Literary Agent, Bridget Wagner has an interesting background as foreign rights agent for The Sagalyn Agency and Random House India. She is now the head of her own agency called The Wagner Agency and is looking for unique Indian voices.
In our interview with Wagner today, she tells us why there’s far less room for mediocrity now, why she’s more excited than ever about e-publishing opportunities for writers,
You do a lot of work overseas has the U.S. economy affected you any?
The economic crisis was part of the reason I decided to move to India a year ago and look for new talent on this side of the globe. I’ve also put a greater emphasis on finding books that truly matter, game changers and real innovators. That applies to both fiction and non-fiction. And I only go after writing that really wows me, and that I know will wow publishers. I think there’s far less room for mediocrity now, publishers can’t afford to take a chance.
As for authors, developing a platform and selling your own book is more important than ever. Take advantage of every contact and opportunity and encourage your publisher to try new things, like Google’s TV commercial system, etc.
Speaking of Google’s TV commercial system, what do you think of the new technologies like the iPad and the Alex and of course the Kindle?
My view on the changes to the publishing industry are a lot more optimistic than most. Perhaps it’s because I’m a bit younger and have grown up in a more digital age, but I don’t see e-publishing as this catastrophic event. In fact, I’m incredibly, incredibly excited about it. It’s absolutely a challenge, and it needs to be met with very careful planning, but I think it has the potential to catapult books and reading to a whole new level. For one, e-publishing creates an impulse-buy scenario that never existed in the same way before. To hear an NPR interview with an author and immediately be able to pull out your e-reader and buy that book, that’s amazing. Or to be sitting in a stopped subway car and see an ad for the new Grisham, and immediately download the book and start reading it on the train, that’s awesome. I’ve always been a big proponent of options when it comes to publishing. To have a $25+ hardcover as the only option for the first year of a book’s life is crazy to me. I think it assumes a readership of 50-year-old upper middle class readers who are collecting shiny hardcovers for their library and that’s short sighted. I rarely buy hardcovers — they’re too expensive, they weigh a ton and while I absolutely want to read the new Stephanie Meyer, there’s no way it’s going on my shelf next to my hardcopy edition of Pride and Prejudice. Meanwhile, it IS worth $25 to that 17-year-old who is collecting every book in the series. Readers want different options and we’re losing a lot of them by not offering options. If multiple options are available when readers are exposed to the most publicity, during that first year of publication, I think we’d sell far more copies (enough copies to get over that lower price point.) Readers want HC books, but they are also asking for paperback, audio and now e-book versions. I don’t think they should be made to wait for any of those versions. If we listen to the readers and tap this new technology, the marketplace could be more profitable and more exciting than ever.
You have an interesting perspective on what editors want. Don’t you?
I think editors are looking for game changing books — truly brilliant innovators that see the world (business, science, politics, history, etc) in a new way and who can tell stories in the process. And, they’re looking for authors with built-in media connections. As for what I look for but rarely find — I always have trouble finding a voice that grabs me and pulls me in. The voice that won’t let you go is so rare. And of course, I’m searching for non-American writers who can give us fiction and non-fiction in a fresh, eye-opening, more global way.
What’s the best way for writers to approach you?
Emailed submissions only, with a concise pitch and short author bio in the email, a 15-20 pg proposal for non-fiction, and 2-3 chapters for fiction. What peeves me is writers who write too much and can’t cut to the core of the project.
And finally, what is something about you that very few people know?
I’m currently working in India, looking for new writers on this side of the globe and trying to uncover some of the old Indian classics that are just being translated into English for the first time.