One of the worst aspects of being an editor (and a new author) is the frenzy to get blurbs. Having no blurbs is like having no extra curriculars on your college application. Or no lace on your bra. It still fits, it still does its job, but where are the frills?

Most people are highly cynical and believe that you can only get blurbs from friends and through connections. This is mostly true, but it still requires a degree of chutzpah. That said, it does happen from time to time that a writer of note notices a new writer. I still have a postcard sent from William Trevor that endorsed a young Irish-American author. Just a hand written sentence from a leaky fountain pen — it meant the world to us.

From a publishing perspective, blurbs are most useful to the people inside the publishing house and the retailers to stir excitement pre-publication. People need validation. It’s one thing when an editor says that this is best novel he or she has ever read; it’s another entirely when it’s from Toni Morrison or Philip Roth. Discerning readers also scan blurbs when perusing a book. An endorsement from a respected author can be a deciding factor. [Note to self: write about spying on shoppers in bookstores.]

Much as I hated trying to get blurbs for my writers, after all who likes imposing on other people, I was never more flattered than the first time someone asked me to blurb their book. By the sixth time, it got a little tiresome especially as I was asked to blurb all the eating disorder books, you know, Fat Like Me, The Fat and the Fury, For Whom the Fat Tolls, Eat Me, to name a few. Still, I always blurbed the books, remembering how hard I worked as an editor to get support for my authors, and how much it meant to me to get some quotes on my own books.

One day, I confessed to a fellow agent that I didn’t love one of the books I blurbed. She was HORRIFIED. What about my good name? I replied that I basically traded that in when I became an agent. She didn’t laugh. She thought it was horrible of me. Was it? Was I becoming what Lucy Grealy lovingly called herself, “a blurb whore?” Bad enough to be a publishing slut.

And you can quote me on that.

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Media Alert: Neil de Grasse Tyson will be on the Jay Leno Show on Monday, January 19 and on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show on Wednesday, January 28 to explain why he spearheaded the decision to demote Pluto’s cold ass Continue reading →

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After one week on sale, Temple Grandin’s new book,  ANIMALS MAKE US HUMAN, hits the New York Times Bestseller list and at #13. I’ve worked with Temple for over twenty years, first as her editor and now as her agent. This is so sweet. Congratulations Temple! Congratulations everyone at Houghton Harcourt (talk about grace under pressure), and thanks to Temple fans old and new. Oh, don’t forget to get a copy!

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Every other month I have lunch with my agents’ group. We call ourselves ETA, which stands for editors turned agent. That’s right, all of us, at one time or another, were gainfully employed as editors. And all of us joined the dark side. I look forward to these lunches because we are all like-minded having similar backgrounds in editorial. But the real reason is the superb gossip, character assassination and publisher bashing. It’s a bloodletting with sushi and diet cokes. Sometimes we’ll even debate the meaning of a contract clause or compare discount percentages! Good times. Today, the sushi was exceptionally good.

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It’s okay if you missed the Golden Globes. They’re sort of like the PSAT’s, meaning there’s still time to prepare for the Oscars. People have often been surprised by my fanatic love of Hollywood Award Shows. It’s been this way since my childhood. In part, as an attention starved middle child, I’ve always had an acceptance speech at the ready — even after being summarily dismissed from NYU film school. Publishing has its award nights, its reviews, its share of the public eye, but c’mon. Okay, I confess, I’ve always wanted to be a part of glitterland. I just got sidetracked in the book biz for 25 years. I can’t complain. It’s been very good to me. I’ve worked on amazing books and loved many of my authors, the gossip’s been decent and at the end of the day, those beautiful objects.

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This is probably the most asked question I get at writer’s conferences. And this is my answer: when you have a perfectly polished non-fiction proposal or novel or memoir, subscribe to Publishersmarketplace.com. On this site, you will be able to search whatever category you hope to publish into and find all the recent deals in that category along with the agent of record. That is the best place to begin putting together a list of agents who might be right for your project.

Publishers Weekly on line is another good source. Look at the acknowledgments of books you loved; if an agent is thanked, he or she might be a kindred spirit. Network: go to conferences, readings, workshops, read Poets and Writers where agents are often profiled. Now, with Google, you can easily research any agent.Many agencies have websites and post their submission guidelines. There are good reference books, too, that list agents like Getting Your Book Published for Dummies.

If up to ten agents turn you down and all give the same reason, or send a form letter rejection, then you may want to reassess your project. Is it really ready? Are you marketing it correctly? Have you workshopped your novel? Have you developed your platform? If you get a variety of rejections, keep going until you can either glean some valuable information or can’t take it any more. But don’t waste your time and energy sending your writing to someone who doesn’t represent material in your category. I get tons of queries from people writing sci-fi, historical fiction, thrillers, self-help, etc. when I don’t represent any writers in these categories. Lose-lose.

Manuscripts, of course, are not math problems, and the test for whether they work is highly subjective. It’s all about the right fit. Agents are, contrary to popular belief, human. Well, most. And they would much prefer to discover a superb new writer than turn hundreds down. Remember, a lot of agents have passed on writers who went on to become bestsellers — I believe thirty passed on Grisham’s first novel, A Time To Kill. (I’m not ready to confess, here, who I stupidly didn’t “see” or “get.”)

Most important, try to take your very thin writer’s skin, through which you feel everything and as a result produce searing and pellucid prose, and turn it into rhino skin, tough enough to withstand the inevitable rejections. You shouldn’t send a manuscript to an agent unless you know that nothing that agent says will stop you from writing. It’s about finding the person who does see it, does believe in you.

Stay focussed. Be professional. And like love, remember, it just takes one.

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This is the season of movies based on books, plays or short stories. Doubt. Benjamin Button. Reservation Road. The Reader. Frost/Nixon. The Tale of Despereaux. Marley and Moi. This is good for writers. I know it’s commonplace to trash movie adaptations, but any additional money or exposure you can get as a writer is jam as far as I’m concerned. I’d option my mother if I could.

So far I’ve seen Benjamin Button. When I’m on my death bed, I will wish I had those two hours and forty minutes back. This is one suckface of a movie and it just might win more gold than Michael Phelps.

The Reader: The beginning is so good.

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In today’s New York Times, there’s an article by David Streitfeld, pointing out one more piece of bad news for publishers and writers: the on-line availability of used books for pennies. “What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual readers but the changing habits of devoted readers. In other words, it’s all the fault of people like myself, who increasingly use the Internet both to buy books and later, after their value to us is gone, sell them.”

Maybe.

When exactly is the value of a book gone? Continue reading →

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From time to time, I’m going to try, here, to address the frequently asked questions that I field at writer’s conferences. And if you have questions, please feel free.

Today, nation, it’s the query letter. First, should you send a real letter or an email. While I still love a letter, I think most Continue reading →

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Company christmas party tonight. Spent the day cleaning up, hanging lights, running out in the sleet to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick some…beyond. A good turn out. Due to our younger agents, a younger crowd of writers came this year, many of whom sequestered themselves in a back office to smoke dope and whatever. Felt old, but happy, noticing as I type this red wine spilled on my keyboard. Happy holidays, everyone.

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