eBooks

I am not tech-savvy, so please bear with me. E-books, or ebooks, or electronic books, are digitized equivalent of, uh…books. E-books can be read on a computer, or some of the newer smart phones (iPods and Blackberries, etc), or on specialized e-book readers such as the Kindle or Sony Reader. Here’s a pared-down list of advantages/disadvantages, which I basically ripped off from Wikipedia:

Hundreds or thousands of books may be stored on one device, which is handy if you can get the titles you want (Ebook.com claims to have 168,000 titles, and Amazon claims to have 245,000 titles, though I’m not sure how many of those are guides to the Star Trek galaxy, or do it yourself kits.) Some publishers seem hesitant to go the e-book route, due to piracy issues and Digital Rights Management laws.
Most publishers don’t produce the e-book equivalent of their printed books. In other cases, e-books are given a lower priority in terms of the publisher’s resources, resulting in a disparity in product quality, release dates and the like. This problem is not endemic to every publisher, but has an effect on the quality of the overall pool of merchandise available. Many consumers are slow to jump on the digital bandwagon, mainly because e-books aren’t, uh…books; aesthetics are different; they don’t feel like books and can be harder to read than real books, depending on the screen resolution. And an e-book reader is a sizable up-front investment: the Kindle 2 is around $360, but there are about a dozen other, less expensive models out there. If you purchase a $360 Kindle, you may be subject to theft (a Kindle can buy enough crack for a whole week), sodomy (because carrying a Kindle might upset roving sodomists), hardware malfunctions, and breakage.
Barring the sodomy, crackheads and other perils, e-books have many advantages. Text can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks. Non-permanent highlighting and annotation are also allowed. Font size, face can be adjusted. The new Kindle boasts sixteen shades of gray. Let me repeat that: the new Kindle boasts sixteen shades of gray. This shit is wireless. Animated images or multimedia clips can be embedded. Text-to-speech software can be used to convert e-books to audio books automatically.
And you can read in the dark; no more wasting candles or waiting for daybreak. And your Kindle automatically opens at the last read page; no more wasted bookmarks or dog-earing (Hurrah!). No more paper, ink, and other resources that are traditionally wasted on the production of printed books. Hurrah for the environmentalists! (Nevermind that E-book readers, like all electronic devices, are an environmental hazard because they are comprised of lithium batteries, LCD screens and polymers and smelting.) And you don’t really have to worry about passing your Kindle down through the generations, because in the future they’ll be able to inject books intraveneously, so ultimately you’ll save paper when you go to make out your will.
After you spend your $360, get mugged, sodomized, and then spend another $360, you can find consolation in the fact that electronic texts are generally cheaper than traditional books.
From an author’s perspective, note that e-books require little storage space, and can therefore be offered indefinitely, with no going out of print date, allowing authors to continue to earn royalties indefinitely, and ease of distributing e-texts means that they can be used to stimulate higher sales of printed copies of books. I t is also (supposedly) easier for authors to self-publish e-books.
As for publishing your own e-book:
1. Get the software for you to create an electronic book (see below).
2. Write your e-book.
3. Use the software to convert your document to the electronic book format. (Most e-books are PDFs.)
4. Make your e-book available from your website. Note that even if you wish to sell your E-book, you should still have a portion of your eBook available freely to whet the appetites of your prospective customers.
5. Publicize your e-book. If you want to get noticed, get a blog, or a Myspace account. Or climb those clock-tower stairs with a nice bolt action rifle…or just start sleeping around, a lot, or just get published through other channels. My point is that no one is going to buy your e-book just because you got it published. You can get the software for about $9.95 if you want, but I am always wary of the nines, and the fives, so I say steal it.
I think this venue has tremendous potential, especially when more people start using their iPhone as an e-book device. But as of this posting, iPhone users are still obsessed with porn and that funny looking gopher. (As a side-note: If Amazon wants to compete, they should remind folks that Kindles are porn-and-gopher ready, and are capable of replicating sixteen shades of gray.) Unfortunately, at the moment, only fifty-three Americans, forty-six Europeans, and twenty-two Chinese have a Kindles. That’s only like eighteen people. (I think the number is a little higher; Amazon claims to have sold almost 400,000 units in 2008) So maybe you could use Kindle to start your career. It is a promising venue. Phones are much smarter now than they were in Gutenberg’s day (Steve Gutenberg), and a quick software download can turn almost any laptop or PDA into an e-book reader.

My research began with the goal of learning which publishers best handle non-academic essays of cultural and aesthetic criticism, such as those written by Wendell Berry and Dave Smith. This humble query gradually became a hulking disaster whose chickenscratch trailings wrecked several pages of otherwise good notebook paper.

To distill the research: there are two kinds of publishers of critical, creative non-fiction. The first kind once operated on principles of independence, social concerns, etcetera, but was snatched by the Jubjub Birds of Corporate Licensure. The second kind currently do operate on the aforementioned principles, though they occasionally collaborate with once-independent presses in order to get more books published.

For an example of the first kind, take Athenaeum Books, once an imprint under Knopf. Athenaeum was once a publisher of socially acute work such as Edward Albee’s and Randall Jarrell’s. Then it was merged with Charles Scribner’s Sons, and then Knopf was bought out my MacMillan, and then MacMillan was bought out by Simon & Schuster. Now, Athenaeum publishes mostly children’s books for its new material while keeping its “social astuteness” credibility by re-releasing the social critiques of the last century. La!

Shoemaker & Hoard and North Point Press are likewise examples of the first category of publishers. (Wendell Berry publishes under both.) While both were once small, independent publishers of social criticism, they each were consumed by larger corporations. North Point Press joined Faber & Faber and Hill & Wang as imprints of Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, which is purportedly owned by MacMillan, which is (I guess?) owned by Simon & Schuhster. Shoemaker & Hoard got together with Soft Skull Press and Sierra Club Books under the conglomerate Counterpoint LLC, under whose name all works previously attributed to these presses are now published.

Or, finally, we can consider the deflation of Pantheon Books, once an imprint of Knopf that published the likes of Chomsky, Foucault, and Studs Terkel. Then Knopf was bought by Random House. At this point, another corporate Biblical genealogy unwinds, except each node on the chain is connected by consuming rather than begetting. Pantheon Books is described as having “editorial independence,” which I guess is the best thing you can say once you’re owned by (apparently) the same company that owns everyone else. They are presently moving more in the direction of graphic novels, though they continue to re-publish their former (and formerly) cutting-edge texts.

The lesson: if you want to know who to trust with your socially sensitive missive, check to see which way the Sword of Damocles hangs over the label’s head. If the hilt points back to any company that’s had a hand in your high school textbooks, look elsewhere.

For an idea of “elsewhere,” consider New Directions Publishing and Graywolf Press. Both stress their natures as “independent presses,” and the facts seem to bear this out. Graywolf Press has collaborated with larger publishers such as Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in order to increase their output, though Graywolf itself remains non-profit despite these coalitions. It, along with New Directions, seems like a great place to take book-length essay collections of cultural and aesthetic criticism, given the publishers’ philosophical leanings and their freedom from The Weltering ToadGOD who owns all corporations in American FOREVER.

You can also try university presses, though they tend to be a little more academically focused.

And I’m done.

Publishing Creative Non-fiction books…kind-of

Greetings!

In an attempt to find something on publishing creative non-fiction (cnf) books, I have done alot of googling and have come up with a few good sites and sources but mainly just crap about self-publishing your recipe book or home remedies. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Anyway, it looks to me like you had better look carefully at the publisher before you send them a query as most cnf publishers are highly specific. Here are a few of the publisher’s (small and large) and what they are looking for in their own words…

1. Scarletta Press (rolling submissions) Specifically Memoir

Electronic or snail mail submissions are allowed.

Your manuscript should be accompanied by a recommendation or endorsement by an industry professional, such as a literary agent or consultant, professor or published author. All manuscripts must be thoroughly edited.

Authors– “Willow in a Storm” By James Peter Taylor and Kathleen Murphy-Taylor, “A Beirut Heart: One Woman’s War” By Cathy Sultan

2. Riverwood Books (rolling submissions) Specifically Creative/Narrative Non-fiction

Please submit a query letter via snail mail or e-mail with your best pitch and a concise synopsis. Demonstrate briefly that you are prepared to participate in marketing the book. Include your qualifications and whether the work is complete or in-progress. Suggest competing or similar titles and tell us how yours enriches the field. A good letter not only conveys to us your passion for the topic but also tells us most of what we need to know about your writing and editing skills.

Authors–”AS IF WE WERE GROWNUPS: A Collection of “Suicidal” Political Speeches That Aren’t” By Jeff Golden, “UNDER THE STARS: The Life and Times of Tom Tepper” by Tom Tepper as told to Nancy Bringhurst

3. Quirck Books (rolling submissions) Specifically Creative Non-fiction w/strong graphic design

The easiest way to submit your idea is to e-mail a query letter to one of the editors. The query letter should be a short description of your project. Try to limit your letter to one page. Many of Quirk’s best books were pitched in a single paragraph, and a few were pitched in a single sentence.

You can also mail materials directly to the office. If you would like a reply, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Authors–”Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, “How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is the AntiChrist” by Patricia Carlin

4. Atria Books (rolling submissions) Creative Non-fiction

Please query by mail only. Because Atria is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Atria Books is the home of several best-selling authors including Judith McNaught, Vince Flynn, Jude Deveraux and his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Atria Books also publishes literary fiction and serious non-fiction hardcover books as well as trade paperbacks under the Washington Square Press imprint.

Authors–”Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage: Unlocking the Secrets to Life, Love, and Marriage” by Mark Gungor “Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You–At Work And In Life” by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

5. Viking (rolling submissions) Creative Non-fiction

Query by mail only. Because Viking is an imprint of Penguin Group USA, they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

A strictly limited list of good nonfiction, such as biography, history and works on contemporary affairs, and distinguished fiction with some claim to permanent importance rather than ephemeral popular interest.

Authors–Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellows, William S. Burroughs, “The Satanic Verses” by Salmon Rushdie

6. Simon & Schuster (rolling submissions) Non-fiction book

Does not accept unsolicited or unagented

Currently looking for: Children’s books, educational materials, biographies, celebrity bios, history, military history, religion, psychology, the arts, nature/outdoors.

Authors–”A Remarkable Mother” By Jimmy Carter, “Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season” By Jonathan Eig, “Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy” By Macel Falwell

So I hope the material above gives you an idea of what to look for as far as publishers of Creative Non-fiction. (All of this information can be found at http://www.wordhustler.com/publishers/tag/creative%2Bnon-fiction which gives a thorough list of creative nonfiction publishers. There are quite a few listed and a great deal of sorting is needed to find the ones appropriate to literary creative non-fiction.)

I admit, I am not overly confident given the sheer number of highly specific presses out there. However, most university presses publish cnf but also have specific target topics which change yearly if not quarterly.

To add to your Creative Non-fiction education, I’ve included a list of books which are self-described works of Creative Non-fiction.

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
4. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
5. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
6. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
7. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
8. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
9. American & Americans by John Steinbeck
10. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

Hope this enlightens!

Jada

Media Conglomeration and The Publishing Industry

Given concerns about media conglomeration (large corporations owning significant portions of the markets in different media) in fields such as television, radio, film and newspapers, I decided to research ownership of the major book publishers in the United States.  Here are the most interesting things I found:

 

• Larger media corporations own all the four major English language publishers, Simon & Schuster, Random House (the largest publisher worldwide), Penguin and HarperCollins.  CBS Corporation owns Simon & Schuster; Random House is owned by Bertelsmann; Penguin is owned by Pearson PLC; and HarperCollins is owned by News Corporation.

 

• News Corporation, CBS Corporation, and Pearson PLC are publically traded companies owned by stockholders.  Bertelsmann is a privately owned transnational media company, the major owner being the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organization and political think tank in Germany.

 

• Most of the major publishers are separated into a number of smaller divisions called imprints that often specialize in certain genres of literature.  Some of these imprints originated within the larger publishing house, but others were independent publishers that parent house bought out and incorporated.

 

• In 1996, Penguin merged with Putnam Berkley Books to form the Penguin Group, which is the second largest trade book publisher in the world.  In the past years, Penguin has also gained control of and incorporated many smaller publishers, and kept their names as imprints.  The house currently maintains more than sixty imprints.

 

• Currently, United States Commerce laws allow a single-company, in a given market, to own 45% of the media outlets in that market.  In 1985, it allowed 25% ownership.

 

• Critics of media conglomerates in book publishing argue these corporations have unfair access to book distribution, and unfairly use their other media interests (television, radio, magazines and newspapers) to promote publications from houses and imprints owned by the parent company.

Beth’s on FC2

Hi folks,

Welcome to Beth’s FC2 (Fiction Collective 2) Extravaganza, in which you will find some basic FC2 facts, a brief interview with Lance Olsen (FC2’s chair of the board of directors), and links. I decided to do this project on FC2 because they’re my dream press. One day, through perseverence and the honing of my craft, through talent and hard work (or perhaps threats and bribes), I will be published with them. And the angels will sing in the heavens. Honestly, though, if you write fiction that tries to stay off the beaten path, they’re the press you strive for–they value innovation and experimentation, but the work they publish is also smart and readable. They don’t publish books that only consist of the letter Q, or that don’t actually have words in them. And I have the honor of considering some of the board members friends, and they’re wonderful, wonderful people who deserve a plug now and then.

FC2 QUICK FACTS

A small, independent, not-for-profit press, Fiction Collective Two receives no financial support from government arts councils. Rather, it relies on the generosity of the University of Utah, University of Houston – Victoria, and Illinois State University for in-kind support, and its sources of revenue include contributions from its Board of Directors and Advisory Board, its contest submission fees, and The Writer’s Edge conference fees. These sources barely allow it to break even each year.

FC2 is an imprint of University of Alabama press. Revenues acquired from the sale of FC2 books by the University of Alabama Press are used at UAP’s discretion. They are not available for use by FC2’s Executive Editor, Board of Directors, or Advisory Board.

FC2 is committed to finding new innovative work and continuously expanding the membership of the Collective, which has grown from six founding members in 1974 to well over 100 today. FC2 does this through its contest and through member-sponsored submissions.

The FC2 Board and executive editor make all editorial decisions.

The Ronald Sukenick American Book Review Innovative Fiction Prize is specifically designed to locate authors outside of the collective who have aesthetics similar to ours.

FC2 is committed to keeping all of its titles in print.

Volunteers do most of FC2’s editorial work.

Current Board of Directors: Lance Olsen (chair), Lidia Yuknavitch, R.M. Berry, Kate Bernheimer, Noy Holland, Brian Evenson, Susan Steinberg, Brenda Mills, Matt Robertson, Daniel Waterman, Thomas Williams, and Michael Martone.

Mission Statement

FC2 is among the few alternative presses in America devoted to publishing fiction considered by America’s largest publishers too challenging, innovative, or heterodox for the commercial milieu.

FC2 was originally founded in 1974 as the Fiction Collective, a group of avant-garde writers, among whom were Jonathan Baumbach, Raymond Federman, Clarence Major, and Ronald Sukenick. In his New York Times Book Review “Guest Word” of Sept 15, 1974, Sukenick described the group’s aim to “make serious novels and story collections available” and “keep them in print permanently.” The Collective’s subsequent history has been shaped by this commitment to preserve cultural resources that might otherwise be silenced or lost.

FC2’s mission has been and remains to publish books of high quality and exceptional ambition whose style, subject matter, or form push the limits of American publishing and reshape our literary culture.

FC2 books have received disproportionate attention in critical works on American fiction of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. More than ten percent of the authors selected for inclusion under the category “American Prose since 1945″ in The Norton Anthology of American Literature (fifth edition) have been affiliated with the Fiction Collective, and several received their first publication with the press. Fiction Collective authors have also been conspicuously represented in Norton’s anthology Postmodern Literature, as well as in numerous other anthologies.

FC2 authors have been the subject of critical studies published in Contemporary Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Critique, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, and Chicago Review. Articles about the press have appeared in Poets & Writers, Triquarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Publisher’s Weekly. Books published by the press have won or been nominated for the American Book Award, Western States Book Award, PEN West award, and BEA Firecracker Award.

FC2 continues the commitment of its founders to unsettle the bounds of literature and broaden the audience for America’s most adventurous writing.

Interview:

1. Do you feel like FC2 has had to compromise its original vision at all to survive in publishing today, or has it pretty much stuck to its guns about what it publishes and how it negotiates with the world?

 

In a sense, nothing’s remained the same about FC and then FC2 over the decades except its commitment to publish work deemed too challenging, adventurous, and/or heterodox by commercial, mainstream presses.  At least twice while I’ve been aboard that commitment has taken us to the brink of bankruptcy.  But we simply won’t blink there.  What’s funny is that when FC was founded in 1973-74, the idea was to set up an indie press by authors and for authors that would last, if lucky, two or three years; in other words, it was going to be an experiment in an alternative publishing paradigm.  Now we’re in our thirty-fifth year, and we’re in better financial shape than we have ever been.  Because we have very little overhead, we’re able to weather some very rough financial times in a way that larger commercial presses can’t.  As the financial crisis causes big houses to be eaten by bigger houses or fold altogether, and to publish more and more books that want to be films when they grow up, FC2 keeps on keeping on.

 

2. How has it changed since its beginnings as the Fiction Collective?

 

In a nutshell, though, the changes have involved continuous rethinking and restructuring of our editorial procedures, our institutional affiliations, and our organizational layout, along with a continual self-reflexive, always-in-flux meditation about what “innovative” means, how it means, and why.  One of the changes I’ve enjoyed seeing the most over the last twenty years is this: when FC started, it was in essence a boys’ club.  By the early nineties, FC2 was actively seeking more innovative women writers.  Now 60-70% of our writers are women.

 

3. Have you noticed shifts in the type of work that gets published/trends in innovative fiction (this is kind of a “duh” question, I know)/trends in what people buy?

 

This is probably too large a question to answer here.  To get a sense of things, I urge you to check out our new anthology, Forms at War: FC2 1999-2009. It was fascinating for me to read back-to-back excerpts from books we’ve published over the last 10 years, both to discover how heterogeneous they are, and to spot myriad formal trends (the rise, for instance, of more and more texts employing images, investigating the technological reality of the page, etc.), while at the same time delighting in the fact that our primary vision–that exploration into what fiction is and what it can do and what its limits are–remain consistently strong.

 

Links:

http://www.fc2.org

 

 

(FC2 homepage)

 

http://www.fc2blog.org/

 

 

(FC2 blog, in which you can find podcasts of folks reading their work, discussing FC2 and independent publishing, and other fun stuff)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth’s on FC2, pt. 2: the FC2 Story

THE FICTION COLLECTIVE STORY

by Jeffrey DeShell, R. M. Berry, Lance Olsen, and Matthew Kirkpatrick

The Fiction Collective began in 1973, when Jonathan Baumbach, Peter Spielberg, Mark Mirsky, Steve Katz, Ronald Sukenick and others (some participating via phone from California and Colorado) began to meet in Baumbach’s Brooklyn apartment to discuss the possibility of founding a cooperative fiction publishing venture. They felt annoyed, dismayed and discouraged by the severe editorial and marketing limitations of the commercial presses — what Spielberg calls “literature defined by a committee, books designed by cereal packagers, marketed by used-car salesmen . . . and ruled or overruled by accountants”- but they wanted to do something more than just create another marginalized small press. All present had experienced the frustration of seeing their critically praised fiction go out of print, and some were having difficulty finding a publisher for subsequent books. As Baumbach recalled: “At our early meetings we analyzed the commercial publishing scene by sharing negative anecdotes…. Fiction that redefined the rules, innovative and experimental work, was having the most trouble finding a home in what was clearly (though unacknowledged) a publishing establishment increasingly attuned to the bottom line.” There was broad agreement about the need for writers to take the authority of publishing into their own hands, but everyone was worried about the practical obstacles. Finally, after lengthy discussion, they decided to act. As Katz writes:

This was going to be a statement, strong writers taking their careers in their own hands. Blast into the face of the compromised publishing establishment. If we published our own books we could not be blown out by commercial winds, the fickleness of popular culture. We could exercise some control over how our books came into the world. We spent a good deal of time deciding what to call the enterprise. We didn’t want it to seem to be a “cooperative,” whatever that implied. And we certainly didn’t want it to appear as a vanity press. No vanity, just artistic and editorial rigor. The idea was to be that we chose to step outside the establishment. We were going to edit each other’s books, a practice that actually went on for a few years. Help each other. Make a literature. Occasionally we would publish a promising new writer. We decided on the name “Fiction Collective” as a kind of compromise. The books would come out in a uniform format,like Gallimard volumes, or Penguin books. An idea that I liked was that we originally thought to limit our membership to a modest dozen or so, and encourage other groups of writers to form their own collectives.

After the name “Fiction Collective” was chosen, Spielberg and Baumbach met with the Provost of Brooklyn College to secure office space and mailing privileges. The group formulated an editorial protocol whereby books would be accepted for publication by simple majority vote. Six books a year were planned, and the first three—Museum by B. H. Friedman, Reruns by Baumbach and Twiddledum Twaddledum by Spielberg—were accepted and edited (Spielberg edited Baumbach, Baumbach edited Friedman and Friedman edited Spielberg). An artist was found who designed a logo. Next came the difficult chore of finding a distributor. As Baumbach tells it:

I went around with Spielberg (and sometimes with Mark Mirsky and Jerome Charyn) interviewing potential distributors. The head of one distinguished publishing house, initially interested in the possibility of distributing our books, woke up one morning (so it was reported to us) furious at the idea of the Fiction Collective. “Who do they think they are?” he said, or was reported to have said. “We publish all the good fiction that comes our way. There isn’t any worthy fiction not getting published.” It was an attitude we would encounter, directly and obliquely, again and again.

Ironically, it was this anger—by writers, editors and publishers—that gave the Fiction Collective a sense of credibility and importance. There was the feeling that, if the Collective could inspire such fury, it must be doing something right. Finally, George Braziller, a small but influential distributor of European fiction, agreed to distribute the books, and in fall of 1974 the first Fiction Collective book appeared on the shelf of a bookstore.

In his New York Times Book Review “Guest Word” for September 15, 1974, early collectivist Ronald Sukenick explained the group’s plan:

The Fiction Collective will make serious novels and story collections available in simultaneous hard and quality paper editions…and will keep them in print permanently. The Collective is not a publishing house, but a “not-for-profit” cooperative…, the first of its kind in this country, in which writers make all business decisions and do all editorial and copy work.”

Sukenick’s “Guest Word” became a manifesto for the Collective and its supporters. In addition to explaining the practical operation of the Collective, it offered a diagnosis of the current publishing industry (“a mass market industry that cannot afford to produce small, reasonably priced editions of quality fiction”) and outlined the Collectivists’ vision of “a community and audience of the kind that has always sustained poetry.” He concluded:

For American novelists, the publisher has played the role of unacknowledged father, boss and sugar-daddy, whose recognition legitimizes one’s identity as a writer. The Fiction Collective offers recognition by one’s peers. This clear insistence on the standards of those who, finally, know what the art is all about, opens a path toward the maturity of the American novel, as well as a way for American novelists to assume their full prerogatives and responsibilities.

During the Collective’s early years, the critical reception for its books was sometimes mixed but rarely lukewarm. The first season’s offerings received lengthy, favorable reviews in The New Republic, Newsweek, The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The American Poetry Review. The Washington Post listed Baumbach’s Reruns as a notable book of the year, and the Quality Paperback Club presented the first three Collective books as a Special Selection. Over forty-five periodicals either reviewed the Fiction Collective’s first series or ran news stories on the Collective itself, and over the next six years lengthy critical essays on the Collective were published in Contemporary Literature, Partisan Review, The Chicago Review, and elsewhere. At the same time negative responses to the Collective or its books were sometimes marked by extraordinary animus. Michael Mewshaw in the October 13, 1974 New York Times Book Review, complained about the books’ prices, number of pages, and printing errors, and spent several paragraphs listing phrases Mewshaw considered “clunkers and cliches.” Gene Lyons in a 1978 Triquarterly article pronounced the Collective a failure, dismissing it as “a well-publicized, tax-supported vanity press,” and a Sewanee Review editorial characterized the collectivists as a group of naive young writers who “must feed themselves upon the illusion of heroic struggle.” Such polarized responses, often focusing as much on the Collective itself as on the books it published, would characterize reaction to the Fiction Collective throughout much of its history.

For most of its first fifteen years the Fiction Collective published three new works of non-traditional fiction each fall and spring. Among the books published by the Collective during this period were: Ronald Sukenick’s 98.6, Russell Banks’ Searching for Survivors, Marianne Hauser’s The Talking Room, Ursule Molinaro’s Encores for a Dilettante, Raymond Federman’s Take It or Leave It, Steve Katz’s Stolen Stories, Clarence Major’s My Amputations, Fanny Howe’s Holy Smoke, Harold Jaffe’s Mole’s Pity, Mark Leyner’s I Smell Esther Williams, and Gerald Vizenor’s Griever: An American Monkey King in China. The Collective was praised by Robert Coover, Anais Nin, Jerome Klinkowitz, and others, and it received regular support from the New York State Council for the Arts and the NEA. In 1984 co-director Curtis White organized a national contest to find and publish new writers of innovative fiction.

II

By the mid 1980’s the Collective had published over forty writers, each subsequently becoming a member, and this success had ironically made the organization too cumbersome for collective decision-making and management. Also, reductions in arts funding during the Reagan administration were making support harder to find. In 1986 the Collective’s grant application to the NEA was denied, and within a year it began to have difficulty publishing books. As Curt White and Ronald Sukenick later recalled:

At this time, the Collective was directed by Mark Leyner, Rachel Salazar, and Curt White. The involvement of the University of Colorado, Boulder, was growing through its Nilon Prize for Excellence in Minority Fiction, as was the participation of Illinois State University through its National Fiction Competition. And yet things were not well. The Fiction Collective had reached a point where it had exhausted most of the collectivist energies of its origins. The people upon whom most of the responsibilities fell were becoming more frustrated with their lack of any real authority. Beyond the contests, the Fiction Collective had essentially ceased to exist.

In the winter of 1989, Curtis White, Ronald Sukenick, Mark Leyner, Jonathan Baumbach, B. H. Friedman, and Peter Spielberg met in Spielberg’s Brooklyn apartment and, after lengthy discussion, finally reached the decision to reorganize the press. The constitution was rewritten, creating Fiction Collective Two, a non-profit, author-run press under a governing board of directors, with Sukenick as board chair and White as managing director. Editorial responsibilities were divided between two offices, one at the University of Colorado at Boulder run by Don Laing and another at Illinois State University in Normal run by White.

Over the next years White and Sukenick went to work to professionalize the organization, creating a better quality book design and making the first systematic efforts at promotion and marketing. Soon a new imprint was launched, Black Ice Books, modeled on the Semiotext(e) Autonomedia series, with Mark Amerika’s The Kafka Chronicles, Cris Mazza’s Revelation Countdown, Samuel Delany’s Hogg, and John Shirley’s New Noir. Designed to be, as White described it, “a merging of the avant-garde with the popular,” Black Ice Books’ “avant-pop” aesthetic was immediately successful, enjoying national review attention and lively sales. The press also enjoyed the success of several impressive Nilon Prize winners, such as Diane Glancy (Trigger Dance), Yvonne Sapia (Valentino’s Hair), and Ricardo Cortez Cruz (Straight Outa Comptom). During the first years of the Clinton administration, the press began once again to receive generous NEA support, and in 1995 FC2 contracted with Northwestern University Press for distribution. Later characterizing the early nineties as a period of financial stability and artistic excitement, White and Sukenick would emphasize FC2’s continuity of purpose with the original Collective: “to be a showcase for the nonconventional in the context of an aggressive independence from mainstream publishing.”

In the mid nineties the University of Colorado office closed, and all FC2 operations were transferred to the Unit for Contemporary Literature at Illinois State University, a publications center organized by Charles Harris and responsible for The American Book Review . Curtis White became effective manager of the press, still under the oversight of a Board of Directors now composed of Sukenick, Robert Steiner, Richard Grossman, Cris Mazza, and White himself. During this period the Illinois Arts Council joined the NEA in becoming a major supporter of the press.

Once again, however, action by the Republican right jeopardized the press’s existence. In December, 1996, Representative Peter Hoekstra (R., Michigan) obtained a copy of Chick Lit 2 , an FC2 anthology of new women’s writing published with NEA funds, and discovered in one of the eighteen stories a description of sexual relations between two women. As chair of the congressional Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Hoekstra immediately organized an inquiry into the NEA’s support of FC2. In a 1997 letter to Jane Alexander, NEA chair, Hoekstra cited four FC2 books that contained materials “most of which are an offense to the senses of this Subcommittee.” During the subsequent hearings, FC2 received outspoken support from such writers as Mark Strand, William Gass, and Toni Morrison.

Despite these political difficulties and their financial repercussions, FC2 continued throughout the nineties to publish its groundbreaking books. Among the books of this period were Evan Dara’s The Lost Scrapbook, Kenneth Bernard’s From the District File, Jacques Servin’s Aviary Slag, Omar S. Castaneda’s Learning to Say ‘Mouth’ or ‘Face,’ as well as various anthologies: Chick-Lit: Postfeminist Fiction and Chick-Lit Two: No Chick Vics, edited by Cris Mazza, Jeffrey DeShell and Elisabeth Sheffield; Latino Heretics, edited by Tony Diaz; and Degenerative Prose, edited by Mark Amerika and Ronald Sukenick.

In 1999, Curtis White stepped down from his position as managing director of FC2. White, who had seen the press through its darkest financial days, succeeded in leaving the press in good economic health, partly due to a sale of Fiction Collective and FC2 archives to the University of Texas at Austin. FC2 authors R.M. Berry and Jeffrey DeShell presented a new proposal to the Board of Directors for operation of the press, in which Berry and DeShell became acting publishers for FC2, a new position with increased editorial responsibility. In May 1999, the executive offices of the press were moved to the English Department at Florida State University where Berry was a faculty member. The editorial board was reorganized under the oversight of Cris Mazza at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and book producton remained at the ISU Publications Unit.

It quickly became clear the function of acting publisher was not one that could be efficiently shared from a distance. Deshell ceded to Berry. By 2002, submissions had become so profuse the all-volunteer editorial board was overwhelmed. A mortatorium was called to give readers a chance to catch up. In 2002, oversight for the editorial board was moved to the executive offices in Tallahassee and it was decided that the submission period would be shortened to five months (September through January). Also in 2002, Lance Olsen became the new chair of the Board of Directors, and a new Board of Advisors was formed. FC2 celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2004 with celebrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. In the spring of 2006, FC2 entered into an agreement with University of Alabama Press (UAP), whereby UAP would be responsible for production, marketing, and distribution of FC2 books, while the FC2 Board of Directors would retain editorial control.

In 2008, due to severe budget cuts at Florida State University, FC2 lost funding for long-time Executive Editor Brenda Mills as well as its business offices. That spring Lance Olsen approached Jeffrey Di Leo, founder of symploke, editor and publisher of American Book Review, and Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at University of Houston-Victoria, with the idea of restructuring FC2 and moving those offices to UH-V as part of UH-V’s budding Publications Center. The transition from FSU to UH-V was completed during the summer. Currently FC2’s business offices reside at UH-V under the supervision of Thomas S. Williams, FC2 Liaison, and Carmen Edington, FC2’s Assistant Editor; layout and production at Illinois State under Tara Reeser; and distribution at the UAP under Dan Waterman. Lance Olsen continues to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors, while overseeing and coordinating operations from the University of Utah with the help of the University of Utah FC2 Fellow Matthew Kirkpatrick.

After more than thirty years of operation, the Fiction Collective and its successor FC2 have published nearly two hundred titles by more than one hundred individuals. In addition to articles already mentioned, the press has been the subject of articles in Publisher’s Weekly, Poets & Writers, Critique, Triquarterly, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Most of its original membership continues to publish with FC2 and to take an active part in the press operation. All editorial decisions continue to be made by the authors. Virtually all Fiction Collective and FC2 titles are still in print. And FC2 continues to publish ground-breaking fiction. In the new century FC2 has published works by new names like Lucy Corin, Susan Steinberg, Kate Bernheimer, and Stephen Graham Jones, and we have published the books of experimental heavyweights like Brian Evenson, Toby Olson, Leslie Scalapino, Steve Tomasula, Lance Olsen, Raymond Federman, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Harold Jaffe. In the words of former publisher R.M. Berry: “FC2 continues to be committed to discovering what it means to read or write a novel, even in a time in which the marketplace shows little interest in what a novel is.”

Book Proposal Package

 

Book Proposal Packages

 

If there’s one thing a publisher hates to see, it’s a manuscript. The fact is that publishers return most manuscripts to the author without ever having read them.  Publishers simply do not have the time or staff to wade through the enormous number of manuscripts they receive from hopeful authors.  So sometimes what a publisher might want is a book proposal. 

 

Comment from Charlotte Herscher, Editor: At Random House, Inc. we strongly believe in the creative interaction between author and editor. Out of this process come the best manuscripts.  You’ll find that most other publishers feel this way, too.  Consequently, we want to give the author as much input as early in the writing process as possible. A book proposal gives us that opportunity. 

 

Proposal packages, not always, but most of time, contain the following materials:  one-page coverletter; synopsis; table of contents; chapter-by-chapter outline; competition analysis; marketing section; one to three polished chapters; author’s bio.   Some packages are more minimal: Coverletter; title page; proposal overview; chapter by chapter synopsis; two sample chapters.

Although you should include at least two sample chapters in your proposal, you should not finish writing the entire manuscript, I’m told, until the acquiring editor has approved the book’s basic premise and structure, and the publisher has accepted the project for publication. 

 

A Proposal Package usually answers four questions:

 

(1) What is unique about your book?

(2) How does your book develop?

(3) How do you write and communicate with your intended audience?

(4) What is your market analysis?

 

 

*Commentary on the above questions:

 

(1) As a writer, it is assumed that you are making a contribution to a topic, rather than rehashing old material to fill a category that sells well. So, one of the most important things publishers will want to know about your book comes in the form of this question: What is your unique selling point, or as some call it, USP?

  

Usually writers communicate this point in a number of ways: in the introductory chapter to the book itself, in a cover letter, or on a separate sheet designed specifically for this purpose.  Ideally, the USP should be stated in a few sentences.

 

(2) Editors working with the publisher want to know if your book has a dynamic that will hold the reader’s attention. Does it build suspense? Develop logically? Provide fresh examples and insights? Or does it lull, confuse, and bore the reader? 

 

Answers to these questions come from your chapter-by-chapter outline. The outline presents the title of each chapter and describes, in a few sentences, its content and contribution to the whole. Your chapter-by-chapter descriptions should be concise, clear, and interestingly written. If the editors and salespeople cannot understand your outline or find it boring, then there is little chance they will want to read the sample chapter, let alone your completed book.

 

(3) If the editors find your USP and outline interesting, then they will want to see how you write a chapter and connect with readers. In some instances, an editor may want to see only one completed chapter. If so, it is a good idea to submit a prefatory or introductory chapter that presents your USP and an overview of your book’s content and development. If an editor wants two sample chapters, then select any other chapter you feel is powerfully written and interesting to read.

(4)  The editors and sales personnel must also have a good idea of how many copies they can potentially sell, and whether or not that projection justifies the publishing house’s investment in your work.

Because market factors are so important to publishers in determining whether or not to publish your book and what kind of contract to offer you, you should include in your proposal package the following information, crucial for marketing your work: (a) the titles of other books in print that can compete with your proposed book, indicating, at a minimum, their publishers and how long they have been in print; and (b) a demographic description of the potential buyers of your book, including age, sex, ethnicity, occupational or school status, and geographic region, and the maximum size of this potential market for your proposed book.

 

In addition, it is wise to include any special factors that may account for sales.  For example, if your book can be used in college courses and the publisher, therefore, can anticipate bulk sales, then you should list the courses, where they are taught, and what the potential size of the student market is for your work. 

 

A possible outline:

 

Title Page

Proposal Overview

I. The Content

A. Premise

B. Unique Selling Proposition

c. Overview

D. Manuscript

1. Manuscript Status

2. Special Features

3. Anticipated Manuscript Length

4. Anticipated Manuscript Completion Date

II. The Market

A. Demographic Description

B. Psychographic Description

C. Affinity Group

D. Competition

III. The Author

A. Background

B. Previous Writing

C. Personal Marketing

Chapter-by-Chapter Synopsis

Two Sample Chapters

 

I found these books useful:

 

Your Novel Proposal from Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson

The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book by Susan Page

Elliott: Printed or Published?

Printed or Published?

By jordanimoretch

Printed or Published?

For my foray into investigative journalism concerning book publishing, I opted to read and report on M.J. Rose’s “Printed or Published?: How to Tell if Your Book’s Going to Sell” article from The Practical Writer (Nov/Dec 2004).

Rose (www.mjrose.com) has credentials and connections, so I take what she has to say as probably true and insightful.

The article basically says there is a difference between getting your book printed and published, and she gives examples of failures and successes. She also gives insights from agents, most notably one Simon Lipskar, of the Writer’s House literary agency. Rose’s main argument is that authors should take some responsibility for the publishing process, both by learning what the publishing business is all about and by taking an active role in the publication process.

Two questions Lipskar advises authors to ask: “What is this thing called publishing? and How can I make it work for me in my particular set of circumstances?” (69).

A poor sales history can damn an author’s future deals, and it can have little to do with the book itself. Publishing is big business, and something like 800 novels a month are put out in stores. Rose cites Donald Maass as saying the real culprit “is computerized inventory tracking by bookstore chains” (68). If your publisher doesn’t get behind you in a big way, your book can fizzle in the stores, and you won’t get a good printing deal to get numbers in stores for your next effort. It comes down to marketing, and Rose gives an idea of what an author wants. “The marketing campaign that most authors need and want includes trade advertising in media such as Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, an advance reading copy mailing list of at least 200 books to book review venues, a serious Internet marketing campaign, a tour–to at least five cities inthe author’s general geographic area–some advertising in book-centric media, and an effort to get radio interviews” (68). Rose goes on: “Not every author can be on the Today show, but there are alternative media that, with some creative effort and clever pitching, will get an author some attention” (68).

Rose says the low-end bank it takes a publisher to launch each novel is $25,000. That’s low-end. That is the low-end scale of a launch, which means the book will be published, and not just printed. But she doesn’t want it to sound bad. Even if a book is printed, reather than fully published, it will “receive a professional edit, a strong cover, distribution (the process by which books move from publishers’ warehouses to bookstores), and a review-copy mailing to the press” (69). So Rose makes it a point to say there are good things about getting your book in print by a big-house publisher. For example, “Reviewers treat publishers like gatekeepers, just as editors treat agents” Lipskar (70). Another positive is that major publishers’ books will be available in bookstores nationwide. Also, “major publishers create advance reading copies (ARCs) for almost every titile in their catalogues” (69). The book will also be taken seriously by potential reviewers.

Rose goes on to say that while “Writing is an art. Publishing is a business” (71). She says after you do your best and bleed your all onto the page, and finally land a deal, you need to be able to “switch hats” and do some work to develop buzz and prime the market for your product, if you’re left hanging by the big publishing houses (72).  Lipskar says, “the primary responsibility is the author’s, ultimately, to look after his or her own career” (71).

Rose and Lipskar recommend keeping expectations realistic, and they say an agent can really help, or at least a good one can. Lipskar: “One of the things I think a good agent does is filter, analyze, and translate the things publishers say to the authors, so that they make sense and have a context” (71).

I guess if an author can put in the effort to write a good-enough book to land a deal, he/she should be willing to put in a similar effort to serve the work of art by business work. Rose makes a good point about writers’ needing to get over themselves and their distaste for self-promotion. Rose: “It’s time for authors to own their words in a metaphorical sense. To realize that few, if any, of the business decisions that hurt us are really about our books, but rather are caused by forces outside our control. It’s hard, but necessary, to focus on the readers, not the press, to concentrate on the art. Think about alternatives: Maybe it is better to have a day job or a part-time job and not expect or demand that your fiction pay the bills and put food on the table” (72).

This stuff is good to think about. I’m still trying to make myself send out stories. That’s what I really need to do this summer. Books next? Better be.

Girly Presses

——Katherine Cozzens

Book Publishing Presentation:  Women-only Presses/Chapbook Contests

According to Duotrope.com, there are 3 (currently open) presses devoted to the exclusive publishing of books by women authors.  I also managed to find a few others that were very influential during the feminist movements of the 20^th century but have since disappeared, like Manushi and Kitchen Table Press.  I have tried to represent a variety of presses that put focus on women, from large presses like Virago, to small presses with a chapbook contest devoted to women, like Finishing Line Press.   Women-only presses often gave women a public voice when they had no other outlet, and a natural result of that is the contemporary focus on female minorities shared by publishers like Kore Press.  Personally, it seems like submitting to a women-only press would probably be a good idea for an aspiring female poet/writer wanting to get her name out there.  FYI:  While there aren’t many presses devoted to publishing women’s books, there are a fair number of literary magazines that are exclusively feminine in theme and/or authorship. 

Added Note: So far, the only Chapbook Contest exclusively for women that I have found is the one offered by Finishing Line Press.  If anyone is aware of any others, don’t be afraid to speak up!

 

Kore Press

http://www.korepress.org/

 

Kore Press was founded in 1993 by the creative efforts
of book designer Lisa Bowden and poet Karen
Falkenstrom. Building on the energy of the Women in
Print movement of the 60s and 70s, Kore’s vision has
been to publish and distribute excellent works of
literary and artistic value by a diversity of
women, those traditionally underrepresented in the
cultural mainstream; to promote those voices; and to
educate young people about bookmaking, printing, the
literary arts as social activism, and publishing.

Inspired by the words of Alison Deming on how to
survive as a woman artist, Kore opened house and
printed Ms. Deming’s terse advice as their first
publication, called Girls in the Jungle. Since then,
this feminist-literary-arts-press has brought over 40
creative works by established and new voices into
print.

 

2009 Kore Press First Book Award

Judge: Patricia Smith

A prize of $1,000 plus book publication by Kore Press
will be given for a book-length poetry manuscript

This competition is open to any female writer who has not published a 
full-length collection of poetry. Writers who have had chapbooks of less than

42 pages printed in editions of no more than 400 copies are eligible.

 

2009 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Contest

 

A prize of $1,000 and publication will be awarded by Finishing Line Press for a chapbook-length poetry collection. 

Open to women who have never before published a full-length poetry collection. 

Previous chapbook publication does not disqualify. 

All entries will be considered for publication. The top-ten finalists will be offered publication. 

Submit up to 26 pages of poetry, PLUS bio, acknowledgments, SASE and cover letter with a $15 entry fee by

Deadline: MARCH 30, 2009 (POSTMARK). EXTENDED DEADLINE

 

Carol Hamilton will be the final judge. 

Winner will be announced on our website: www.finishinglinepress.com 

 

Send to:

NEW WOMEN’S VOICES CHAPBOOK COMPETITION

Finishing Line Press

P O Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

 

Winner of the 2008 New Women’s Voices Prize in Poetry:  Hawk Weather by Anna Ross

 

Sponsored by

Finishing Line Press:  Providing a Place for Today’s Poets since 1998

C. J. Morrison, Founding Editor

Leah Maines, Sr. Editor

Kevin Murphy Maines, Managing Editor

Christen Rider, Assistant Editor

Editorial Assistant:  Beth Dungan, Elizabeth Cordell

Marketing Assistant: Jackie Steelman

Guest Editors:  Elle Larkin, and others

 

 

Virago Press

http://www.virago.co.uk/

VIRAGO PRESS: 1973 – NOW:  Virago was conceived the year before by Carmen Callil as ‘the first mass-market publisher for 52% of the population – women. An exciting new imprint for both sexes in a changing world’.

A tempting change’ boasted one of Virago’s first posters. Now, Virago can look back with pride on over thirty years of success – in both tempting and changing the world – and, with confidence look forward to a new era of publishing books that speak volumes about the lives of girls and women.

One of the most vigorous, stylish and successful British publishing imprints, Virago is the outstanding international publisher of women’s literature. It is the largest women’s imprint in the world and has made commercial success of publishing books of quality and originality.

 

Aunt Lute’s Press

www.auntlute.com

The mission of Aunt Lute Books is to publish literature by women whose voices have been traditionally under-represented in mainstream and small press publishing. Since 1982, Aunt Lute Books has published books that incorporate the histories and lives of women whose stories often go untold, from dramatic works and poetry to memoirs and historical documents. Our aim is to distribute literature that expresses the true complexity of women’s lives and the possibilities for personal and social change. We embrace the opportunity to work with first-time authors and aim to get their voices into the world. We continue to receive hundreds of letters from women thanking us for creating books that have succeeded in depicting their own life experiences.

Submission Guidelines:

We seek manuscripts, both fiction and nonfiction, by women from a variety  cultures, ethnic backgrounds and subcultures; women who are self-aware and who, in the face of all contradictory evidence, are still hopeful that the world can reserve a place of respect for each woman in it. We seek work that explores the specificities of the worlds from which we come and examines the intersections of the borders that we all inhabit. 

Currently, we only accept poetry if it is submitted as part of a larger body of work or an edited anthology.  We generally do not consider, given our particular readership, works about therapy or self-help. 

If you wish to submit your manuscript, please send a cover letter, synopsis, a table of contents and two sample chapters of your work (or approximately 50 pages) to: Aunt Lute Books, Attn. Acquisitions Editor, P.O. Box 410687, San Francisco, CA 94141. Do not staple any pages, and make sure that each page is numbered and has your name at the top. Remember, do not send your only copy of anything!  We also need to know if you have submitted your work to other publishers. Please notify us immediately if another publisher begins to give the manuscript serious attention.  Please allow at least three months to review the manuscript. While we make an effort to read all work carefully, our ability to respond with detailed criticism will vary according to our current workload and staff availability.  We encourage you to consult our catalog to get a sense of the areas in which we publish and the audiences we currently serve.

 

Tucker’s bit on getting an agent

Dear all,

For this report, I’m just going to list some of the comments, suggestions, and tips from authors (and other people in-the-know) about how to get an agent. First, though, you must ask yourself whether you even need an agent. As we mentioned in class, most poets don’t have agents; they get by—often just fine, thank you very much—submitting their work on their own behalf. Similarly, there are plenty of contests and such, usually created by university presses, that allow fiction and nonfiction writers the opportunity to [try and] get their book-length work published.

 

Of course, most anyone in the publishing world—authors, editors, agents, people buying the latest Rachael Ray cookbook at Barnes and Noble—will readily admit that, out of all the creative writing genres, there is more money to be made in writing fiction. And, until we can figure out what book of poetry Obama had in his back pocket the other day, people in book stores will still probably get more excited about fiction; compared to poetry, things blow up more often.

 

I don’t know why I wrote that last paragraph. It seemed relevant at the time. I’m keeping it.

 

Please note that this will be about finding agents and selecting the right one for you.  As I note below, each agent has unique requirements for their query letters, so I won’t get into how to prepare a query.  Contact the agent and tailor your query to them.

 

On a personal note, it is interesting for me to research how to get a literary agent, since, fifteen long years ago, I was a young actor in Los Angeles, running all over horrible parts of town at my talent agent’s behest. While getting a literary agent and trying to get a book published may be tedious, humiliating, time-consuming, and/or downright annoying, please believe me when I say that it’s infinitely better than getting a talent agent and trying to get yourself published, so to speak.

 

(If you do want to enter the glitzy, money-drenched, silicone-pumped world of Hollywood, come talk to me, and I’ll give you some basic guidelines; for example, don’t go to any audition held at someone’s “house in the hills.”)

 

Ahem.

 

Here are a few ideas, culled together from visiting writers, articles, and websites; my commentary, if any, follows:

· From writer Bobbie Ann Mason: If you get a story published in The New Yorker, an agent will find you. (This comes directly from her experience—she got a story published in The New Yorker, an agent contacted her, and she’s had the same agent ever since. It is important to note that this happened many years ago, and I think that the publishing world has changed somewhat; I doubt that this “build-a-better-mousetrap-and-the-world-will-beat-a-path-to-your-door” mentality would get you as far nowadays, especially since the number of creative writing programs at universities has exploded and the industry is flooded with writers—yes, writers that have been in The New Yorker and other prestigious venues. I could be wrong, obviously, but it sounds a little too perfect.)

· Remember, agents are in this to make money, and they might ask you to tailor your writing to be more enticing to a wider audience. This is especially true now that publishing houses are downsizing; many agents also act as editors. For example, I am friends with Jim Barnes, a Native American poet. While he has published several books of poetry, usually with university presses, he was contacted by an agent a few years ago about publishing a collection of his short stories. Having never been able to publish his fiction en masse, he was excited and met with the agent. Upon his return, I heard him grousing, saying, “Excuse me if the plots of my stories don’t rise and fall with my libido.” The book never happened.

· Do some research about what agents sell what kinds of books, then match yourself with one of them. For example, http://www.publishersmarketplace.com is updated every day with news about what books are sold to whom by whom. The website sends out daily updates via email.

· Know yourself—what kind of personalities do you work best with? Some people like an agent that is very assertive; others prefer an agent who is more like a friend. When pursuing an agent, know what their style is and if they’ll mesh with you.

· Some agents like to act as a sort of career manager, telling you what to write and where to publish in order to build your credentials—they call it “building a platform.” If you’re okay with that, that’s fine. Some people don’t like that attitude, though.

· Different agents take queries in different ways. In an article I recently read, one agent described how she took a trip to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and interviewed, like, thirty writers, trying to get a feel for what they wanted to publish. There was another story about an agent who took queries via email. And, yes, there was a story from an agent who ended up with something like forty manuscripts on her desk. (To her credit, she read a portion from every one.) Know how your prospective agent wants queries packaged.

· Yeah, poets don’t usually have agents. Many fiction writers don’t, either. Remember that.  It’s okay.

 

Basically, getting an agent requires writers to become familiar with the business side of publishing. Therefore, go to that website and start looking at who does what. You’ll reap the benefits. Yes, reap, my children.

 

More may come…