I was trying to fit this into a Facebook post but it is too good to squeeze in a single post.
I was told by a big-wig literary agent today, (who will remain anonymous...but he represents a MAJOR player in YA at the moment) when asking a general question to satiate my ever curious mind about whether he would ever consider representing an unencumbered (no agent, no publishing contract) author based on robust book sales, "I don't pay any attention to that." -"that" being book sales.
He went on to say that he has a better ability to forecast the sales potential of an author than actual readers who purchase the books...so rather than look at sales numbers which are an exact indication of the popularity of a particular author, this guy said "I will determine that for myself."
With what, I wonder, his crystal ball?
This is the problem with (not all but many) agents today. Their arrogance is blinding them to the money making potential this new model publishing market has set in front of them. They'd rather base their representation upon one piece of paper (your query) and their gut intuition. Are you okay with letting someone like that handle your work?
I cannot think of a logical reason why picking up unrepresented authors who have already had success in the marketplace would be considered more of a risk than throwing a new name out there and hoping for the best.
If arrogance was ever in question, he went on to say "I'll decide the way I always do: whether I want to make you the sweetest gift I have, namely a percentage of my brain."
So what part of your brain ignores what the marketplace (the readers) wants and relies on the tried and tested methods of an antiquated system?
It's like picking athletes for your pro football team from the local high school rather than division-1 colleges. Once in a while you'll get lucky but most of the time the kid is a flop -not because he isn't a good athlete but because he doesn't have the street smarts a college program will teach him.
I don't get it. What would prevent an agent or publisher from picking popular, unencumbered authors out of the marketplace? Fear that they've maxed out their sales? that they've reached all their potential readers? Is that possible on a shoestring budget? -by which so many of these authors are limited. I think not.
I think this agent needs to re-read his copy of
Who Moved my Cheese because not only has his cheese moved, but the maze is changing as well.
End of tirade.
The first thing I noticed is that, with the exception of the YA section, which is growing, every other section is shrinking. Good for YA readers, bad for everyone else. The toy department (yep, toys) is taking over the real estate once owned by books.
