{"id":6083,"date":"2020-01-24T12:44:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T12:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/short-and-grumpy\/"},"modified":"2020-01-24T12:44:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T12:44:53","slug":"short-and-grumpy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/short-and-grumpy\/","title":{"rendered":"Short and grumpy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A short and irritable email this week, inspired by a trio of author-interactions I\u2019ve had in the weeks since Christmas.<\/p>\n

Three authors. Three stories. Here they are.<\/p>\n

Author #1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sells her debut book to a Big 5 publisher for a reasonably good advance. Lots of excitement, lots of mwahs, lots of happiness.<\/p>\n

The excitement and happiness lasts for a while, but in the weeks before publication something in the atmosphere starts to fade. A cover reveal is mishandled on Twitter. A publicist is changed, a bit abruptly. Actual, tangible marketing activity seems hard to locate.<\/p>\n

The author happens to grumble \u2013 a bit \u2013 to me about it. I ask the author what the level of supermarket orders is. She asks her editor (with whom she still has a decent relationship.) Editor says, roughly, \u201cNo, a bit disappointing unfortunately but, yay!, orders from Waterstones are yadda yadda, blah blah, change the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

The marketing never materialised.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s author #1.<\/p>\n

(Info on how to get published can be found here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Author #2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Has a reasonable track record over several books. Sales in one (smallish territory) have been good. Sales in the bigger, more influential markets have been weak, probably due to inattentive publishing. Reader reviews and critical reception has always been strong.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after a hiatus, Author #2 writes another book and gets a (perfectly fine) offer direct from a publisher.<\/p>\n

She goes to her agent with the offer. It is now that agent\u2019s job to turn that offer into a contract, and to knit together a set of deals across the various English language territories, so that the author has a proper sales platform to work with.<\/p>\n

But \u2013 after weeks of delay \u2013 the agent dumps the author. Nothing to do with the author; more a change of direction for the agent.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s perfectly OK for agents to alter direction, of course, but that doesn\u2019t, to my mind, mean that you can desert your existing clients at their moment of greatest need. On the contrary, you need to get the deal done, then move on. You take on those obligations when you take on clients. Like it or lump it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one thing, but there\u2019s another. In this case, the agent was and is part of a large and well-resourced agency with plenty of other agents. So if Agent X wants to change direction, she should damn well speak to her colleagues and say, \u201cWe can\u2019t, as an agency, let our client down, so please can someone step in here for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

The author \u2013 the admirable Author #2 \u2013 has a publishing offer that urgently needs attention and she\u2019s been abandoned by both her agency and her agent. Great.<\/p>\n

(Info on how to get an agent in the first place can be found here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Author #3<\/strong><\/p>\n

This author email wasn\u2019t even especially grumbly. It was just a \u201chi, how are you\u201d from someone I last talked to years ago.<\/p>\n

But one snippet from that conversation struck me. Author #3 got an agent. Agent launches the manuscript at the Big 5 publishers and their immediate competitors. Some nice words came back, but no offers.<\/p>\n

The author then thought, \u201cWell, that\u2019s disappointing, but there\u2019s a slew of smaller publishers who might be interested,\u201d \u2026 only to discover that her agent had no intention of approaching them. Their relationship ended right there, over the corpse of an unsold book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t like any of this. Not one bit of it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I think:<\/strong><\/p>\n