Getting Published
In the last century, Jack London received over six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story. Well over a hundred years later, the story is no different, only in that it is far more competitive than it was in Mr. London’s day. With over 275,000 books published in the USA in 2009, the ambitious writer enters a crowded marketplace. Fuelling every writer’s dream is the huge success of Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code. Like gold miners in the Klondike Gold Rush, the modern day writer seeks the elusive mother lode.
Bookstores care about the top one hundred sellers and “everyone else is swimming upstream.” This leaves the writer in a one in 2750 chance of becoming one of those authors that is nurtured by a bookstore’s care. The truth is much blacker because for every book that is published, there are thousands that are rejected. Many of these are written by very talented authors who just do not grab the attention of an acquisition editor. These editors are responsible to their majority shareholders in the USA and in Canada to the government that provides grants to the publishing companies. The glitter of commercial appeal is always present because the publishing companies have to survive. In truth, there has always been an unholy alliance between art and commerce.
Why do you need a literary agent? In the morass of the publishing world, an agent will guide you through the steps towards traditional publishing. The first step is to review the manuscript. We do this for a reading fee that has remained unchanged for fifteen years. If the manuscript shows talent and falls within the agency guidelines, we will submit it to publishing companies that we feel will show interest. For each manuscript we represent, we will prepare an unique sales pitch that highlights the manuscript’s strengths and appeals to the right publishers. Our agents know the requirements and interests of publishers around the world and use this knowledge to the advantage of our clients. We do charge for photocopying, mailing and your agent’s time. In exchange for these small, up-front fees, we collect a lower percentage of royalties upon publication of the manuscript. This has the potential to save our authors massive amounts of money in the long run.
Prior to submission, the agent will ensure that the manuscript has received statutory copyright protection. This is critical on a go-forward basis. If there are characters in the manuscript that will ultimately attract attention, the issue of trademark protection will be addressed. The agent will recommend counsel that specializes in intellectual property protection. Theft of copyright is the most frequently committed crime on earth.