As we’ve been teasing you with in our weeks ahead column, February is our month of agent blogs. To kick off these special guest appearances, we present you with Ginger Clark, of Curtis Brown, LTD.
We all know how busy agents are, so I’d like to take a moment to thank Ginger for her participation in this special event. Now, without further ado, please join me in welcoming agent Ginger Clark to Magical Musings.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for reading this post. I hope it’s helpful and not too harsh.
Theresa told me I could ramble about anything I want, which was sweet of her — and she assumed I would not write about completely off-topic things (like my chinchillas) which is very trusting of her. So I thought I would talk about proper conference and convention behavior. I go to several writers conferences a year, and at least one convention. While 90% of the people with whom I speak at these events are professional and polite, it is that remaining 10% that stick in my mind. All the don’ts listed below come from my own personal experience.
Do’s!
DO: Know some basic facts about your book when you are pitching me. Know how long your book is, both in page and word count. Know what kind of genre your book fits into. If it’s a children’s book, know the difference between picture books, middle grade, and young adult. Know other authors who write books similar to yours. Is it cyberpunk? Then tell me how it compares to William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson. Know if this book will fit on my list. If it won’t — for instance, if you are pitching me literary fiction when I don’t represent it — explain to me why you think I would be interested in reading it. Know something about my agency and what my client list is like.
DO: Have the book written and well-revised. Unless it’s a non-fiction idea, and then have a proposal well edited and ready to go and know your market. Sitting down and telling me about an idea you came up with on Tuesday but you’ve not done any actual work is a waste of our time.
DO: Feel free to talk to me when I’m at some kind of social event or sitting alone at the bar, looking bored. Even if I am talking in a group of people, you can probably grab my attention when I’m not in mid-sentence and talk to me briefly. I’ll hand you a business card if the book sounds good.
DO: Shake my hand and be friendly and polite while pitching me. And please don’t sit there shaking. I’m not going to bite you.
DO: Politely ignore me if you catch me on the elevator post swim, and I’m in sweatpants and flip flops and making eye contact with the floor.
DO: Send me what I ask you for. If I said first fifty pages, plus a synopsis, please send me that and just that. Put in the first sentence of your cover letter a reminder as to where we met and a brief description of your work. Even if it’s a year after we met, go ahead and send it to me if I requested it.
And some Don’ts!
DON’T: Follow me into the bathroom in a misguided attempt to pitch me something while I am washing my hands.
DON’T: Get emotional and start crying or yelling at me, or hyperventilating, or glaring at me angrily during a pitch session. If I am not responding enthusiastically to your pitch, please just be polite and excuse yourself, and go in the bathroom and place a hex on me there, in private.
DON’T: Call my room and leave me voicemail.
DON’T: Interrupt a meeting I’m having with someone to pitch your book. If I’m in the middle of a session with an author, that’s their time and you are being unfair to them. If I’m chatting at the bar with someone, I’m probably doing business and it would be impolite to the other person for you to interrupt.
DON’T: Follow me around a party, standing next to me and staring at me, yet never actually speaking to me. That creeps me out.
DON’T: Ask me tons of questions about my pet chinchillas, because I know you aren’t actually interested in them. You’re just trying to suck up to me, and I can smell that a mile away. Unless you have chinchillas. Then the first round of drinks are on me!
DON’T: Give me anything — I have no room in my suitcase and it will just wind up in the trash or annoying me.
DON’T: Interrupt me while I am giving a speech or talking on a panel in public. Ask me a question when it’s question asking time. Not now. If I have the microphone I get to talk.
DON’T: Ask me a hostile or angry question during a Q&A session. It makes everyone in the room uncomfortable. It makes you look bad. Some of my favorite hostile and/or awkward questions include:
“Maybe you have a fiction bias because that’s all you represent?” (huh?)
“Why is it so important to you that I write a good query letter?” (so I can see if you can actually write about your book intelligently)
“How much do you make?” (Awesome! I’m so eager to discuss my salary in public!)
“Do I really have to write a good query letter?” (Yes)
“You were wrong, earlier. Men buy more books than women. You were wrong.” (Thank you, sir!)
“Doesn’t my book mean more to you than the query letter?” (I swear I’ve answered this one already)
Oh, and my favorite, “What was your name again?”
Thanks for having me. I hope this helps.
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/GClark/
Ginger, thank you for your honesty. I’ve witnessed some of your Don’t list, and it annoys those who happen to see it too! In fact, it’s painful to watch. You’ve helped many out there, I’m sure, who have been lead astray as to just how far it’s okay to go. BTW, I loved your post-swim comment. Too funny!
Great blog, Ginger! Amazing the things that people say to you. A lot of what you say is common courtesy and common sense, especially in a professional situation.
If I meet you (or other agents) at a conference, I promise not to do any of the things on your ‘don’t list’.:grin:
Talk about serendipity, Ginger, the ladies of Magical Musing intend to invade this summers RWA national conference–and we were just discussing how appropriate it would be to approach an agent in the bar.
Thanks for all these tips. Come National we’ll be armed and professional.
Ginger, you are a woman after my own heart
Every elevator should come equipped with an e-ject button…or a bouncer…for anyone brazen enough to approach a woman clad in a swimming suit and towel with eyes downcast and clearly needing her own space. What’s really sad is you have to mention it, but I bet there’s thousands of editors and agents and authors nodding vigorously at this moment
Your Publishers Marketplace listing mentions “Literary horror”. Can you give a few examples?
Thank you.
Ginger – Thanks so much for your time! Edie’s email about your guest blog popped up just as I was in the middle of some research on stalking behaviors. Your tips about how not to approach an agent gave an interesting slant to it all.
Have you noticed a difference in various genre writers and their approaches to you at conferences? (i.e.–romance writer vs sci fi vs mystery–and male vs female).
Great post, Ginger. Thank you for the dos and don’ts. Like LaDonna says, I’ve seen a number of the don’ts being committed during a conference. Sad to see a new author (or even an established author for that matter) shoot themselves in the foot.
Love the “Do†about not talking to you at post-swim as your contemplating the carpet pattern in the elevator. Way too funny.
Barbara: By literary horror, I mean more psychological horror. Think Peter Straub and Lovecraft than splatterpunk.
Deb: All those examples are from a variety of conferences and conventions, with all kinds of different writers. Reviewing those don’ts, I can’t really come up with what gender or genre is worse than the others. I do have to say–romance writers are very assertive!
Ginger, thanks for the eye-opening blog. It’s hard to believe the people who commit “don’ts” actually got out of middle school. That said, if they don’t have manners, than most likely, they lack grammar and/or writing skills, too.
Pat on the back to you for your grace under fire.
Question(s): If a writer has a publishing contract in hand, but no agent, and said novel isn’t quite your genre, do you, or have you, ever considered representing them if approached? If not, do you pass that person along to an agent you know who does handle that particular genre?
P.S. It’s great that you’ll talk to people over cocktails. Yay you!
Ginger, thanks for showing us an agent’s POV about pitches and conferences. So far I haven’t committed any faux pas, but there is always time…
And I love the feel of chinchilla, though aren’t they nocturnal and keep you awake? My guinea pig is bad enough when he flips his salt wheel against the cage.
Your name sounded very familiar and I thought I might have sent you something…alas, not yet, since you don’t represent RS—are you sure you don’t want to see my query?
I do have have a Fantasy that is in mid-rewrite that I intend to query when it is ready, which leads to my question.
Do you represent authors if one of the genres that they write you don’t represent? Or do you sub it out to another agent? Or do you you only represent the one genre and the author needs to get another agent for the other genre?
Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Margaret
Thanks for your post, Ginger! You’re a great blogger. The don’t list especially cracked me up. I wish you the best this conference season.
Great blog post, Ginger! Some of the things on your list seem so common sense that you’d think people would know better, but apparently not!
And the post swim comment is so true.
To Ginger,
Thank you for taking the time to offer help!
My question echoes Kathy’s: What’s your modus operandi when an author approaches you with a publishing contract already in hand? In my case, I have the first novel of a fantasy trilogy in production with a publisher (to be released in March) who has right of first refusal on the rest. This is great — except the stipulation that I must work through an agent requires I sign with one. Would you recommend I trek up to Algonkian (I’m in Florida) in April to pitch Donald Maass, or will querying be sufficient to hook an agent’s interest at this point?
Thank you for your opinion!
Sandy Lender
“Some days, you just want the dragn to win.”
Thanks for such a great post, Ginger. I haven’t been to a writing conference yet (I live on another continent) but as Theresa mentioned, all of us Magical Musings bloggers are going to hit Dallas this year.
Reading your don’t list, I cannot believe anyone who hopes to actually have you take her on as a client would behave that way, but obviously not . . .
Ginger, like everyone else who responded, I’m surprised at how clueless people can be. Your “don’t” list was so funny, but horrifyingly true.
I hope you have an “event-free” conference this year.
Thanks for taking the time to do this…
Laura
Thanks Ginger for a great blog, and insight into your world. It makes you, as a agent a bit more approachable. Common sense is the key, which sadly so many are lacking. Thanks again.
LMFAO this post kicks ass! bwahahahaha. The sad thing is, the don’ts wouldn’t be there if they didn’t happen.
I like the sucking up thing. Yes, people are not morons, they know when you’re sucking up to them. Especially people who deal with suck ups on such a frequent basis.
And hehe @ “go to the bathroom and place a hex on me there.”
Great post, Ginger. Anassa kata.
It is scary, but I saw several instances of your “don’ts” in Atlanta last summer at various times. The mind boggles. Maybe the RWA should send out a Dos and Don’ts with registration materials?
And thanks for posting the notice about Magical Musings on MRW, Eden. I’ll be back!
Thank you for the Dos and Don’ts Post, Ginger!
Someone followed you around without ever greeting you? Yikes! I’ve seen writers do some weird stuff around agents and editors, but that’s beyond creepy!
BTW, love your photo! Best wishes for all contined success!
Ahem, apologies and please make that best wishes for all continued success.
I hit submit when hubby turned on the coffee grinder. We must have another talk about that.
bwahahaha don’t you hate it when husbands don’t follow orders? hehe
Hi Ginger,
From what I’ve read in the circles discussing literary agents, you are regarded as a reputable ‘mover and shaker’. I am grateful that you (unlike so many others) are giving inexperienced writers in the community important advice towards getting their manuscripts published.
I would like to offer one small snippet of advice to you– if you reject someone’s manuscript, please take the time to at least scribble a brief note thanking them for their time and interest– the rather cold form rejection that I received from you did not match your talent as a truly remarkable agent.
Best of luck,
Mick Lang