Ellen Geiger, Vice President and Senior Agent for The Frances Goldin Literary Agency, Inc., sees new possibilities in the world of publishing, but she doesn’t think that her writers should be worried. She tells us in this interview that a traditional query letter can work wonders when approaching an agent, that they should be “as web savvy as possible,” and that they should look for an agent who will treat them as good as their own family.
For an introduction, what is your job title, and what is special about your approach to representing authors? My official title is Vice President and Senior Agent, The Frances Goldin Literary Agency, Inc. Why I’m the best: I am really selective. In addition to always going for excellence, I try to get a sense of whether the client’s personality and expectations are in line with mine, and whether they would fit in with our agency’s team approach to representation. Being a client of ours is like marrying into a family.
Everyone says that ebooks are going to change publishing forever. Do you buy into the hype?
I agree with John Makinson, the CEO of Penguin, who said that the e-book will become the new paperback as the price points converge, and once the e-device of your choice is cheap enough. I think that the e-book phenomenon has been covered to death though, mostly because the very people covering it are IN publishing and so are the first to be affected. This seems totally obvious, doesn’t it? Also, and hey, call me a sexist if you want, but guys love technology and gadgets, and most of the people writing and opining about this whole subject are men. Can we talk about content please? You know, what’s actually IN the books you’re going to read on your device?
It does seem like changes are afoot, though. What do you tell your clients about how to deal with industry changes, and what are you doing at your agency?
I’m doing fewer, bigger books, and making sure my authors are as web savvy as possible so they can promote their work. I represent some children’s books and am doing some toy and product licensing, which is great fun and lucrative. And, of course, I tell all my clients not to quit their day jobs – or go out and get a day job – during this transitional time.
What about aspiring authors who dream of quitting that day job? What is the best way for them to get noticed by an agent?
The best way for writers to approach me is still through the well-written query letter, preferably emailed. And what is that well-written query letter? For one thing, it is brief. It is double-spaced. It summarizes the work and the author’s background. Please don’t send me pizza or cookies, or, as one hapless would-be author did, a 5 pound barbell along with a manuscript about weight lifting. Along with the aforesaid, my other pet peeves are (a) when novelists can’t wait to tell you what a great movie their book will make and (b) the writer with no credentials who wants you to read his book about the Bible/the political situation/the Kennedy assassination/the economy/why the Roman empire really fell.
What are publishers looking for right now? We’re talking “What’s big in books,” either in content or technology?
4) What’s hot now? You mean after blogs-to-books and vampire mashups? Heaven only knows. I think the next big platform though will be what they’re currently calling the “enhanced e-book,” but even as I say this I don’t know exactly what it is… I think it’s somewhere between a book and a movie…is that the vook? Or a mook, a boovie perhaps? Our agency kind of marches to its own upmarket drum, but quality authors like our Barbara Kingsolver will always be hot. With nonfiction, I find that editors are looking for more and more guarantees in their buys which, of course, is a total fantasy. They want people with well developed platforms, with credentials, who write like angels, preferably for the NY Times. It still amazes me, after all these years, the provinicalism of the New York publishing community.
Do you mind telling our readers a little something secret about yourself?
Something about me that very few people know? If I told you that, then it wouldn’t be a secret any more now, would it? Something that just a few people know about me, though, is how much I love to sit in my friend’s sauna of a cool evening in New Hampshire. When you can’t take the heat any more, there’s a cold lake nearby to jump into, and if you float out a bit, you can see the most incredible stars. Then you can climb out and start all over again. That’s kind of like what I do as an agent, actually.