Faye Swetky, Owner and Agent for the Swetky Agency, was one of the first to get into using email and digital media in publishing. She tells us in this interview why nonfiction is becoming more important, why you should know the difference between a platform and a bio, and why editors are always looking for the same kinds of books.
What’s your official job title, and what does your agency have to offer that other one’s can’t?
Faye Swetky, Owner/Senior Literary Agent, The Swetky Agency. We pride ourselves on working hard 24 hours a day, keeping our authors’ material circulating, and targeting our pitches to the right editors. We also take pride in having spearheaded the digital revolution more than a decade ago when most editors BY FAR still rejected the notion of e-mail proposals and insisted upon doing business as they’d always done. We finally began showing them the nuts-and-bolts figures on how e-mail submissions save time, save resources, and (most importantly of all) save money for everyone involved. The rest is a combination of history and evolution.
To start with, do you think that digital publishing is a good thing for publishers, writers, and readers?
I think if anything technology in the industry is creating a demand for more properties than ever before. That’s good news for writers, even in a tight economy. Did I say that’s good news? It’s GREAT news.
What kinds of content is more important now?
We’re taking on more nonfiction and advising authors to think about writing more nonfiction. Otherwise, at least they need to create fiction that is starkly unique and startlingly appealing.
What do you think that most of today’s editors want to work on?
Editors are looking today for the same types of properties they’ve always been looking for–high-energy, well-written, marketable material from authors with big names and big platforms. Only more so. We have to work harder than ever to get them to consider first books.
What guidelines should a writer follow if they want to work with your agency?
We maintain a very detailed Web presence, explaining exactly what we want to see and how we want material submitted. Probably 70 percent of all authors have visited our site before submitting and follow instructions, which is good. We’d like to reach the remaining 30 percent. My pet peeve when writers query me is not knowing the difference between a platform and a bio, even though we explain it thoroughly on-site. We’re at http://amsaw.org/swetkyagency/index.html, by the way.
What kinds of hobbies do you do when you’re not at work?
I used to breed, raise, train, and race registered thoroughbreds. I thought THAT was really tough work until I got into the agency business. Whew!