March 19, 2012
An agent’s manifesto
by Ellie Robins
Jonny Geller
Over on The Bookseller‘s blog, a big-name UK agent, Jonny Geller, has put together an ‘agent’s manifesto’, to redress the current problems in the publishing industry. It reads:
» The author is the expert. Why assume that the one person who has spent the past 12-18 months on the subject, the story and the world of their work, knows least about how they should be represented to the trade and to the reader?
» The author is not an object which a publisher has to step over in order to achieve a successful publication. If they have a problem with the cover, blurb, copy or format, then something isn’t right.
» The author loves bookshops. Bookshops need to learn how to love authors again. We need to bring them back together.
» We publishing professionals are the ones who bear the risk—agents with time; publishers with investment; retailers with space. Authors risk only their whole life, self-esteem and their babies.
» Publishers need to understand that “Author Care” is not a euphemism for “Care in the Community”. Authors who are valued, understood, appreciated, included, nurtured and spoken to like an adult will experience a phenomenon called Trust. Trust breeds loyalty; loyalty means longevity; longevity means sales.
» Authors will endeavour to understand better what a publisher does—e-books are not created after two minutes of scanning and ticking a series of boxes on Amazon’s self-publishing program.
It’s always worthwhile to remind ourselves to value authors, who after all provide not only the material that fuels the publishing industry but the art that gives life value, but some of these points seem a little off the mark to me. For example, in my experience independent booksellers are among the hardest working champions of authors there are. Nobody needs to teach them how to love authors again. Anyone else have any comments on this list?
Ellie Robins is an editor at Melville House. Previously, she was managing editor of Hesperus Press.
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7 Comments
Thanks so much for this Johnny Geller. My last publisher decided to stick the names of the photographers for the natural history book I wrote on the cover with mine, giving them equal billing! How insulting is that? If I were rich I would have sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter ordering him to destroy all copies of the book and print new ones, giving me sole credit as author, and naming the other two as photographers, but being an author, I am not rich enough.
Thank you for saying such positive things about authors. I wish there were more agents like you around. These days authors get the feeling they are a necessary evil in order for a whole lot of other people to make money. If more agents had a better attitude towards writers, there would be fewer e-books and more agent-publisher-author partnerships. It seems that the gatekeepers are destroying the industry more than publishers.
All agents need to see this. I’m forwarding it to mine!
At last, at last! Bless you, Mr Geller, for saying what has long needed saying. If only 10% of agents took all this on board, we’d see a marked improvement. I’m posting this article on Facebook where I’m sure all the other writers I know on via the site will wholeheartedly welcome it and re-post it. My thanks and congratulations for your manifesto.
“It’s always worthwhile to remind ourselves to value authors, who after
all provide not only the material that fuels the publishing industry but
the art that gives life value, . . . .”
Robins states the obvious, and the obvious is ignored, forgotten, diminished or, even more importantly, transformed into forms and formula that veer away from the “life value” of literature. Railing against the corporate publishing climate that turns the obvious into the oblivious is to sound like a whiner. Such is the world of literary fiction where art meets the wall of commerce and beats its head bloody on the requirements of plot points and sensationalism. To get along one must go along. The current lists of best selling fiction clearly demonstrate the path agents and editors expect authors to follow.
The ‘manifesto’ is, I hazard, a little late, if commendable. There also seems to be a lack of realism where both contributors are concerned eg how long are booksellers going to be in a position to ‘champion’, how long are agents going to be in a position to ’agent’ and lastly, perhaps some authors love themselves enough already? All this of course can be remedied easily enough by a radical change in an outdated business model, a change that will accommodate the dastardly ebook and an acceptance instead of a denial, of the future.
Julian Ruck
Very good, Jonny Geller. Whatever it is that you’ve got, I hope it is catching.