Finding Your Voice

I promise to get back to having some craft and how-to information on the blog, but I’ve had such a run of good luck lately that I can’t help but want to share the news about each client I’m representing. 

Jennifer Carsen’s memoir landed in my inbox on a day when I had approximately four hundred and twenty nine things to do before 7 p.m.  And do you know how many of those things I got done?  None, zip, zilch, nada, nil.  That’s right, not one single thing.  Because I couldn’t put her mansucript down.  No matter how many times I said, “Okay, three more pages and THEN I HAVE TO DO OTHER WORK,” it turned out I was just lying to myself.   

In her own words, “Jennifer Carsen is a writer and recovering lawyer. After running—screaming—from the law after only 11 months of practice, she turned to a far more enjoyable career in words. Her humor essays have appeared in two recent Seal Press anthologies, Tied in Knots: Funny Stories From the Wedding Day and The Bigger the Better the Tighter the Sweater. She is also the author of the laugh-free HR How-to: Employee Retention and the equally unfunny Divorce Guide for Illinois. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Eric, and their two manic cats.”

I am so excited to be representing Jen’s book that I don’t even mind that she’s a cat person.

I’ve been lucky over the past few weeks to sign several wonderful writers with intriguing stories and approaches to their work, and today is another of those lucky days.  I’m pleased to announce that Rosie Molinary has joined the Salkind Agency and that I’ll be representing her book on activism.  As usual, I’ll post more details as we’re farther along in the process, but I have to say the minute Rosie’s proposal crossed my desk, I thought, “I know three hundred and eighty two people who need this book,” which is always a good start.

Rosie is the author of Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina,  which was published by Seal Press in 2007.  She is currently working on Beautiful You, which will be published by Seal Press in Fall 2010.  She is also a contributor to magazines such as Teen Vogue, Latina, Skirt!, Women’s Health, Health and Lifetimetv.com.

In addition to writing, she teaches a course on body image for the women’s studies department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and speaks on body image, diversity, self-awareness, social justice and writing around the country.  She helped found HAMMERS, a non-profit initiative to provide emergency home repair for low income families in her community and Circle de Luz,  a non-profit program that provides mentoring, programming and scholarship support in order to empower young Latinas. 

I’m delighted to welcome Rosie aboard and look forward to finding the perfect home for her current project — and hopefully many more to come!

My new client, Jill Nicely, is one of those writers who knew what she wanted to do from the first time she picked up a book and started to read.   Since I’m one of those writers, too, I was delighted when Jill agreed to my offer of representation.  She’s worked in publishing, so I didn’t have to tell her how crazy this business can be, but she’s also got a fresh eye, a compelling voice and some great work that I can hardly wait to start showing to editors.   She just finished her M.S. in psychology and combines insights from her educational pursuits with a lively curiosity about the way the world works. 

Also, she is a just plain nice person.  Considering some of the people who land in my inbox, this is more important than you might think.   

You can learn a bit more about her and what she’s thinking and doing on her blog at: www.jillnicely.blogspot.com

I’m glad to welcome Jill to the Salkind Agency.

I’ve been fortunate to have so many talented and interesting people querying me for representation.   I keep waiting for all the clueless wannabes to strike, but they’ve been suspiciously quiet so far.  (Too quiet?)

This week, I’m continuing my lucky streak, and have just signed a new client, martial artist and psychic medium Jock Brocas.  When I asked him if it’d be okay for me to write about it on the blog, he said, “Go ahead and fill yer boots,” which is how you know he’s from Scotland.   You can read more about him at his website, www.jockbrocas.com. 

An expert on the paranormal, he uses his unique abilities in teaching the martial arts – an ex-military man, he’s been involved in Bujinkan and the esoteric arts for almost thirty years.  You can guess why I wanted to sign him on just about the minute he queried the agency.

Watch this space for more news about Jock and his book as we can share it!  

Agent Kristen has a blog post on why some agents sell more books than others.  She talks a bit about being a new agent and figuring out your niche; I thought it was an interesting read because that’s exactly what I’m doing.   Here’s my update, now that I’ve been an agent for all of (glances at watch) two and a half months:

• I’m not planning to represent children’s authors.  I have received a number of queries and submissions from children’s authors and I can tell that I just don’t have the experience (or interest) in guiding those careers.  It’s hard for me to decide if something is good or not, and since there are plenty of people who can tell, you’d be better off with one of them.  (My daughter is only interested in books about Disney princesses and giraffes, so she’s not much help.  If there were a book about Disney princesses riding giraffes, she’d be in hog heaven.  But I digress.) 
• I’m still willing to look at YA.  I have more confidence that I know what’s good in YA, and I read a lot of it myself, so I know what I like.  Which is, in fact, way more helpful than it sounds.  Feel free to pitch that to me.
•  Please don’t pitch me unless you have a complete proposal (for non-fiction) or a complete manuscript (for fiction).  Overall, I’ve been pleased and impressed with the quality of submissions I’m getting from people, but it is a huge waste of time for me to read queries for vaporware.  I know you just want to get a sense of the marketability for your idea/book before you actually do the work, but I can’t tell if you have something I can sell until you, you know, actually do the work.
• Complete your memoir before you pitch me.  Yes, there are agents who will look at a proposal/table of contents and three sample chapters of a memoir, but I’m not one of those agents.  As a writer, I don’t think you know what the story is until you’ve written it and revised it a couple of times.  There are agents who disagree with me.  Pitch them.  Also: don’t try to write your memoir while you’re in the middle of it.  That’s a series of blog posts, not a memoir.  Good memoirs can seem immediate, raw and fresh, as if you’re in the middle of the situation right now, but a good memoir is the product of reflection, distance and perspective, which is something you don’t have immediately. 

   And that’s what I have for the moment.  More as I figure it out.