to
the savvy, gregarious, networking lives of agents.
Segwick said that going to the mailbox was a big event
in his day, in contrast to his ICM agent,
wired-to-the-world, out-and-about, lunching in splendor.