An Agent Responds
With the website for Beyond You & Me having topped 30,000 visitors, the agents now can't ignore the book, even if they don't want to represent it. Here's one email from Jack Scovil of the Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency (sadly not quite as funny sounding as the apochryphal law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe mentioned in the closing credits of NPR's hilarious "Car Talk"):
Dear W S Cross:
I seem not to have responded to your many communications, and I apologize. Because BEYOND YOU AND ME is just not the kind of book I represent. I loathe Anais Nin, which will give something of a clue as to why. Nevertheless, you seem to be skillful in attracting readers, and I wish you great success in the future. Very best.
Jack Scovil
Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency Inc
381 Park Avenue South, Suite 1020
New York NY 10016
(212) 679-8686
I guess he doesn't want to be on my mailing list, do you think?
While I don't want to turn this blog into a poor man's version of Gerard Jones's very funny thrust, parry and ripost Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing & Tinseltown, too, here is what I wrote back:
Dear Mr. Scovil,
Thank you for your response. It's nice to know that if enough people are interested in a book, agents will actually reply to my communications. You see, something like 25% of the ones I queried never got around to it somehow.
And since you have been blunt with me, I will be honest in return. I really have no interest in what agents like or dislike, but in getting my story out to the growing number of readers who have taken its heroine to their hearts. Frankly, I thought that's what publishing was about: putting books in the hands of people who want to read them. Evidently you have another goal, so it's a good thing I'm not sitting waiting for your answer.
Thank you for your good wishes, and I promise to keep you up-to-date. I would imagine Beyond You & Me will hit 50,000 visitors sometime around Labor Day. Your refusal to consider it will seem even more courageous then.
He's not going to represent Beyond You & Me anyway, so I guess there's no point in NOT being frank. Someone once told me "don't piss the agents off, it's a small world and word gets around."
Well, having gone through the first 756 agents already, I'm curious to know if there are any left to piss off?
Dear W S Cross:
I seem not to have responded to your many communications, and I apologize. Because BEYOND YOU AND ME is just not the kind of book I represent. I loathe Anais Nin, which will give something of a clue as to why. Nevertheless, you seem to be skillful in attracting readers, and I wish you great success in the future. Very best.
Jack Scovil
Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency Inc
381 Park Avenue South, Suite 1020
New York NY 10016
(212) 679-8686
I guess he doesn't want to be on my mailing list, do you think?
While I don't want to turn this blog into a poor man's version of Gerard Jones's very funny thrust, parry and ripost Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing & Tinseltown, too, here is what I wrote back:
Dear Mr. Scovil,
Thank you for your response. It's nice to know that if enough people are interested in a book, agents will actually reply to my communications. You see, something like 25% of the ones I queried never got around to it somehow.
And since you have been blunt with me, I will be honest in return. I really have no interest in what agents like or dislike, but in getting my story out to the growing number of readers who have taken its heroine to their hearts. Frankly, I thought that's what publishing was about: putting books in the hands of people who want to read them. Evidently you have another goal, so it's a good thing I'm not sitting waiting for your answer.
Thank you for your good wishes, and I promise to keep you up-to-date. I would imagine Beyond You & Me will hit 50,000 visitors sometime around Labor Day. Your refusal to consider it will seem even more courageous then.
He's not going to represent Beyond You & Me anyway, so I guess there's no point in NOT being frank. Someone once told me "don't piss the agents off, it's a small world and word gets around."
Well, having gone through the first 756 agents already, I'm curious to know if there are any left to piss off?
posted by W. S. Cross at 12:01 AM
1 Comments:
I suppose the good news is that there are plenty of readers who enjoy Anais Nin. Sort of an astounding comment really. Not particuarly witty, and really bizarrely vicious. Why exactly would a mentally healthy individual loathe Anais Nin anyway?
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