Archive for the ‘Agency biz’ Category
My new home
Dear All,
Yes, I’ve been updating this blog not-at-all, so this post is like closing the gate after the horse has gone off, yes, but still: I now post regularly, along with my fellow Upstart Crow Literary agents, on our company blog. If you are at all interested in hearing what I’ve got to say, that is the place to go.
Thanks for reading As the World Stearns, and I’ll see you in my new home!
M.
Do writers need agents?
Over at Stupid Blog Name, Michael Grant does his cranky-pants best to persuade us that agents are unnecessary; that most of them would be considered legendarily stupid if people created legends about the stupidity of boring folk who sit on their asses all day long typing on a computer and yapping on the phone.
He proposes that publishers instead charge authors fifty bucks per submission for a guaranteed read. Would give would-be authors the certainty that their work is being evaluated. Would earn publishers some extra moolah on the side with which they can tile their halls with gold and vainglory. Would eliminate that pestilence upon the earth, that no-good-for-the-most-part beast, the literary agent.
A fun idea, but one that strikes me as deeply wrong-headed. And no, not just because I’m an agent (I’ve only been doing this for a few months, after all). But more because I used to be an editor, and as an editor, I loved agents.
