Agent Interviews

Hello, everyone!

This week I'm going to be sharing some interviews with agents. These agents graciously agreed to answer my questions, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate their participation. I really enjoyed corresponding with them, and I enjoyed the answers they shared. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!


Michael Carr ~ Veritas Literary

http://veritasliterary.com/



Associate Michael Carr is a literary agent with a background in editing and writing, working from a home base in the Northeast. He works carefully with clients to produce the cleanest, most professional manuscripts and enjoys teaching at workshops and conferences to help develop emerging writers. Michael speaks Spanish and conversational French and before joining Veritas had professions as diverse as programming simulators for nuclear submarines and owning an inn in Vermont.


1. What do you represent? 

I represent a lot of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and women’s fiction. I’m also interested in seeing YA with a genre angle and non-fiction. 


2. What made you decide to become an agent? 

I was doing some freelance editing and kind of fell into agenting after coming across some promising prospective manuscripts. Agenting was a natural fit for me, given my background in writing and editing, as well as having been a voracious reader all my life. 


3. Why did you choose to work with your current agency? 

Veritas Literary is the only agency I’ve worked with. I started working with Katherine Boyle about six years ago when I was helping her with a client’s manuscript and came across some promising manuscripts that I thought she should take a look at. One thing led to another, and soon I was signing my own clients.


4. What is your favorite part of the job, and what is your least favorite part? 

I really love making that call offering representation, and it’s even sweeter when I can tell a new author that she has her first book contract. That will never get old.

I really struggle sometimes with the constant rejection. Sending back queries and rejecting promising requested manuscripts is a big part of my day, and sometimes it’s just too much. I know each of these rejections causes a little bit of pain. It’s also unpleasant when a manuscript has gone out on submission to publishing houses but doesn’t sell. An author has come so close, only to realize she has to start over with a new book. 


5. Sometimes authors develop misconceptions about agents or the publishing industry as a whole. What is one misconception you feel is common, and what would you say to dispel it? What is something you want authors to know about agents in general, or about you in particular? 

There are quite a few misconceptions. Most are pretty harmless. Because querying is so difficult and time consuming for authors, they live in terror of being dumped by their agent, or of offending an an agent who offers representation by asking for a week or two to make a decision. If an agent offers, do some research, ask questions, and take a little time to make a decision. You may have a relationship with this person that will last years or even decades. 


6. What makes you connect with a character? 

I connect with characters who have a strong will, who are not passive, but try to solve their problems. A character that comes to life on the page is one of the keys to great fiction. 


7. Most authors have "Dream Agents". Do agents have "Dream Authors"? How would you describe your "Dream Author"? 

I have a couple of dream authors already. They are warm and responsive, they work hard and take pride in their work without becoming difficult when the time comes to work on a manuscript.

I’ll call out my writer, Ellen Marie Wiseman, author of The Plum Tree, What She Left Behind, and Coal River. She’s just as easy to work with now as she was five years ago when she was a debut author and we were just starting to work together. 


8. What makes a query letter stand out for you in such a way that you HAVE to request more pages? 

It’s not the query letter itself, but a compelling opening. Make me want to keep reading, and I will. 


9. Is there anything that will make you automatically reject a query letter? 

I get a lot of stuff that’s just not what I represent. It gets rejected right away. 


10. What are some common problems you see in queries or manuscripts? 

Resist the urge to explain! So many authors give a nice hook, and then stop the narrative dead to explain all the back story or do world building. We don’t need to know what or why—in fact, the not knowing drives interest—we only need current events to be clear. 


11. What words of wisdom would you like to share with an aspiring author? 


You’re probably not writing enough. Don’t compare your output to other aspiring authors, compare it to people making a living, and try to match. Work hard and be persistent, and you’re ahead of 95% of the competition. 


12. The dreaded synopsis. How do you feel about it? 

I don’t like them, and I never read them until forced to do so. That usually comes when an editor asks for a synopsis. Until then, a hook in a query is good enough, and then I’ll let the book speak for itself. 


A special thank you to Michael Carr for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer these questions!

Agent Interviews

Hello, everyone!

This week I'm going to be sharing some interviews with agents. These agents graciously agreed to answer my questions, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate their participation. I really enjoyed corresponding with them, and I enjoyed the answers they shared. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!


Victoria Doherty-Munro ~ Writers House

http://www.writershouse.com/

Victoria Doherty Munro started at Writers House as an intern in 2010 and, after graduating from Wellesley College in 2011, was hired as the assistant to senior agent Daniel Lazar in 2012. She began building her own list in 2015 and represents middle grade, young adult, and adult authors.



1. What do you represent?

I represent middle grade, YA, and adult books – mostly fiction, but I'm open to narrative nonfiction, too.


2. What are you looking for right now?

I'm actively and eagerly building my list, so I'm looking for any and all of the above. A friend once told me that every book I love can be summed up as “a young girl discovers herself” and though I maintain that that was a bit simplistic, she's...not entirely wrong. I especially love adult fiction that features younger protagonists – TELL THE WOLVES I'M HOME by Carol Rifka Brunt and SALVAGE THE BONES by Jesmyn Ward are two books I devoured and then told everyone to read, whether they asked me for recommendations or not. I also love magical realism, historical fiction, and mysteries/thrillers that tend towards the literary and psychological – I've read all of Tana French's books at least once. And I'm dying to see something nerdy and genre-bending and utterly brilliant, along the lines of Jasper Fforde's THURSDAY NEXT series.

For YA, I'm a huge fan of unreliable narrators and plot twists that take me so completely by surprise that I gasp out loud. I haven't been able to stop thinking about CODE NAME VERITY and BONE GAP since I finished reading them. I love voice-driven books as well, like MOSQUITOLAND by David Arnold. Any book that gets at the uniquely tumultuous, confusing, and exciting experience of being a teenager, really – I want my heart to hurt at least once before the final page.

When it comes to middle grade, I gravitate to anything with heart at the center. To break it down a little further: quirky adventures like Juman Malouf's THE TRILOGY OF TWO, laugh-out-loud hilarity like the TIMMY FAILURE series, and contemporary or historical stories that fully engage the reader in a world that is simultaneously familiar and new to them. I'm also a sucker for retold fairytales, or any stories that captures the kind of classic fantasy feeling of the books I adored when I was that age.


3. What is something you absolutely DON'T want to see?

At this point, I don't feel like I have enough experience with picture books or romance novels to be the right advocate for either of them.


4. What made you decide to become an agent? Why did you choose to work with your current agency?

I started at Writers House as an intern in summer 2010, in between my junior and senior years of college, and loved it so much – the building itself (it's a brownstone and it's full of books!), the people, the work – that I kind of just...never left. I'd periodically pop up in my former supervisors' inboxes with (hopefully) charming emails, I came back to intern during my winter break, and though I briefly flirted with another agency during an internship after I graduated, a few months later I was hired as an assistant at Writers House. I went from not really knowing what an agent was at the beginning of that first summer to total fascination and passion for the whole job – the way being an agent allows you to be involved at all steps in the process and all facets of an author's career really grabbed me.


5. What is your favorite part of the job, and what is your least favorite part?

My favorite part of the job is editorial work! Taking a book apart, looking at what's making it great and what's making it not-yet-great and thinking about how to make it the best book it can be is insanely fun for me.

It's hard to say what my least favorite part is....I'm guess I'm not the biggest fan of filing, though.


6. Sometimes authors develop misconceptions about agents or the publishing industry as a whole. What is one misconception you feel is common, and what would you say to dispel it? What is something you want authors to know about agents in general, or about you in particular?

There seems to be a lot of cynicism surrounding the slush pile and the querying process in general. I promise that we're reading your letters and pages whether you have a referral or impressive credentials or not! Agents want your work to be a good fit for them as much as you do.


7. What makes you connect with a character?

The first thing, for me, is always the writing. Does the voice grab me and draw me into this character's world? After that, it's mostly just whether the character is believable – if their choices make sense, rather than just furthering the plot – and relatable (but not likeable, necessarily!).


8. Most authors have "Dream Agents". Do agents have "Dream Authors"? How would you describe your "Dream Author"?

My Dream Author is someone who's communicative, and isn't afraid to let me know what they need from me in order to be the best agent possible for them. Someone who is open to and eager for editorial work, but will also push back against my edits if they disagree with them, or come up with new and exciting solutions on their own. And, you know, any author who writes a book that I can't put down.


9. What makes a query letter stand out for you in such a way that you HAVE to request more pages?

The writing – it's as simple as that. If I get to the end of your sample pages and am disappointed that there isn't more for me to read, I'm writing an email asking for the manuscript immediately.


10. Is there anything that will make you automatically reject a query letter?

If there are a ton of typos or grammatical errors, or if it's clear that the letter was originally written to someone else and then my name was pasted in, that's not the best first impression.


11. What are some common problems you see in queries or manuscripts?

Trying to set up all the background information about the character and their world immediately – it can feel a bit info-dumpy. It's way more natural to let things unfold organically, so we get to know them gradually.


12. What words of wisdom would you like to share with an aspiring author?

Don't give up! Finding the right agent can be daunting, but it truly can be just a matter of perseverance until someone comes along who connects with your work as strongly as you do. And read as much as possible – the more you take in about the work of authors you admire, the better a writer you'll become.


13. What are some of your favorite books by authors you don't represent?

Well, I listed a lot of them as examples in question 2...Others are THE BOOK OF SPECULATION by Erica Swyler, THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern, everything Ann Patchett has ever written, BELOVED by Toni Morrison, THE ACCIDENT SEASON by Moira Fowley-Doyle, THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily M. Danforth, and ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine. And the English major in me won't rest until I add JANE EYRE to this list.


14. The dreaded synopsis. How do you feel about it?

I definitely see the benefits of it, and I think it's a good idea to have one on hand for any project you're sending out. Being able to write a synopsis is a good skill to have, regardless of whether you use it when querying, because it will likely come in handy later when you're working on new books with your agent or editor or selling one on proposal. Personally, I don't always find them that helpful; I like to get a feel for a book as it unfolds, and having a synopsis can sometimes detract from that.


A special thank you to Victoria Doherty-Munro for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer these questions!

Agent Interviews

Hello, everyone!

This week I'm going to be sharing some interviews with agents. These agents graciously agreed to answer my questions, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate their participation. I really enjoyed corresponding with them, and I enjoyed the answers they shared. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!


Mark Gottlieb ~ Trident Media Group

http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/agents/mark-gottlieb

Mark Gottlieb’s focus on publishing began at Emerson College, where he was a founding member of the Publishing Club, later its President, overseeing its first publication and establishing the Wilde Press.

After graduating with a degree in writing, literature and publishing, Mark began his career with the Vice President of Berkley Books (Penguin), working with leading editors.

His first position at the Trident Media Group literary agency was in foreign rights, selling the books of clients around the world. Mark later worked as Executive Assistant to Robert Gottlieb, Chairman of Trident, with responsibility for organizing/managing diverse authors and their complex business transactions. He next assumed the position of audio rights agent. Since Mark has managed the audio rights business, the annual sales volume has more than doubled. Mark showed great initiative and insight in identifying talented writers.

In passing the Audio Department's torch, Mark is building his own client list of writers. He is excited to work directly with authors, helping to manage and grow their careers with all of the unique resources that are available to Trident. Since that time he has ranked as high as #1 in Agents on publishersmarketplace.com in Overall Deals. He has also ranked #1 in categories such as Science-Fiction/Fantasy, Children's, and Graphic Novels. He has ranked in the top five for Thriller, Mystery/Crime, Womens/Romance, Young Adult, and certain nonfiction categories such as Pop Culture, Memoir, How-To, and Humor.



1. What do you represent?

I represent many genres between fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels and children’s books, so it would probably be easier to look to books that I do not represent (see answer to question #3). While I am mostly open to a lot of things, I tend to prefer literary fiction, thrillers, crime/mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, YA, MG, history, pop culture, celebrity memoir, humor, advice, illustrated/art, science, health and lifestyle books.


2. What are you looking for right now?

Again, I am open to most anything. Although I would like to represent a book on autism and see it published in the right way. It is my feeling that this condition is largely misunderstood by the general public and that we’re all more or less “on the spectrum,” since there really is no such thing as normal. We really need to be worried about or watch out for people who think they are “normal.” My preference would be for that book on autism to be a fictional work.


3. What is something you absolutely DON'T want to see?

I do not represent poetry, short stories, novellas, textbooks, essay collections without a common narrative thread or theme, personal memoir without a platform or world implications, and romance/erotica/new adult is tough unless the author has already been established in the eBook space as a bestseller.


4. What made you decide to become an agent?

Most people sort of fall into publishing through the humanities. That’s one of the reasons why publishing is referred to as “the accidental” profession. For me, though, it was always expected that I would come into publishing since Trident Media Group is a literary agency family-owned and operated. Growing up around books all of my life fostered a love for creativity, reading and writing. That is why I pursued a degree specifically in publishing at Emerson College in Boston, where I helped found the Emerson College Publishing Club and Wilde Press.


5. Why did you choose to work with your current agency?

Rather than going right into my family business at Trident Media Group after studying writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College in Boston, I resolved to first try work at a publisher to get some real-life work experience. So for a time I was at Penguin Books, until I felt that I had grown and learned all that I needed from there.


6. What is your favorite part of the job, and what is your least favorite part?

One of my favorite parts of the job is helping the positive message of a book get out there by first finding the right publisher and then connecting the book with its audience. I feel strongly that books have the power to change the world for the better, so I am honored to be in a profession where I can help spread the good word. Of course the least favorite part of my job would be that sometimes a project does not always connect with a publisher or its intended audience, since not every book can be a winner. Although it can be just a matter of time before a book connects in the right way. For instance, Herman Melville’s MOBY-DICK was misunderstood by critics most all of the author’s life. It was not until after his death that MOBY-DICK became a true and respected classic. It would have been wonderful for Melville to have lived to see that, but there’s solace in having left his mark upon the world.


7. Sometimes authors develop misconceptions about agents or the publishing industry as a whole. What is one misconception you feel is common, and what would you say to dispel it?

A lot of authors are mistrustful of their literary agents and how their money is handled. At Trident Media Group, we are very transparent about our commissions (we list them on our website for the world to see) and in being a legitimate literary agency in the business for over fifteen years, we do not have the sort of problems that an illegitimate literary agent or literary agency might have. We’re comfortable in following industry practices and norms. Every deal we do for a client, for instance, carries our agency clause, which stipulates that monies and agreements flow through Trident Media Group. Deals are commissioned by us with our standard commission, and we pay on the remaining monies to the author, with fully-signed copies of their agreements, accounting and royalty statements.

Another misconception I see among authors is that publishers will market and promote their book fully and to the best ability of the publisher. This seldom happens as publishers have huge lists to manage and only lead and key titles get the attention of the publisher where a huge printing is in following a big advance. Oftentimes various imprints at one publisher will have to share a publicist or publicity dept. Any marketing/promo promises made to an author by publishers are really immaterial and will never find their way into a publishing contract. Most every marketing/publicity plan I have seen from publishers is cookie-cutter at best and there’s no guarantee of follow-through on the part of the publisher. This is part of the reason why I think it is important for authors to be willing to hop into the driver’s seat when it comes to marketing and promoting their publications. Especially for authors just starting out, it’s best to only think of the publisher as a printing press that prints and distributes the books in stores and online.


8. What makes you connect with a character?

A character needs to experience some sort of personal growth or change along the way. That can be a positive or negative change in the character, but it must certainly happen. A character that's stagnant is seldom interesting to read about. Even Herman Melville's character, Bartleby, who simply preferred “not to” when it came to most anything, arrived at that decision early on in the narrative and had outside forces impose changes upon him, or at least the world began to change around him as a result of his stance.


9. Most authors have "Dream Agents". Do agents have "Dream Authors"? How would you describe your "Dream Author"?

Ideally a “Dream Author” would not only be an amazing writer in terms of their query letter and manuscript; they’d also be able to sit comfortably within the driver seat of marketing/promoting the book once a publisher was found. An author is central in the role of getting news about a new publication out there since fans want to hear from the author first and foremost.


10. What makes a query letter stand out for you in such a way that you HAVE to request more pages?

An extremely well-written query letter will stand out. Bonus points for a query letter that carries a lot of author credentials, such as awards, nominations, bestseller status, writer group/workshop participation, successful publications in literary magazines/anthologies, and especially advance praise from other authors of note.


11. Is there anything that will make you automatically reject a query letter?

Incorrect word count will usually make me reject a query letter flat out. It shows me right away that an author does not understanding publishing practices and norms. Secondly, a query letter that is poorly-written is usually an indication that the manuscript will not be well-written.


12. What are some common problems you see in queries or manuscripts?

Misaddressed emails is a common mistake I see in queries, in addition to word counts outside the normal range in manuscripts, query letters that are too short or don’t contain enough information, and frankly, authors that have not taken the time to research a literary agent and their website’s submission policies.


13. What words of wisdom would you like to share with an aspiring author?

I call them “the three peas in a pod,” and often look at them in this order:

Persistence: Don’t be discouraged by rejection. This being a subjective business, that is bound to happen many times over. It does not mean that you’re not good—it means you’re not quite good enough as of yet. Learn from constructive criticism and grow.

Patience: This being a “hurry-up-and-wait business,” since reading and editing can take time, it is important to be willing to wait patiently for editors/publishers to consider work once it is submitted by a literary agent. There have been instances, though, where I’ve sold a project in as little as four days. In other instances, it has taken months. It may seem like a nail-biting experience while rejections start to flow in along the submission process, but it is often worth the wait once an offer finally arrives.

Participation: As I mentioned before, an author has a central role in the book publishing process. Authors that merely want to write their manuscripts, then check out, rarely experience successful publications. Asking one’s publisher or literary agent how they can help leading up to publication and in the months thereafter, is a great starting point. Being curious about a publisher’s marketing/publicity plans and commenting on them is also of key importance.


14. What are some of your favorite books by authors you don't represent?

Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN

Tom Robins's FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES

Herman Hesse’s SIDDHARTHA

Hunter S. Thompson’s FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS


15. What is something you want authors to know about agents in general, or about you in particular?

A misconception I see among authors, who are just plain happy to have found a literary agent, is that they don’t always choose the right sort of agency. We are book publishing’s leading literary agency as we rank #1 for overall and six-figure+ deals (highest monetary category an agency can rank for) on publishersmarketplace.com, both for fiction, nonfiction, and agencies. We have ranked that way for over a decade, which is how long Publishers Marketplace has been around. That means we have numerous #1 NYT bestselling authors and many award-winning authors. When a new author looks at a big agency like ours, which is close to fifty employees and takes up the entire 36th floor of a Madison Ave building, they often think they will get lost in the shuffle, when in reality it is really quite the opposite. This being a big agency means that we have devoted legal, accounting, audio, digital, office management and foreign rights departments, which means I can spend more time with my clients, focusing on their careers. This is not to speak ill of other agencies, but the same cannot be said of a very small agency tight on resources where agents there, by-and-large, must work in a vacuum, and therefore have little time to properly handle audio and foreign rights, unlike an agency of our stature.

I think that I am unique as far as literary agents go, since I’ve been around this business all my life, having grown up with parents working in the book business. I’m not merely a journeyman literary agent that could be here in publishing one day and gone the next; book publishing is my passion and this being my family business, I’m not going anywhere soon. Also for that reason, none of my decisions are informed by fear over my job security. That’s lucky for most any client of mine, since rarely is a good decision ever made out of fear.


16. The dreaded synopsis. How do you feel about it?

The synopsis can be helpful in crafting the pitch to publishers but should rarely be part of the submission to them. The synopsis should be limited to one page, if possible. Less is more when it comes to writing a synopsis and it is important to focus on the key elements of the story arc: exposition, conflict and resolution.


A special thank you to Mark Gottlieb for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer these questions!