the pitch fall 2015 The Newsletter for the Association of Authors' Representatives CONTENTS LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT THE ANNUAL AAR COCKTAIL a publisher for that elusive 1. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT PArtY at the Century Association but wonderful manuscript – is club in September was a terrific managing the personal side of our 2. COMMITTEE REPORT: DIGITAL success. We had strong attendance, client relationships. and there was a great feeling We all know that clients come in 3. WESTERN AGENT EXPLORES of goodwill, collaboration, and all sizes and styles: the Wheedlers, INDIAN LITERARY FESTIVAL friendship among the attendees. who won’t accept that they can’t UPCOMING AAR PROGRAMS It was especially fitting that we get more money just because they honored Jeff Wilson, the head want it, or a big promotion effort 5. PUBLISHER-NEUTRAL of the contracts department at because the book “deserves” it; the WEBSITES CREATE MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR Simon & Schuster, for his great Talkers, who seem full of anxiety ENGAGEMENT colleagueship, sensitivity to agents’ and must discuss every angle of COMMITTEE REPORT: ROYALTIES needs, kindness in negotiations, and every issue for two hours when a general professionalism. Many AAR simple rundown would do – you 9. APPEALS COURT REDEFINES members met Jeff for the first time must manage to excuse yourself WHEN INTERNS MUST BE PAID at the party, and it was a rewarding from the phone or you might arrive experience both for him and for us at a Passover seder an hour-and- 10. COMMITTEE REPORT: on a personal and professional level. a-half late; the Self-Taught, who INTERNATIONAL This all brought home to me know your job better than you the fact that publishing is really a do, who know exactly what you or 11. NEW MEMBERS business about people. Although the publisher should be doing at we constantly talk about numbers every turn; the Defiant, who know 13. CONTRIBUTORS – copies sold, royalty rates, e-book that none of the existing rules or shares, discounts, dollars earned – conventions relate to them, and 14. AAR CANON OF ETHICS the heart and soul of our business won’t listen to a tempered answer; is people: idiosyncratic, individual and the Passive-Aggressive, who 16. BOARD OF DIRECTORS personalities whose opinions and admit that it is Christmastime, but actions propel things forward. The by the way did we manage to take authors of our books are creative a look at the manuscript that he people; the editors who manage delivered on December 23rd? These our publications are people whom anecdotes would make for endlessly we hope will make more inspired amusing dinner-party conversation, decisions; the bookstore owners and except for the fact that these clerks are people who can hand- stories are so painfully true. We are sell and relay their enthusiasm; the constantly reminded that we are readers throughout the world are in a service business, albeit one in people with a range of interests, which our knowledge and honed who create word of mouth and taste are our greatest assets. make personal decisions on when to It is not easy to blend the art of buy a book and what books to buy. the work with the commerce of the One of the biggest challenges work. The financial rewards rarely we face – almost as big as finding jive with the reviews, and this is continued on page 2 page 2 the pitch fall 2015 continued from page 1 not easy for clients to absorb. Our inescapable purgatory of “midlist.” writers put themselves on the line Most of us, agents and editors, every day and approach us – their have become quite slow in our closest partners in the publishing responses. Demands on our reading process – with their weaknesses. time are at an all-time high, and no The more years of experience I one has invented that 28-hour clock. have, the more empathy I have to And even if we loved all the books deal with the naïveté, ambition, on our reading pile this weekend, and dreams of my clients, as we live we simply cannot take them all up, through rejections together. We or arrange for each of them to be a discuss why a book has not been lead book at a major publisher. snapped up by a brilliant editor. The traditional process has When I have bad news to deliver, I changed for most writers. Forget try to be direct. tours, forget print advertising; and But the big issue these days most books won’t even show up on is how to manage outsized the shelves of many bookstores. We expectations. How do we manage are often the bearer of this news, to relay the truth and still support and have to persuade our clients to the clients with strength and take on much of what they will say (reasonable) optimism? used to be the publisher’s job – get Not all manuscripts will be sold, powerful blurbs, publish essays, build the man on the street that he can in this difficult market. Period. a website, engage in social media. find a lot of interesting stuff to read Even books that the very powerful Clearly our job is to get the best by Googling actively, and much agent may adore. There are simply results for our clients, but we of this stuff is absolutely free… not unlimited slots on publishers’ must maintain an honorable and and that the largest book retailers lists and there seem to be limitless trustworthy reputation with editors aggressively advertise their low, low projects in circulation. We rejoice and publishing houses. We may prices, as if to tell the consumer when we manage to place a book balk, for example, when a client that books should cost very little. that has been read by 20 houses, who has been treated very well by a Remember, currently our biggest even if it means a low- or no- loyal editor asks us to secretly shop challenge is to keep the value of our advance contract. And sometimes around a new project they cooked intellectual property high. Perhaps we have to broach the subject up together, to make sure he gets our client is only interested in the that perhaps the writer’s best bet the best price. success of his own book – but the might be to move on to a brand- We are constantly battling the larger forces have created a situation new project, put this one aside fact that the Internet is teaching which will continue increasingly to for now. A weak publication is not going to help that writer in future submissions – those low numbers COMMITTEE REPORT: DIGITAL will trail him for a long time. The advances are often down, The digital committee, now known as the 'digital innovations as the buying public is simply not committee,' will continue to focus on what it has been doing buying in big numbers, and the successfully: meeting with and assessing new publishing ventures author’s next book’s prospects and reporting innovative businesses of value to the membership, are based on the previous book’s usually in the form of programs (like the recent panel of numbers. And no, we usually subscription-model publishing ventures.) Upcoming will be cannot get a contractual promise of toolboxes with digital original publishers and a “best practices” promotion and publicity for the next book. It is tough to comfort authors panel on the various forms of social media. who feel themselves locked in that continued on page 3 affect us all as time goes on. own hands. And I feel we will moments, when success seems We must spread the word: we all be stronger if we are allied, not elusive, when positive news seems need to support the marketplace. primarily adversarial, with the so hard to achieve. I do have faith We need to buy other writers’ traditional publishers who take on in the future of this business and I books, blog about them, tweet our clients’ properties. still encourage young people to go about them, support our colleagues’ Our clients may secretly believe into publishing. I think there will work, and then hopefully they will that their own manuscripts are always be readers. And Lord knows, support ours. We need to help our immune to the market forces of there will always be writers. clients take some of the business doom and gloom, but we continue of spreading the word into their to help them through their darker – Gail Hochman WESTERN AGENT SAVE THE DATE FOR UPCOMING EXPLORES AAR PROGRAMS INDIAN LITERARY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH | 5:45–7:00 PM FESTIVAL Data Systems to Make Your Agency Smarter, Faster, BY ZOË PAGNAMENTA and More Organized. With E3 The Rights Manager, Agents Expert Data System, BAITS, EVER SINCE my brother Robin, LAMP, and Bradbury Phillips. At the Society of Illustrators, 128 a journalist, and my sister-in-law, East 63rd Street (between Park and Lexington Avenues). Jessica Woollard, a fellow literary agent, moved to India from London a few years ago, I had been thinking of going to the Jaipur Literature event, very much a celebration of hard to choose which of the 300 Festival. As it turned out, three Indian writing and writers, but with authors to go and see. Gokhale of my writers were invited to a number of visiting writers invited puts together the Indian list, and participate in this year’s JLF, so this from other parts of the world. The Dalrymple most of the foreigners. January, after a week visiting my directors of the festival are Namita Used to events in the United States brother and family in Mumbai and Gokhale and William Dalrymple, and United Kingdom, I found it escaping the New York winter, the and the festival is now in its tenth very interesting and educational to three of us took a flight to Jaipur year.