I recently read an article in the October 2010 Issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.
While it bears the title, Evolution of the Literary Agent, one could easily substitute the word Publishing, for Literary Agent and the title would remain consistent with the content, if not more in line with and indicative of the topic(s) discussed and information given.
The four literary agents interviewed in the article, and their responses and comments leave much for any author, whether seasoned and financially successful or just starting out, to consider and ponder.
Whatever our station in writing and/or publishing our goals as authors and writers converge when it comes to reaching readers.
Authors, and most writers craft our works to be consumed by a reader audience.
I will blog this week on some of the various topics addressed by the agents in Evolution of the Literary Agent –more specifically those agent comments that indicated clear cut changes in the publishing industry that while affecting agents and publishers need to begin to influence how seriously we writers and authors must develop our business acumen concerning the stories, essays, novels, memoirs and creative non-fiction that we craft.
If not at the outset of the article, certainly by the end, the agents and interviewer from Writer’s Digest make it clear that writing and publishing is/are truly a business.
Those who bear this in mind will not only survive, but also thrive.
Towards the end of Evolution of the Literary Agent, Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management states: “I‘m not sure what the future holds for the role of the agent (or anyone in publishing, for that matter), but one reason I started Folio was to actively partner with authors to not only sell their book rights, but to oversee their intellectual property rights.”
Wheeler’s comment provides the gist of what I hope all who read this article and my series of blogs can grasp, from among many and other topics addressed.
“Entertaining and engaging fiction, and non-fiction that delivers pertinent and useful information sit at the center of publishing. And it is writers and authors, you and I, who provide these compilation of words that constitute books.”
The questions authors and writers of the 21st century must answer to achieve success and longevity are two-fold.
How much are we willing to invest in refining our work to its best quality before making it available to the reading public?
And once we have done that how much responsibility are we willing to assume in the marketing and promotion of our work, and the ultimate branding of who we are, and what we do and provide?