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A day in the Life of a Literary AgentYou can participate in future seminars at no cost. Just subscribe to our free newsletter to register. You’ll be notified of future seminars. You'll also receive our free report.
Our special thanks to the agents who participated. In no A day in the life of Miss Snark
I get to the office around 8. This is not the same as being awake. I read my email and it’s a mix of overnight stuff from clients in the Pacific and beyond time zones, and stuff from clients who work late. It can range from updates on pr efforts, to new drafts, to "why the hell haven't you sold that thing yet". There's also the usual daily news from PW, Publishers Marketplace, Media bistro, and all the other mailing lists I subscribe to. I read the trade stuff and follow up on any items that affect me (editors changing jobs is a big one here). 10 am is usually on with the headset and making calls. I email a lot but I also call people. I usually break for lunch at 12:30. At this point I just need to quiet the noise in my head. If I have a lunch date, I put my game face on and go out to conquer the world. If I stay in, I read Galleycat and other book blogs. Post lunch is more follow up. By this time the west coast is awake and I make calls to California. If I haven't had a lunch date, at 3pm I usually stop and clear my desk, dealing with all the little notes and memos that I've made and I update my call lists and data bases. My biggest fret is having a messy desk, it nibbles at my peace of mind till I can't focus well. It's not exactly productive work, but I can't be productive till I do it. I usually take a first gallop through the query letters about this time and reject everything that's an easy no. I set aside the things that need an actual read for later. There are no hard and fast rules about when things get done, only that they get done. You'll notice I don't spend any time in meetings-a big bonus for being a solo shop. I often laugh when I remember how a little kid described this kind of work. Q: "What does your mommy do?" Mama mea indeeda.
A day in the life of Peter RubieIn non-fiction he specializes in narrative non-fiction, popular science, spirituality, history, biography, pop culture, business and technology, parenting, health, self help, music, and food. He is a "sucker" for outstanding writing. In fiction he represents literate thrillers, crime fiction, science fiction and fantasy, military fiction and literary fiction.
Well the joke has it as: make phone call, open check. Actually, one of the things I love about my job is that no day is exactly the same. It is a job that involves constant reinvention in order to stay abreast of the needs and demands of the times which are ever changing. Currently we're dealing with editors who take longer than ever to respond, companies who take longer than ever to pay, and faint rumblings from various quarters that the publishing industry is in its latter days -- something I don't believe. However, the approaching shadow of the electronic revolution is looming. and the role of an agent and the industry itself is undergoing -- or soon will undergo -- a profound change.
I start my day about 9:30 am by going over telephone and email messages from overnight. A lot of publishing, perhaps as much as 50% now is conducted electronically. I do some book-keeping, go over contracts, transact foreign business because of the time difference (the end of their day is usually the beginning of mine), attend a weekly staff meeting and chat with my assistants about ongoing projects, like developing sub rights leads for likely agency titles and so forth. Often there is a lunch date with an editor that lasts from 12:30 to 2:30pm where we get a feel for how and whether our tastes match. A good lunch can be defined by the editor wanting to see some of our current projects, and a sense that maybe a client will find a good home with this person. Agenting, more than anything, is about matchmaking and deal-making material that you care strongly about.
In the afternoon I catch up with lunchtime messages, make submissions and get them ready to be mailed. (Most submissions are still made on hard copy.) Make calls to editors to boost them along in their reading tardiness, and then I call Hollywood agents, and clients towards the end of the day.
Sometimes there are drinks meetings after work, though in my case I have a wife working in the theatre and a 3 1/2 year old, so I don't do a lot of after work events these days. Once my kid and I have had supper together and read some stories it's time for him to go to sleep. I unwind for an hour or so and at about 11 pm I start reading manuscripts and proposals for a while.
One day soon I hope to start work on a new novel. Wouldn't that be a kick . . .
I would start by saying that there is no typical day.
That is the fun of it!
I never know if a phone call, an email or a letter will change someone's life for the better forever, make me able to dazzle by realizing a dream, or if the day will hold nothing but complaints and almost-offers that fizzle to nothing when an eager editor takes the project "to the board..."
I never know when I open a manuscript box and start reading if this manuscript holds infinite promise or will send me to sleep a few pages in.
When a colleague steps into my office, I never know if I will have to help problem-solve or share in a triumph.
When I go to a meeting or a lunch date with a publisher or an editor, I never know if our conversation will offer me the link I have been wanting for a hard-to-place manuscript, or reveal a hobby that immediately speaks to a manuscript sitting on my desk to await resubmission.
Sometimes I make a new friend and hurry back to the office, energized and ridiculously optimistic.
Sometimes a difficult lunch meeting resembles nothing so much as playing tennis with a dud tennis ball. I patiently keep lobbing out the shots and the ball keeps falling flat at my feet. So I keep lobbing and smiling and munch on my lunch and heave a sigh of relief as I make my way back to the office.
I guess my typical day consists of answering emails, listening to my colleagues, proffering advice when asked, responding to correspondence and phone calls, soothing troubled spirits and castigating the tardy, running through the office to show off a wonderful jacket design that has just come in and making persistent and unwelcome phone calls about the jacket that the author and I hate and that the editor and the sales force love.
Yes, negotiating comes into it and offers its own challenges and rewards, as does the painstaking review of new contracts, as does the day-to-day runningof the business.
Manuscripts are strictly read in home time, evenings or weekends, and rarely encroach on the busy work of the day and the constant effort to wrestle the persistent avalanche of input into something resembling order.
Bored? Never!
Glamour? Rarely.
Multi tasking? The name of the game!
Disappointment and exhaustion? Par for the course.
But nothing beats the wild pleasure and satisfaction of being able to call an author with a good deal that I know will surprise and delight. (And they have usually gone away for a couple of weeks and forgotten to leave a forwarding address...)
In the end, that is what it is all about.
In the end, that is the joy that lies hidden in the relentless demands of every day, none of which is ever typical!
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Articles and Columns by Brian Hill and Dee Power
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