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Agent provocateur

Monday, 23 February 2004 01:12 PM

From Teresa Nielsen Hayden, regarding the need for and quality of literary agents: "A bad agent is worse than no agent at all. A really bad agent is worse than not being a writer. Getting past the “no unagented submissions” barrier is not sufficient justification for hooking up with a bad agent." And then she explains the four main categories of agents.

It seem clear that publishing relies on centuries-old standards that were created for very good reasons. Surely some of those reasons are gone now, and an entrepreneurially-minded person like myself is tempted to look for ways to streamline the system, to trim out inefficiencies. Why does it take so long to publish a book? why are there so many people involved, splitting the money so many ways? Why are publishing contracts different from "regular" contracts? And the accomplished, experienced publishing professionals roll their eyes and explain that things are how they are and one can't fight City Hall.

I don't disagree with what Ms. Nielsen Hayden writes about working with agents and publishers. She clearly knows whereof she speaks. But I believe that if a writer can get past the desire to be published by a big conglomerate publisher and focus first on writing the best possible book and then on thinking who would want to read it and how to get the book directly into those readers' hands, then he can run around alot of standard publishing hurdles.

(Also, one of the surest ways to get me to try something is to tell me I can't do it.)

(Link via Maud Newton.)

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