QBR The Black Book Review – Book Biz Column
March 2003; used with permission

The Talent Merchants: An Inside Look at How Literary Agents Mine for Gold
By Milca Esdaille

Last year there was much reporting and opining on the astounding $4.2 million Alfred Knopf paid to acquire Stephen L. Carter’s The Emperor of Ocean Park, and a second forthcoming title. This year the book buzz is about ZZ Packer. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, released in February, garnered a deliciously rich $250,000 contract from Penguin Putnam’s Riverhead imprint. This is Packer’s first book deal. Prior to his Knopf coup, Carter’s published nonfiction titles sold modestly at best. In our economy, prices are usually determined by what the market will bear. In the literary world, publishers own the wallets, and literary agents are most often responsible for suggesting an initial sticker price on a promising manuscript. The savviest agents emerge from publisher negotiations with royalty advances (and sometimes, promotional dollars) in line with or exceeding expectations. To consistently achieve this requires an impressive Rolodex, brilliant marketing and sales skills–and sheer luck. Luck, we like to think, is always found where preparation and opportunity intersect, yet it’s not always that simple.

The word is that Packer’s agent, Eric Simonoff, sought her out after hearing about her through the grapevine, and pressed her to show him some of her stories. In a recent Poets & Writers article Simonoff, who works for Janklow & Nesbit Associates, admits he was "smitten instantly" by the quality of Packer’s work. Stephen L. Carter’s agent is Lynn Nesbit–interestingly enough, the "Nesbit" at the very same agency. She orchestrated an intense bidding auction among twelve publishing houses, with Knopf emerging as the winner. While these authors and agents run to the bank, most agents bring home comparatively modest deals. Small presses often pay significantly less, or nothing at all. According to Michael Larsen's Literary Agents: What They Do, How They Do It, and How to Find and Work With the Right One for You, "…about twenty agents account for 90% of the best selling novels. At the same time publishers are buying books, not agents, and they will pay any agent whatever it takes to acquire a book they want. What agents bring to the table is the ability to judge what a book is worth and to extract that sum from an eager publisher…agents, caught between authors wanting to be paid more for their books and editors wanting to pay less, have to have the best judgment about what a book is really worth."

It’s intriguing to ask, ‘could our most skilled and experienced African American agents have "extracted" such outsized sums for the same writers?’ This is less a question about preparation, i.e., the relative skills and experience of our agents, and more a question about how level the proverbial playing field is. We’re painfully aware of the severe melanin deficit within the upper echelons of publishing. According to über-agent Manie Barron of the William Morris Agency, there are barely more than a dozen African Americans in the editorial food chain at mainstream publishing houses. None control purse strings. This means agents of color are often at a disadvantage as they seek to market writers to publishers who don’t always "get it," and still extract full value for their work.

Stocks, Bonds and American Idol

But what exactly is this "value" based on? "Talent alone is not enough to launch a career for a writer, and that’s true of fiction as well as nonfiction," emphasizes Marcela Landres, one about six Latino editors at major publishing houses. Landres is Associate Editor at Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone / Fireside division. She shares the struggle to open wallets for writers of color, and indicates she’s received much mentoring from African American editors and agents. "I am fascinated by the television show American Idol, because what [the judges] Randy, Simon and Paula do is just what we editors do. Singing talent is just one of many components that a record label looks for when signing up talent. They want a complete package they can promote…look at Madonna, Brittany Spears, even Cher. These may not have been great singers, but were wonderful for whoever signed them up.

"In the acquisition process I have full power to say ‘no,’ adds Landres. "If I want to say ‘yes,’ I have to get my publisher to give me money. I take Simon & Schuster’s money and, instead of stocks and bonds and mutual funds, I invest it in books, in authors. We expect a return not just for the advance, but also for the marketing, publicity, advertising and the physical process of making a book, which is not cheap. We may have as many as a half a dozen to a dozen people chiming in on an acquisition decision." In the overwhelming majority of the cases, those chiming in will not be people of color.

Like miners, our agents wade through countless poor to mediocre manuscripts spurred by hopes of striking literary gold. Once they find one with promise the best agents must be better storytellers than their writers, providing publishers with compelling tales of talented and promotionally proactive authors and the tens of thousands of hungry readers ready to buy their books. "It really helps if an agent has done his job, but there is no such thing as an agent school," continues Landres. "I’m impressed when they present me with a proposal that is polished and thorough and professional…with all the ammunition we need to feed our people facts about the author, the book, the market. Sometimes it’s just a 300-hundred page manuscript with a cover note, ‘Hope you like it.’"

Excavating Dollars

Marie Brown of Marie Brown & Associates has been called "The Godmother of Publishing," and rightly so. With 35 years of experience in publishing, 19 of them as an agent, she is among the most skilled in delivering the goods to publishers. Hired by Doubleday as an editorial trainee in the 1960’s, Brown worked her way up the ranks and was responsible for publishing Marie Evans, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, and many others. She left Doubleday in 1980. After a brief stint in magazine publishing she went to work for Endicott–a Manhattan bookseller. Pushed by some of her editor friends, Brown reluctantly took on a couple of agenting assignments. "I had limited experience with agents because agents were not the norm up until the 1980’s. Most books came into publishers as unsolicited manuscripts and through personal contacts. [Agents] had the reputation as being in it for the money…not the content.

"I learned I do not have assume the personality traits of ‘agents.’ I could work editorially with the authors, helping them develop manuscripts or proposals. At the same time I can sell their work…interpret it to publishers." In 1984 she had enough projects to leave Endicott and open her own agency. "It’s a world in which we don’t find much comfort. I don’t care how many articles come out about people in black publishing; the number is miniscule compared to what the industry looks like. My authors need to have that comfort zone in order to produce their best work. I try to provide that in whatever ways I can." Brown’s current and past client roster includes Patrik Henry Bass, Herb Boyd, Colin Channer, Johnetta B. Cole, Randall Robinson, Susan Taylor & Donald Bogle, Trisha Thomas and Van Whitfield.

"Many black writers in the past ten years have benefited from a strong interest in African American culture and life—our fiction and nonfiction. They receive solid advances, but so many more receive moderate advances. With my authors I say ‘I really would like to get as much as I possibly can for you, this is not a charitable act.’ Nine times out of ten, unless the New York Times or word of mouth makes you a household name, you’re not going hit seven figures with your first book. Terry McMillan, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou built their reputations and readership over time."

"There’s so much to do, and reading is so time-consuming," says Brown as she describes the more difficult aspects of her job. "It will take someone three years to finish their manuscript, and they call me in three weeks asking, ‘Did you get any responses yet?’ The time factor is probably one of the most difficult things I face, besides launching someone’s career and having them leave you. It’s not that I’m looking for the ultimate pay off, but I am looking for a return on my investment, then other people reap that benefit. Thankfully I’ve been very blessed with wonderful new people who always come along, good solid writers, and we work hard on their careers." It is no surprise that once writers achieve a certain stature, some leave their first agents, sometimes for whiter and theoretically greener pastures. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, as exercising our freedoms mean we have the right to do as we wish. But against the backdrop of distortions in the system, this often adds insult to injury. Although reluctant to be quoted, a couple of African American agents I surveyed say they have indeed negotiated numerous deals in the high six figures for their clients, and confirm that their colleagues have as well. Despite the obstacles, our talent merchants are firmly in the game.

I asked Brown about the Larsen quote about an agent’s ability to "extract" money from publishers. She laughs, implying the theory plays out a bit differently. "Extraction is not how I look at making a deal for an author. I work with a number of editors with whom I can have an intelligent dialogue about what a book is bringing to the table, who the market is and how we’re going to sell 50,000 to 100,000 copies. But it’s a challenge…people don’t know the market I’m dealing with. Colin [Channer’s] Waiting In Vain, you know how wonderful that book is? They had me thinking I was crazy with all the rejections I was getting. Ordinarily you’re talking to people who don’t live in our world. Have they ever been above 110^th street? So you have to present a book in a cultural context they will relate to and understand. That’s what I learned at Doubleday. I used to sit at that table, the only person of color, and come up with marketing comparisons to get my books through. If I were doing a black women’s interest I would say it’s like Gloria Steinem, if it was a corporate topic, I would relate it to something Thomas Watson, then President of IBM, had written — whatever it takes! We have to excavate before we can extract. "

Terrie Williams of the Terrie Williams Agency represents dozens of luminaries in various fields, names like Bill Cosby, Janet Jackson and Johnnie Cochran. There are few savvier than she about what it takes to best position and promote talent and projects. Currently promoting her third inspirational book, A Plentiful Harvest she is represented by Tanya McKinnon. "I consider Tanya an extraordinary agent. If she takes you on she gets whom you are ‘cause that’s the only way she can sell you. She goes above and beyond the call of duty to communicate that. That’s what I expect, because that’s what we do."

McKinnon is part of a growing number of African American agents who, like Denise Stinson, Faith Childs and counting, have mastered the game and are expanding possibilities. Landres counts just two Latino agents in the mainstream houses, one just arrived after she pushed hard with the argument that greater representation is desperately needed.

Excavating Talent

Pushing hard is exactly what it will take to align the industry in ways that support the hard work our agents are doing. Only an aggressive and coordinated effort to demand accountability and press for accelerated results will be meaningful in both the short and long run. A favorite argument among publishers is that they would hire and promote if they could just find more talent. That is about as accurate as the earlier view that we don’t buy books. It certainly was not true in the 1980’s when I was a recruiter in the banking industry–well before Stanley O’Neal, Frank Raines, Ken Chenault and Dick Parsons became household names. It’s not true now, which is why a genuine and active commitment to excavate, extract and refine talent is needed from both mainstream publishers and those of us already toiling in publishing at all posts.

One brilliant program that cries out for expansion is Walter Mosley’s Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York (CCNY). Since its launch in 1997, the program has graduated 45 students, about half now in publishing industry jobs. Why not invite the impressive roster of major publishing houses funding that program to up the ante and replicate this in other schools, partnering with MFA and other relevant programs across the country to expand resources and results. In the short term, those with clout should use it to nurture more powerful networks that directly impact recruiting and promotion at publishing houses and demand greater accountability for current and future progress. In a press release last year, Black Americans in Publishing (BAIP), formerly Black Women in Publishing, noted that "As more books are being published and targeted to the black community, hiring black employees remains on the backlist for publishers." But some key members of the black publishing community claim to know little about this group. Manie Barron points out that BAIP is still experiencing growth pains that limit reach and impact.

Venues such as the Harlem Book Fair and black writers’ conferences offer excellent opportunities to explore ways to raise the volume on these discussions. The challenge is for us to move beyond rhetoric to formulate viable action plans that create real change.