I’m not sure when the last time Edward Wyatt did some actual in-depth interviewing, but he takes that torch and runs with it — to some degree — in today’s profile of former Time Warner Books CEO Larry Kirshbaum, who’s set up shop as a literary agent. Not that there’s really a whole lot new and scintillating here, but Kirshbaum does make some reasonably apt comments about the hierarchical nature of the beast:
“…publishing is built on an economic model that is really very painful for the people working there,” he said. “It is still a little bit of a medieval guild system,” where apprentices take years to work their way up a ladder of a half-dozen rungs, from editorial assistant to low-level editing spots and, if they are very diligent, to full-fledged editor.
“They love their jobs, and they love the creative excitement that comes from working there,” Mr. Kirshbaum said. “But when you’re sharing an apartment in Queens with four other people because you’re getting 3 to 4 percent annual raises on a $25,000 salary, it’s not a great thing.”
And if that doesn’t explain why publishing works as a triage system, I don’t know what does.
As an agent, Kirshbaum already has eight clients, including — rather surprisingly — legendary crime writer Donald Westlake (who has been published by Mysterious Press, an imprint of TWBG, for several years now) and rising thriller star David Ellis. The latter is especially interesting since he still lists his former agent (Jeff Gerecke of JCA Lit) on his contact page, but according to Ellis (when reached by email) the change has happened and it’ll only be a matter of time before it’s reflected on his site.
Kirshbaum further added the following when I asked him about his newest clients: “The matchmaker on Donald [Westlake] was Otto [Penzler, proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop.] We had published him for years and he didn’t have an agent, so it was a perfect fit.” Aside from Westlake, Ellis and James Sheehan (author of THE MAYOR OF LEXINGTON AVENUE) Kirshbaum now represents Steve Hodel, whose own take on the Black Dahlia story caused plenty of controversy when it was published a few years back.