Secret agents
thebookseller.com – Monday February 26, 2024
Literary agents are central to authors’ success — so why are we still considered a fringe benefit?
Recently I filmed an online course on "How to Get a Literary Agent" for our in-house creative writing school, Curtis Brown Creative. It was an enjoyable pause in my frenetic activities as a literary agent and c.e.o. of Curtis Brown Group to stop and reflect on the changing role of the literary agent during my 30 years at CB. Unsurprisingly, I concluded we agents are an essential part of the publishing process. Yet, why are literary agents considered so outside the system?
I say this because the first question I always ask to every new intern and assistant at CBG who has come off a MA in Publishing course is: “what did you learn about the role of the literary agent?”
The answer is always the same: “Oh, there was no mention of agents in the course but sometimes we get a session from a visiting agent."
Richard Charkin: Unintended Consequences in Publishing
publishingperspectives.com – Saturday February 24, 2024
Unintended Consequences in Publishing support Charkin’s Law: everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
HarperCollins’ announcement of a big increase in digital sales—largely downloadable audio and materially generated by the partnership with Spotify—made me contemplate the balance between decisions made with the best will in the world and their not-always-beneficial consequences.
I don’t know enough (I couldn’t know) about this particular deal, but is the offer of 15 hours a month of free audiobooks to Spotify customers a longer-term benefit to sales? What proportion of audiobook listeners actually listen to more than 15 hours a month? There will be some, of course, and Spotify might indeed increase the numbers of the hard-core audience but what happens to the rest?
With the benefit of an exceptionally helpful rear-view mirror, let’s think about other similar decisions.
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