In today’s installment of Media Beat (mediabistro.com’s new video show), Kneerim & Williams agent Steve Wasserman gave advice for aspiring nonfiction authors on landing a book deal.
Here’s an excerpt: “The first thing I would advise is to look in the acknowledgments section of the books they most admire and the kinds of books that focus on the genres that they imagine that they would be writing in. When you see a writer you admire thanking his or her agent, that might well be an agent who would look kindly, with some sympathy towards your project. With nonfiction, it is fairly straight-forward, but difficult. The main thing is to try and imagine what genuinely is going to be different about your book.”
Before working as an agent, Wasserman had served as the editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review and the editorial director of Times Books. He now represents a number of clients, including Christopher Hitchens, Robert Scheer, and Joan Juliet Buck.
Part 1: Steve Wasserman on the Qualities of a Good Literary Agent
Part 3: Literary Agent Steve Wasserman Delivers Digital Rights Advice for Authors
Media Beat is mediabistro.com’s interview series with the movers and shakers of the media world. View all past episodes at MediaBeat.com.