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"(We do all that you mention below)." But you don't make sales. What I offered was advice for an individual writer working to get his manuscript represented or sold. It's not enough for an agent to do only that. Agents are expected to have expertise, skill, knowledge, and publishing industry contacts. Much of that is gained from working within the publishing industry in other positions or as an intern for a literary agency at the very least.
P&E rates all of its listings on an equal basis according to criteria posted within the P&E sites. We have a duty to offer writers our best advice and most recent and accurate information, not compromise on our criteria, our integrity, or our reputation.
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Cordially,
Dave Kuzminski, Editor
Preditors & Editors ™
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/
-------------- Original message from "Robert W."
Hey Dave,
This is Robert West at the WL Agency and I would really like to engage in a forthright discussion with you.
We just closed a deal with HCI (The Chicken Soup Publishers, and we're hoping to really help our authors) We also just acquired TLAG. ( http://www.writersliterary.com/acquiretlag.html ).
I truly believe that we help more authors than most agencies, and we give more a chance than most agencies.
I would like to answer any questions you have and to at least reach a neutral ground as I believe that your reports on us are keeping good authors from having a chance. (We do all that you mention below).
How can we help you see that we are different now?
Warmest regards,
-----Original Message-----
----- Original Message -----
Go to http://www.caderbooks.com/ and sign up for the free Publisher's Lunch. It will email you each day. Once a week, there will be two emails. One has a listing of sales by legitimate agencies. With me so far? It won't list all the sales reported to them by publishers and agents, but it will list enough that you can see who is selling what. Read through the list and watch for any that are sales for cookbooks. Those occur quite regularly. That's how you'll know which agents to submit to.
After you know who to submit to, find their sites if they have an online site and read their guidelines. Follow those carefully. A lot of agents ignore writers who ignore their guidelines because it marks them as difficult to work with. Still with me?
In the other emails you'll get, you might want to read just to see who is publishing what. Sometimes they'll mention that they're looking for certain types of books. If so, then you'll know who to submit to if you want to go direct. You can also glean this information from a book store by looking at the cookbooks to see who published them. Keep in mind that not all publishers accept direct submissions. For those that do, the same rules apply. Read their guidelines. Submit in accordance with those. Still going my way?
Sometimes the emails also mention the names of editors who are moving out of publishing into agenting. If one was with a publisher that publishes cookbooks, then that new agent might be interested in what you have to offer because many stay in the same speciality when they agent. Again, the same rules apply. Find out the guidelines for the agency the former editor joins as an agent. Submit accordingly.
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-------------- Original message from "xx xxxxx"
My contract with Writers Literary Agency (one of those not recommended) is about to expire. I was always somewhat sceptical about their methods and abilities but they did force me to finish the book, which I take as a positive.
My book is a cookbook and cooking guide directed at people who have found themselves needing to cook on a daily basis but have no idea how to proceed. Divorcees, widowers, newly-wed, etc. For the record I have read over 500 cookbooks cover to cover, prepared over 35,000 meals and owned 2 successful restaurants.
My problem is I can't identify agents who might specialize, or at least have experience with this kind of book. I need an agent because I think this book and guide would do well packaged as a gift with an accompanying cookware and knife set.
I understand that you cannot recommend agents, or publishers. However, I'm hoping you have a resource for me to use so that I can move forward. The Writers Literary Agency (I believe it was formerly N.Y. Literary Agency) has only tried to market one other cookbook and failed. Incidentaly, the fees I have paid them were minimal, $90 to critique the book, an exercise I thought was useless since the person knew nothing about cookbooks, and $175 for them to market the book to 6 publishers of my choice and 6 of theirs. I am not very hopeful that this effort will succeed.
Robert West - Senior Agent
From: xx xxxxx [mailto:xxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 6:37 PM
To: aamgr@theliteraryagencygroup.com
Subject: Fw: agent specialization
From:
To: xx xxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: agent specialization
Cordially,
Dave Kuzminski, Editor
Preditors & Editors ™
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/