The marketplace is changing rapidly not only for book publishing companies but for the authors published by them. We had the opportunity to interview the founder of Artists and Artisans, Adam Chromy about this, PleaseFireMe.com, his love for peanut butter and so much more:
What’s your official title and why are you the best agent in the universe, Adam?
My title is Superagent. Actually, I am the President and Founder of Artists and Artisans [and the creator of PleaseFireMe.com]. I used to write SuperAgent on my name tags at events when I was starting out. At the time, I was trying to create a brand through a self-fulfilling prophecy. And now I have been doing that for nearly a decade for authors. As a student of business, branding and marketing (I have a BS from Stern, NYU), I feel my role as agent is to take the talent and resources of my clients and assist them in creating and executing a career narrative in which they reach their career objectives. It’s very satisfying to help authors make that narrative come true as they reach their goals.
So, you’re more of a manager than an agent. Why would this be better for an author than a typical agent?
Agents are ony allowed to sell authors’ work. But manager can either sell their clients’ work or act as producer for it. This is irrelevant in the book businss but has huge ramifications in the extremely critical performance arena. If I were an agent, I’d only be able to sell the performance adaptation to my clients’ books and sit with them on the sidelines and wait for news from Hollywood. The buying producer would have free reign to do as they pleased with the property and we wouldn’t even know what’s going on most of the time. As a manager however, I am able to work as a producer on my clients’ adaptations. So my clients save the commission (because I am paid by the studio as a producer) and I work along side the buying producer to bring the project to fruition all the while looking out for my clients interests. This is a win-win for me and my clients and this is why I spend nearly half of my time in Los Angeles lately.
What have you done to brace yourself for the economic changes to the industry? What can authors do to avoid eating Ramen noodles and counting pennies?
I think that authors needs to understand that the market is going to be very good to the very successful authors and cold and crushing to the middle and bottom of the pack authors. Like the music industry there will mostly be megasellers or writers giving it away for free online. So authors have to do whatever it takes to make the cut to be lucrative brands. One way is to cultivate the role as house author. The other is to have films and TV shows made out of your books. Thus, as managers, I spend nearly every other week in Los Angeles pushing the adaptations of our clients’ work. That has lead to several projects near production that will elevate those clients to the A List.
What do you mean exactly by “cultivating the role as house author”?
A house author is one that publishers publish year after year. They invest in building that author up over time and the author benefits from a consistent marketing and branding push over years if not decades. House authors can withstand a poor performing book or two. If an author is just opportunistically jumping from house to house and they have a book that misses it could be tough for them to get back in the game with a new publisher.
Adam, what do you think about all these technological changes happening? How have they changed the marketplace?
I am not really concerned about it. We represent storytellers and experts and we are prepared to professionalize their skills in whatever media is in favor at the time. And unlike other agents who are trying to squeeze the long tale of digital revenue, we are focused on the big payoff of film and television and bestsellerdom.
What’s hot now, what are editors looking for? And what type of manuscripts and proposals are you currently looking for that never seem to get?
Editors are always looking for good books that make you want to read even when you are sick of reading. And so am I.
What’s the best way for writers to approach you? And what’s one of your pet peeves when writers query you?
I like to read email queries, but I only respond when interested. My latest pet peeve is authors who lead with the word count. As if getting to 120,000 words was the greatest accomplishment of the work and merits further consideration.
And finally, what is something about you that very few people know?
Well, I do love peanut butter. And I love this job. I get to make the dreams of my clients come true as I help them change the world through their books. Nothing beats that.