Spring 2016 - Association of Authors` Representatives

Transcription

the pitch spring 2016
The Newsletter for the Association of Authors' Representatives
CONTENTS
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
1. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
I HAVE BEEN AN AGENT
FOR—I can hardly believe it—just
under 40 years. Like most of my
peers, I started out very green and
naïve. I got wiser over the years,
lost my shyness and increased my
canniness, and I have seen changes
in this business that rival the
invention of the cotton gin in their
transformative power.
One thing never changes. As
content providers, we work with
clients to get their best work, to
help build their readership, and
to get them fairly paid for all uses
of their material. We constantly
interpret messages from the
marketplace for clients and analyze
any between-the-lines message
from the editors.
Recently, I was cc’d in an
editorial exchange between a wise
fiction editor and my client, who
had written a Dickensian novel, a
19th century period piece, which
was long and complicated. It was
indeed pretty clean editorially,
but this editor carefully read
through it and pointed out what
struck him as requiring revision.
His way of expressing himself
was so illuminating to me that I
will reproduce it here (with his
permission):
2. UPCOMING AAR PROGRAMS
3. CATAPULT OFFERS NEW
MODEL FOR INDEPENDENT
PUBLISHING
5. LET'S DISCUSS: UK AGENT
OFFERS WORLD RIGHTS
PERSPECTIVE
COMMITTEE REPORT: ROYALTIES
6. WORLD RIGHTS: WHY AGENTS
SHOULD HOLD FIRM
8. IN DEFENSE OF WRITERS
CONFERENCES
COMMITTEE REPORT: SMALL
BUSINESS
9. COMMITTEE REPORT:
INTERNATIONAL
10. ASK AN AGENT
11. WHEN ARE SECOND WORKS
‘FAIR USE?’ SOME RECENT CASES
COMMITTEE REPORT:
CONTRACTS
13. COMMITTEE REPORT: DIGITAL
14. A REMEMBRANCE OF
VIRGINIA BARBER
LORETTA BARRETT
LOSS
TIMOTHY SELDES
17. NEW MEMBERS
19. AAR CANON OF ETHICS
21. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
“I made some changes to dialogue
and you commented that you feel
these make the remarks seem less
true to the period. First of all,
I hate dialect, mainly because
it is tedious for the reader who
is forced to decipher what the
hell it is the character is actually
saying. The use of dialect to set a
tone and a time for a story, or to
establish a character’s background
or education is fine, but once you’ve
established that fact then the dialect
should be dropped (with occasional
insertions just to keep the flavor).
The places where I suggested
changes in your novel are places
where I feel a reader might well
have to stop and think, Now what
is it that he’s saying? I feel that
anytime a reader has to pause, go
back and reread something in order
to understand it creates a problem,
because anytime you give a reader
an excuse to stop reading, then that
may well be just what he does. So
though your original dialogue may
be more accurate, look at it again
for sense…
I apologize that this is sounding
like a lecture. But one point I want
writers I work with to understand
is that I am working for the reader.
I AM the reader. And when I come
to something that doesn’t work for
me, or that doesn’t make sense, or
that confuses me, then I become
an editor and try to figure out
what change is called for so that
the reader has a smooth path in
going forward. I am not always
right in the fixes I suggest, but I
believe that I am nearly always
right (okay, actually always right,
but then I’m prideful and arrogant
and that is a major character flaw
that if I live long enough I may
overcome, although it’s looking
unlikely) in pointing out that a
continued on page 2
page 2
continued from page 1
change is called for. Think about
the reader coming to your story,
your characters, the world you
are creating. Look at what you
are doing on the page and imagine
yourself coming to the novel with
little or no knowledge of this time
and place and the various levels of
society in which your characters
live. Your goal is to give the reader
enough information and enough
help to enable them to find their
way, but not so much that they are
buried under so much of a blanket
of facts and detailed information
that the story fades away for whole
pages at a time. And all this really
is just to say, In the novel, think
about why you’re doing everything
you’re doing, and never lose sight
of the reader.”
Wow. Right on the money. This
is how I think we all feel when
reading our manuscripts and
coaching authors through revisions.
We are a stand-in for the reader. We
have to help get that manuscript in
its most powerful shape; we have
to envision a dozen editors who
might well love it; we have to feel
that it has the power to stimulate
word-of-mouth enthusiasm. And
each time we beg a stubborn writer
to consider looking at a passage in
a manuscript that is troubling to us,
we are aiming to reduce the things
in that manuscript that might cause
an editor to put it down and turn
to the next. In the case of a known
author whose sales figures have
gone down, it is important that the
manuscript we submit is fresh and
brilliant and causes the editor to
think, “Yes! We can do something
fabulous with this, to improve the
recent track record!”
I find that clients seem to waver—
they want us to be honest, but at the
same time we are expected to be
their most enthusiastic supporters
and say that the newest submission
is their best yet. But when it is
not, this heart-to-heart editorial
conversation is essential. It was
gratifying to me to hear an EDITOR
put this all into words. Now when I
tell my clients, “This is how I think
it is,” I feel even more confident
that we can make bigger strides for
the author when we remember that
honesty is the best policy.
– Gail Hochman
President, AAR
SAVE THESE DATES FOR 2016 SPRING
AAR PROGRAMS!
TUESDAY, JUNE 14TH, 5:45-7:30 PM
AAR Election and Evening Program: When You Need a Lawyer.
At the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street
(between Park and Lexington Avenues).
TUESDAY, JULY 19TH, 12:30-2:00 PM
Summer Series Toolbox: Meet the Young Editors, Part I.
At The CUNY Graduate Center, Room C198, located at 365 Fifth
Avenue (between 34th and 35th Streets).
TUESDAY, JULY 26TH, 12:30-2:00 PM
Summer Series Toolbox: Meet the Young Editors, Part II.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9TH, 12:30-2:00 PM
Annual Interns Toolbox.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH, 6:00-8:00 PM
AAR Annual September Party
At The Century Club, 7 West 43rd Street (between 5th and
6th Avenues)
page 3
CATAPULT OFFERS NEW MODEL
FOR INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING
things—until Koch invited
Hunter to become involved in
Black Balloon. Through many
discussions about collaborative
possibilities, Catapult was launched
in September of 2015.
Staying true to their experimental
genesis, when they co-founded
Catapult, Koch and Hunter decided
to try a new model of how to run a
publishing house. Whereas many
independent houses eventually
become non-profits, Hunter says
“Catapult was conceived as a new
model for independent literary
publishing to survive, even thrive,
without compromising on the
books we publish.” Following this
vision, the press launched with
a three-pronged model: printed
books, long- and short-form daily
web content, and community
outreach through creative writing
classes. “Every facet of Catapult’s
model supports the others,”
says Hunter. “Having an awardwinning website (Jonathan Franzen
selected a Catapult.co piece for
Best American Essays 2015) and
critically acclaimed books give the
writing classes legitimacy. Similarly,
having a popular website brings
attention to the books, and viceversa.”
In addition to building a
community, the classes are a
potential pipeline for Catapult’s
web content and books. “I’d like
nothing more than for a person
to take a class, then post on our
website, then publish a book [with
Catapult, too],” Hunter says. The
classes also act as an alternative
revenue stream, reinforcement for
a newly launched press with no
backlist. With classes bringing in
more than 50% of the company’s
revenue, the press is able to publish
books without relying on their
immediate financial viability.
Still, commercial success was
definitely on Catapult’s founders’
minds, so the team recruited editor
Pat Strachan to be Editor in Chief.
With over forty years of experience
at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, The
New Yorker and Little, Brown,
Strachan’s background editing highquality literary fiction and narrative
nonfiction made her a fitting
editorial leader for the press.
When asked about Catapult’s
founding literary vision, Hunter
said that the press is looking to
Leigh Newman
Andy Hunter
BY JODY KAHN
IT’S EASY TO FORGET that
the independent publishing
house Catapult has only been
on the scene for less than a year.
Perhaps this is because Catapult’s
ancestral roots are entrenched in
the publishing industry—the press
was conceived via a tryst between
independent publisher Black
Balloon and a website devoted to
promoting literary culture online,
Electric Literature—which has
afforded it an established platform
and audience.
Black Balloon Publishing, now
an imprint of Catapult, was formed
in 2008 by Elizabeth Koch and
Leigh Newman with the specialized
goal of publishing experimental
content—books that transgressed
the boundaries of conventional
narrative, often incorporating
visuals and interactive components
in the text. Or as Black Balloon’s
mission statement puts it, they
“champion the weird, the unwieldy,
and the unclassifiable.”
Koch and Newman took notice
when Andy Hunter started
Electric Literature back in 2009.
Electric Literature was also doing
innovative things with narrative,
like creating animations for Jim
Shepard’s short stories and using
Twitter as a platform to publish a
Rick Moody story—the first time
Twitter had ever been used in that
way.
But like the arc of many love
stories, the two enterprises
remained only distantly interested
in one another while still doing
their own separate but compatible
continued on page 4
page 4
publish strong voices and gripping
narratives that explore what it
means to be human and that touch
people—books that are great not
only in their caliber of writing, but
that also form intense emotional
connections with readers. Ideally,
Hunter said he’d love for people
to think of Catapult for prizewinning literary fiction and
nonfiction, and he’d like Catapult
to be synonymous with houses like
Graywolf, Tin House, and Coffee
House Press.
Distributed by Publishers Group
West, Catapult aims to publish
12 books each year, and its first
few publications have already
gained notable success. Catapult’s
inaugural title, Padgett Powell’s
story collection Cries for Help,
Various was included on both
NPR and Vanity Fair’s lists of Best
Books of 2015, and Mrs. Engels by
Gavin McCrea landed on Amazon’s
list of ‘Top 20 books of 2015.’
This March, Catapult published
Danielle Dutton’s Margaret the
First which dramatizes the life
of Margaret Cavendish, as well
as Vexation Lullaby by Justin
Tussing, and a short story anthology
called Watchlist with stories by
T.C. Boyle, Robert Coover, Amie
Bender, Edgar Keret, Jim Shepard,
and others. Thus far, Catapult’s
books have all been printed as
paperback originals with French
flaps, though it might consider
publishing in hardcover if the right
book comes along. As for how
Catapult is looking to grow, Hunter
says that their editors are not
seeing as much narrative nonfiction
as they’d like, and he would love
for agents to keep that in mind for
submissions.
Alongside Pat Strachan—who’s
looking to acquire somewhat
Pat Strachan
unconventional literary fiction and
narrative nonfiction, including
memoir—Catapult has several other
acquiring editors including Senior
Editor Jonathan Lee and Editor-atlarge Leigh Newman. Lee recently
came to Catapult from A Public
Space and is a published author
as well. His novel High Dive was
published in March by Knopf. Lee
is particularly interested in risktaking debut novels, contemporary
literature in translation, unusual
short story collections and essay
collections, and writing that blurs
the lines between fact and fiction.
Leigh Newman, also a published
author, leads the editorial team
for Black Balloon, along with
Associate Editor Casey Gonzales.
Newman is looking for prose with
a distinct sound and composition
and writing that makes her look a
little closer. She says she will take
it in whatever form she can get it—
novel, memoir, non-fiction, hybrids,
essays—though she always has been
partial to short stories. The Black
Balloon imprint enables Hunter,
Koch, and Newman’s experimental
sides. Aiming to publish interesting
projects that challenge existing
ideas of what a book can be,
Hunter describes Black Balloon as
being open to off-the-wall projects
that are hard to describe and that
agents think are amazing but don’t
always know how to sell.
Hunter says that Catapult can
be a bit of a commune in that he
likes to empower his staff to take
on books they feel exceptionally
passionate about. Julie Buntin,
whose official title is Director
of Writing Programs, is also
editing three books: a short story
collection, a graphic memoir, and
a novel. Like many other Catapult
editors, she too is an author—her
first novel is forthcoming from
Henry Holt.
The team also consists of
Associate Publisher and Publicity
and Marketing Director Jennifer
Abel Kovitz, as well as Associate
Web Editor Mensah Demary, and
Web Editor-in-chief Yuka Igarashi,
who was at Granta before she
came to Catapult. The website
focuses on publishing high quality
literary narrative, and it pays for
short pieces.
To contact acquiring editors,
email Jonathan Lee at
jonathan.lee@catapult.co
and Pat Strachan at
pat.strachan@catapult.co
for Catapult, and for
Black Balloon email
Leigh Newman at
leigh.newman@catapult.co
page 5
LET'S DISCUSS:
UK AGENT
OFFERS
WORLD RIGHTS
PERSPECTIVE
BY GAIL HOCHMAN
I ATTENDED THE London Book
Fair this year, as I have been doing
for years, not so much to "sell"
but to connect with our co-agents
and editors who have long worked
on our clients' books. Each year I
meet a few new excellent people,
deepen friendships with editors
from various countries, and sit
down to talk with some of the board
members of the Association of
Authors’ Agents (AAA), the British
equivalent of the Association of
Authors’ Representatives (AAR).
This year members of the AAR
and the AAA came together at a
co-hosted mingle. It provided a
venue for our respective members
to be together at a wine lunch. The
program included a brief discussion
of issues related to selling English
language rights throughout the
world; the reasons agents might sell
full World English rights or simply
their own territories; the question of
Canadian rights; and creative ways
of handling the open market without
jeopardizing finalizing a deal.
One thing I have known for
years, but which I need to take
more seriously, is the importance
of sending British co-agents
submission material on our books
as early as possible. I cannot
emphasize this enough. I am
thinking now that we should try to
send material much more than a
year in advance of U.S. publication.
I find that the U.K. houses will
reserve a slot for their own big
authors, expecting that the promised
forthcoming project will work out
for them, but we handicap smaller
books by less well known authors by
starting the submission process too
late. The larger houses will refuse
to publish most books later than
the U.S. house, claiming that they
cannot afford to lose the chance to
get in early for open market sales,
COMMITTEE REPORT: ROYALTIES
The Royalties Committee has been talking with publishers
large and small about making payments via ACH which
is faster, greener, and more secure. We are encouraging
publishers to offer this form of payment and we continue to
seek improvements in the notices accompanying the deposits
so agents can identify and process payments to their clients
more expeditiously.
The following publishers offer ACH: Audible; Blackstone;
Harlequin; HarperCollins; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;
Macmillan; Open Road; Oxford University Press; Pearson;
Penguin Random House; Perseus; Recorded Books; Scholastic;
Simon & Schuster; and Wiley.
and they may press for exclusivity
in a full range of Commonwealth
countries—a huge part of their
business. And the U.K. houses
are now scheduling all titles with
a longer lead time, at least as long
as the American houses. The days
of submitting eight or ten months
before an American publication are
over, I found. Some small literary
houses seem less worried about the
timing and the open market issue,
but we will retain more options if we
think ahead.
At the mingle, we had an
invigorating talk about the reasons
agents would be wise to retain and
sell all foreign rights directly rather
than grant them to the original
publisher. I found the below article
by AAA Board member Lizzy
Kremer (David Higham Associates)
quite thought-provoking on this
topic, and I urge you all to read it.
Kremer explains her feeling that
only the agent is in a position to
work directly for the best interests
of the author client; the publisher
has less incentive to work out the
finer points of a deal. They may
actually have a conflict of interest
when given the task of selling rights
for authors, as the publisher needs
the sale of rights primarily to reduce
its financial risk. This stimulated a
lively discussion in the group about
how we make our decisions on
territorial grants in our negotiations.
We hope to make the mingle an
annual tradition. This year there
were perhaps 50 U.K. agents at
lunch and ten Americans. Next
year I hope to invite more U.S.
colleagues to the event. It was
informative, fun, and we found that
with our colleagues across the pond
at least, there is such a thing as a
free lunch.
continued on page 6
page 6
WORLD RIGHTS: WHY AGENTS SHOULD HOLD FIRM
BY LIZZY KREMER
Editor’s note: An edited version of this
article was first published in the PW/
Bookbrunch London Bookfair Daily
TO MY FELLOW literary agents,
whether British, American, or
based elsewhere around the world,
gathered together this week at the
London Book Fair: let's take this
opportunity to consider why it is in
the author's interest for the Halls to
one year go quiet, to shrink and go
small. For the noise from the IRC
to roar above—for the agents to
take over Olympia.
Agents are under increasing
pressure from the big corporates
to make world rights deals—not
because those publishers are
suddenly more expert or passionate
than we in rights selling—but
because the corporate strategy is to
spread their risk and to aggregate
their profits and losses across
multiple territories and activities.
Publishers are able to make such
deals very attractive and there
will always be times when agents
simply can't turn down a huge
amount of money on behalf of their
client. But in terms of the author
community as a whole, outside
of highly illustrated books with
their high origination and printing
costs, this developing tendency to
sell world rights to international
conglomerates is not generally
in the author's interest, and so it
should be of little interest to us.
Publishers buy and sell books.
Agents represent and protect
authors. And so it is with rights
selling. Yes, most publishers' rights
executives can sell the books on
their lists effectively. Some of
them are even great at their jobs!
(Some of my best friends are Rights
Directors...) But even when selling
the books well, their job is not to
take care of your author in those
deals. They work for the publishing
house, not for your client, and
as we all know (even if we are
too courteous to speak of it out
loud), the interests of author and
publisher are not always aligned.
Every time a publisher makes
a subsidiary rights deal for an
author and takes a percentage
commission, a conflict of interest
arises. When the rights deal is with
a publishing imprint within the
same international corporation,
that conflict can be on the War of
the Roses scale. Because there are
then four interests to balance: the
interests of the domestic publisher;
the interests of their sister publisher
abroad; the general corporate
interest; and the interests of the
author, which are generally lost
along the way, necessitating the most
interfering of agent representation.
The rather unsecret corporate
policy is for publisher's rights teams
to offer books to corporate sisters
first. What then often happens is
that rights are sold internally for
less than the anticipated market
value, either by corporate policy,
at some companies, or through
lack of competition from the
wider marketplace. So far so
disappointing, you might say, but
at least there is a decent chance
of a deal abroad! Well no, actually,
because what happens when those
corporate sisters don't want to buy?
Often, the ideal licensee is outside
the group, maybe even hiding
somewhere rather difficult to find.
When none of the sister companies
wants to buy a book, some rights
execs grow understandably less
confident in their product. As
agents, we are used to hearing that
disappointedly weary tone: “None
of them have decided to go for it...I
have to go outside the group.” And
when they do turn to publishers
outside the group, the message is:
“Our sister companies didn't want
these books...do you?” Is that the
best way to generate enthusiasm
for the prospects of the book? Or to
maximize the value of the deal?
Even when it does work out,
contract terms between sister
publishing houses are not excellent.
They are ordinary. They have to be,
in order to protect the interests of
the two sister publishers involved.
As increasing numbers of WEL
and World rights deals are made
by U.S. agents in particular,
increasing numbers of books
are being sold into the U.K. by
U.S.-based publishing houses as
opposed to U.K.-based agents.
continued on page 7
page 7
The fact is that U.K. contractual
terms will be quickly eroded
and certainly never improved by
these deals. Do we think a U.S.
publisher will pressurize its U.K.
sister to offer the very best high
discount royalties? Do we think a
British publisher will pressurize
their U.S. sister to escalate the
eBook royalty, or even to agree to
renegotiate it up at a later date, in
line with market changes? Is it in
the licensing publisher's interest
to negotiate good rights reversion
terms on term of copyright
contracts with licensees, when
their stake in those licenses expires
when the license expires? Will a
U.S. publisher insist on approval of
inclusion of a book in subscription
platforms, when its own corporate
policy is not to permit this
language in their own contracts?
Only agencies are expert in—
charged with—protecting the
author's interest in their individual
markets and in general, and
unless agencies continue to make
the majority of English language
deals, author contracts will reflect
decreasing levels of protection for
authors.
Although it is the author's work
which is the subject of the rights
agreements made by publishers,
the author is not a signatory to
the contract and her rights and
interests are in effect 'agented'
by their publisher. We have had
many instances, however, of a
publisher not relaying on the
wishes of an author's foreign
publishers to the author because
those wishes do not coincide with
their own: for example, regarding
the subject matter of a new book,
or a publication schedule. Each
publishing territory should enjoy a
direct relationship with the author,
not one filtered through another
publisher. And what good is an
“agent” who does not consult the
author on all contractual terms,
or chase the sublicensee for
publication plans, or pressurize
them to spend marketing money
and fight tooth and nail to build
a career for the author in each
territory in the long term, rather
than moving on to the next hot
editorial acquisition? The agent
never stops working every angle for
their author. The publisher cannot
stand loyally and doggedly at every
author's side in the same way,
Whereas, if the author's agent has
negotiated multiple advances for
her author, the author has multiple
opportunities to earn royalties. Lots
of small pots overflow more quickly
than one big pot.
And, with publishers often taking
approximately 25% of translation
deals (sometimes even plus
subagents commissions, which
is wholly unjustifiable and not
something DHA allows), once you
have taken your 15% of net on top,
if your client's large advance does
in fact ever earn out, your author
is effectively receiving only 64%
of the value of the advances and
“Each publishing territory should enjoy a
direct relationship with the author, not one
filtered through another publisher.”
beyond publication and into the
next year or decade—most Rights
Execs haven't even met the authors
whose books they're selling.
When the deal is not a subsidiary
rights deal, but instead consists of
one advance for WEL rights, with
home royalties from all territories
set against it, the publishing
successfully spreads its risk but
the author loses the opportunity
to negotiate the best terms in each
territory. Although publishers
sometimes offer large advances
in exchange for world rights, the
author's income is disadvantaged
by having only one advance
against which multiple sets of
royalties are aggregated: several
territories will probably have to
perform well before the author
can benefit from her own success.
royalties in her book as opposed
to the 80% they would receive on
rights deals made by their agents.
Rights selling is the agent's main
activity; it is our area of expertise
in the same way that publishers
specialize in, yes, publishing,
correctly labelling rights as
“subsidiary” to their core business.
Once your author's publishers
become her agent, their role
becomes confused: at a cost
to your author and, ultimately,
to your business, that of the
professional agent.
Lizzy Kremer is Vice-President
of the U.K. Association of Authors'
Agents and Head of Books at David
Higham Associates in London.
She blogs regularly on agenting,
publishing, and human being at
publishingforhumans.postagon.com
page 8
IN DEFENSE
OF WRITERS
CONFERENCES
BY CARRIE HOWLAND
MY FIRST OFFICIAL
conference was the (sadly now
defunct) Crossroads Writers
Conference in Macon, Georgia. In
2012, the director, Chris Horne,
reached out to ask if I’d consider
coming to the South and talking
to a group of eager writers about
what exactly it means to be an
agent, and how one goes about
securing representation. After that
amazing first experience, I suppose
you could say I was bitten by the
conference bug. Since that time,
I’ve done a number of conferences,
which have taken me everywhere
from Boston to Denver, and even
Jackson Hole, Wyoming where I
attended an honest-to-God rodeo
and attempted a hot air balloon ride
(it was, alas, too windy that day).
But with all the conferences out
there, what makes a conference
work? What makes one better
than another? As agents, we’re so
often asked to give of our time and
energy, and a weekend with a group
of writers is no small ask. Therefore,
before you agree to a conference,
here are some things to look for:
1. Conference Size: Do you want
to get to know writers on a more
intimate level or are you happier
speaking to large groups? At a
big conference, you will likely
attend with other agents and
editors. This can be a great time
to network with your colleagues.
It’s one of the draws of Bostonbased Grub Street’s The Muse and
The Marketplace, for example.
I liken it to having thirty agenteditor lunches over the course of
one weekend. Yet, I will say I’ve
personally found more clients at
smaller conferences, like SCBWI’s
MD/DE/WV conference outside
Baltimore.
2. Time Commitment: Not only
how long the conference takes
(some are simply a few hours;
some cover several days) but what
your personal responsibilities are.
Many times, if you’re the only
agent at a conference (such as
regional SCBWI events) you’ll
be asked to do one-on-one pitch
sessions as well as a few talks and
workshops. Ask questions of the
conference director upfront. Do
the pitch sessions require that
you read the work ahead of time
(SCBWI regional conferences use
something called a Gold Form
which they ask you to fill out prior
to your meetings) or will you
be pitched on the spot (like at
WNBA’s Query Roulette)? Some
conferences also ask that you do
several publicity tasks to promote
the conference prior to the event,
such as interviews, guest blog
posts, etc. Know your limits and
commit to only what you know
you have time for. The attending
writers are often travelling and
almost always paying a great deal
of money to meet with you, so you
want to be sure that you can meet
all these commitments fully.
3. Areas of Expertise: I’ve been
asked to do conferences that
are simply outside the genres I
represent. As an agent who works
with primarily literary fiction on
the adult side, there’s nothing to
COMMITTEE REPORT:
SMALL BUSINESS
Fall 2015 saw the first
meetings of the AAR’s new
Small Business Committee,
co-chaired by AAR Board
members Denise Shannon
and Susanna Einstein.
While the AAR membership
is well-served by committees
addressing other problems
specific to our industry, the
Board felt that a committee
to address questions
pertaining to small
business ownership and
administration would be of
use. The committee meets
monthly and also includes
Markus Hoffmann of Regal
Hoffmann & Associates,
Sarah Lazin of Sarah
Lazin Books, Ayesha Pande
of Pande Literary, and
Wendy Sherman of Wendy
Sherman Associates, Inc.
During our first few
meetings, we put together a
survey that was sent out to
AAR members in January
2016. The SBC will now use
the results of that survey to
plan toolboxes, panels, and
newsletter articles to help
the membership navigate
the many questions and
concerns specific to small
business ownership and
operation.
continued on page 9
page 9
be gained from me attending a
Mystery Writers conference. On
either side. I likely won’t find any
new clients and the authors won’t
get the kind of knowledge or make
the kinds of connections they
might with an agent better suited
to their work.
never have visited Macon, Georgia
(which is an incredible city, home
of the Allman Brothers) were it not
for that conference. I also had the
chance to visit Charleston, South
Carolina last year for a conference
and am still having dreams about
the meals I had there.
4. Location, Location, Location:
Sure, we’re all guilty of going
to a conference because it’s in a
cool locale (did I mention I spent
several days in the mountains of
Jackson Hole, Wyoming?), and
I don’t personally think there’s
anything wrong with that. Just
make sure the conference is a good
fit, as stated above, and that the
travel won’t kill you. Planning for
a two-day conference that takes a
day of travel on each end quickly
becomes four days away from
home, the office, and your duties
to your own clients. Assuming the
travel isn’t an issue, I’ve found that
a great conference location can
make the entire experience that
much more enjoyable. I’d probably
5. Finally, A Vision: Why are you
doing this conference? Does that
reason align with the conference’s
mission? Are you going to meet
new clients? Great. Perhaps find a
conference that is geared toward
pairing authors with agents. I’ve
attended conferences that are
more focused on self-publishing,
and found I wasn’t quite as
needed there as I might have been
elsewhere. Do you want to share
your love of the work and impart
some knowledge to as many writers
as possible? Pick a conference
that will give you that platform.
Perhaps one where you’re doing
more talks and workshops, or
where you’ll have more social
activities outside those designed
COMMITTEE REPORT: INTERNATIONAL
The International Committee is currently working on preparing
a Translation Rights Checklist with thanks to the Contracts
Committee, who recently updated the Basic Contract Checklist,
for providing us with a rough draft to use. We’ll also be
updating the foreign rights tax exemption list and helping to
arrange a more accessible location for it on the AAR website.
We’d like to remind everyone that the audio for the February
Toolbox arranged by the committee on Representing Foreign
Clients: Tax and Payment Issues, along with the handouts, is
available on the AAR website. Finally, we are liaising with
the London and Frankfurt Books Fairs, meeting with officials
from both Fairs to discuss feedback on our members’ recent
experiences and possible improvements for the future.
just for pitching. I asked Rebecca
Heyman, founder of The Work
Conference, why she started her
boutique-style conference. She
said, “I wanted to combine the best
of a workshop and a conference,
and bring an unprecedented level
of respect and consideration to
participating authors and agents.
I knew the first and most critical
step was two-fold: gather together
some of the best agenting talent
in the industry, and carefully vet
author-attendees for high work
quality. The result was a weekend
I am so, so proud of: informative,
relevant panels; inspirational
guest speakers; authors eager to
learn and agents passionate about
our industry, ready to share their
knowledge. And candy. Lots of
candy.” Sometimes you just have
to find a conference director who
shares your vision. For finding
great writers...and Twizzlers.
Conferences can be a great
experience; they can also be
mentally and physically exhausting.
Despite having had my share
of awkward run-ins (I was once
accosted by an author whose
manuscript I’d rejected, while
standing in a very long lunch line)
and interesting travel (6:00 a.m.
flights, multiple layovers, tiny
airplanes, and three hour drives
to the conference location with
someone you’ve just met), I remain
a fan of conferences. I always leave
feeling energized, with a renewed
sense of purpose and a reminder
of why I love this job. It allows us
to escape the bubble that is New
York publishing and interact with
the reason we’re all here in the first
place: the writers.
page 10
Ask An Agent
Agents are always eager to share their stories: their
successes, their should-have-beens, and the ones that
got away. In true cocktail party fashion, we asked a series
of seasoned agents about their triumphs, cringe-worthy
moments with potential clients, and moments that stuck
with them over the years. Please e-mail your question to
aarnewslettereditor@gmail.com.
1. What was the best sale you ever did and why was it
the best?
“The best sale I ever did was a three-book, sevenfigure deal for a guy who’d had an agent and the agent
couldn’t sell one of his books, let alone three. But the
reason why it was the best was that it made editors
pay attention to me for fiction—until then, it felt like
I was treading water, going out with novels I loved but
apparently nobody else did. So having that validation
really made editors think of me for fiction, and pay
attention to my submissions in a very striking way.”
“The best sale was the fourth novel by an author
whose first three books were highly-acclaimed novels
published by a small, indie publisher. The fourth was
the most ambitious in scope and the most complex
thematically, so selling it at auction to a large publisher
with the means to distribute it in a significant way felt
deeply satisfying and well-earned.”
“(My best sale was) a writing guide with a very unusual
concept that most editors thought would be too
difficult. They wouldn't touch it. But I managed to
convince one editor of the author's vision and she
bought it for a lot more than I was expecting. It showed
me I shouldn't give up on a project easily, even though I
was holding my head in frustration most of the time.”
2. What was the worst way an author has pitched you?
“I was standing at the urinal, and the guy sidled up
next to me, holding his pages, and put them in front of
my face. ‘Which hand do you want me to use to hold
them?’ I asked him. It was a special moment.”
“Any pitch that leads with defeat or anger is a query I stop
reading. Also, creepiness is to be avoided at all costs.”
3. What was the most memorable query/pitch you've
ever received from a writer?
“I’ve never forgotten the truly dreadful experience
when some poor guy sat down with a flipboard, where
he’d cut out magazine pictures of famous stars and
created a flippable storyboard of his novel. He stared
into my eyes, never looking down, flipping the pages
as he went. Ben Affleck and Farrah Fawcett and Ryan
Gosling and Wonder Woman, all cavorting in an actionpacked adventure!”
“A query letter which began with the author saying
how much she enjoyed one of my client’s short story
collections—which was published by a tiny press and
a book that was particularly close to my heart—which
immediately endeared her to me. The next paragraph
was a two-sentence description of her novel which was
so compelling that I pretty much dropped everything
I was doing to read her manuscript, including my
resolution not to take on any more clients until after
I’d returned from maternity leave. I loved the novel and
signed the author within a few days of having received
her irresistible query letter.”
“A query letter that arrived in the mail. To be honest,
I'm not great about looking at mailed submissions
(I much prefer emailed ones), but it grabbed me.
The author wrote an insanely good pitch for her
debut novel, about a friendship that's lost first to
misunderstanding and then to violence, set in a small
town in the 1980s, and then 20 years later when
the woman must face her friend's family again. The
pitch alone was enough to get me to request the full
manuscript, but then in her bio the author added that
the book is based on the true story of her childhood
best friend, who was murdered when she was 19. While
this could sound gimmicky, her writing was so authentic
and heartfelt. I signed her a few weeks later.”
page 11
WHEN ARE SECOND WORKS
‘FAIR USE?’ SOME RECENT CASES
BY KEN NORWICK, AAR GENERAL COUNSEL
ONE OF THE MOST important,
and at the same time most murky,
legal doctrines of concern to all
creators is “fair use.” The U.S.
Copyright Act grants to all creators
(called “authors”) extensive—
but not total—ownership and
control of the “original works of
authorship” they create. One of
the most significant limitations
on that ownership and control
is the notion of fair use. If a
second work qualifies as fair use,
it does not infringe the copyright
protection afforded the earlier
work it references or modifies or
even copies in whole or in part.
To a surprising extent even today,
copyright lawyers—and judges—
will hedge and disagree as to
whether a second work is protected
fair use or an infringement.
But first, some background:
When Congress codified fair use
in the Copyright Act of 1976 —the
current law—it set forth four nonexclusive “factors” for determining
whether a particular work comes
within the protection:
1) The purpose and character of
the use, including whether such
use is of a commercial nature
or is for nonprofit educational
purposes; 2) the nature of
the copyrighted work; 3) the
amount and substantiality of the
portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole; and
4) the effect of the use upon the
potential market for or value of
the copyrighted work.
In the 40 years since, the courts
have increasingly declared that the
first factor—and especially whether
the second work “transforms” the
first—is the most important.
As the Supreme Court put it,
“We ask whether the new work
merely ‘supersedes the objects’ of
the original creation, or instead
adds something new, with a
further purpose or different
character, altering the first with
new expression, meaning, or
message[,] . . . in other words,
whether and to what extent the
new work is transformative. . . .
[T]ransformative works . . . lie at
the heart of the fair use doctrine’s
guarantee of breathing space [for
all creators] . . . .”
As we will see, this
“transformative” test dominates the
current fair use inquiry.
APPROPRIATION ART
Richard Prince is an “appropriation
artist.” He “altered and
incorporated,” in whole or in part,
photographs taken by photographer
Patrick Cariou in creating “a series
of paintings and collages.” Cariou
sued for copyright infringement,
and the trial court rejected the
claim of fair use for all the Prince
works at issue, and actually ordered
them destroyed. But in a landmark
decision, the federal appeals court
in New York found that 25 of
those Prince works were fair use
while it could not decide as to the
remaining five.
As the Court explained:
“Here, looking at the artworks
and the photographs side-byside, we conclude that Prince’s
images, except for those we
discuss separately below, have a
different character, give Cariou’s
photographs a new expression, and
employ new aesthetics with creative
and communicative results distinct
from Cariou’s.”
But the Court then continued:
“Our conclusion should not be
taken to suggest, however, that
any cosmetic changes to the
photographs would necessarily
constitute fair use. A secondary
work may modify the original
without being transformative. For
instance, a derivative work that
merely presents the same material
COMMITTEE REPORT: CONTRACTS
The Contracts Committee has had an active several months.
In addition to meeting with and issuing alerts about contract
delays with Scholastic and Penguin Random House, the
Committee issued an extensive and detailed update to its
Basic Contracts Checklist. The Committee also sent out a
detailed list of changes to the new combined Penguin Random
House boilerplate. The Committee is currently surveying the
membership about publishers charging for a final PDF of a
client’s work.
continued on page 12
page 12
but in a new form, such as a book
of synopses of televisions shows,
is not transformative... In twentyfive of his artworks, Prince has not
presented the same material as
Cariou in a different manner, but
instead has ‘add[ed] something
new’ and presented images with a
fundamentally different aesthetic...”
As to remaining five, the Court
declared: “[T]here are five artworks
that, upon our review, present
closer questions. [Those five] do
not sufficiently differ from the
photographs of Cariou’s that they
incorporate for us confidently to
make a determination about their
transformative nature as a matter
of law. Although the minimal
alterations that Prince made in
those instances moved the work
in a different direction from
Cariou’s classical portraiture and
landscape photos, we can not say
with certainty at this point whether
those artworks present a ‘new
expression, meaning, or message.’”
As to those five, the fair use issue
was returned to the lower court,
and the case was then settled with
no further legal determinations.
(Interestingly, one of the three
appellate judges warned against
judges applying their aesthetic
values in determining the
“transformative” issue.)
GOOGLE BOOKS
Beginning in 2004, Google
initiated its Google Books Project,
in which it scanned more than
20 million books to create a
searchable database containing all
those books. The project would
allow viewers to make limited
“word” searches, which would
generate “snippets” from books
that contained the searched-for
words as well as information about
the book’s author and publisher,
etc. Entire books would not be
accessible without license from
the copyright owner. Google did
not obtain permission from the
copyright owners of the scanned
books. In 2005, the Authors Guild
and several authors sued for
“massive” copyright infringement,
claiming that the scanning—the
copying —of the books violated
their right under the Copyright
Act to control the reproduction of
the books.
After a decade of litigation, which
included a negotiated settlement
favorable to authors that was
rejected by the Court, the same
federal appeals court that decided
Cariou found Google’s copying of
all those books fair use.
Addressing the “transformative”
test, the Court said: “While
recognizing that a transformative
use is ‘not absolutely necessary for
a finding of fair use,’ the [Supreme
Court explained] that the ‘goal of
copyright, to promote science and
the arts, is generally furthered by
the creation of transformative works’
and that ‘[s]uch works thus lie at
the heart of the fair use doctrine’s
guarantee of breathing space within
the confines of copyright.’ . . . . In
other words, transformative uses
tend to favor a fair use finding
because a transformative use is
one that communicates something
new and different from the original
or expands its utility, thus serving
copyright’s overall objective of
contributing to public knowledge.”
The Court then continued: “The
word ‘transformative’ cannot be
taken too literally as a sufficient
key to understanding the elements
of fair use. It is rather a suggestive
symbol for a complex thought,
and does not mean that any and
all changes made to an author’s
original text will necessarily support
a finding of fair use.”
As for the Google project, the
Court found both the “search”
and the “snippet” functions to be
transformative.
“We have no difficulty concluding
that Google’s making of a digital
copy of Plaintiffs’ books for the
purpose of enabling a search for
identification of books containing
a term of interest to the searcher
involves a highly transformative
purpose . . .”
Further, “Google’s division of the
page into tiny snippets is designed
to show the searcher just enough
context surrounding the searched
term to help her evaluate whether
the book falls within the scope of
her interest (without revealing so
much as to threaten the author’s
copyright interests). Snippet
view thus adds importantly to the
highly transformative purpose of
identifying books of interest to the
searcher.”
The Court then concluded that
page 13
Google’s “commercial” purpose and
the fact that it scanned the entirety
of the books did not require a
finding that the project was not fair
use, and that there was insufficient
negative impact on the “market” for
the authors’ works to weigh against
a finding of fair use. As a result, the
Court dismissed the authors’ claims
of infringement, and the Supreme
Court recently declined to review
that finding.
NEWS REPORTING
The Copyright Act specifically
mentions “news reporting” as the
kind of use that could satisfy the
first fair use factor quoted above,
and the defendants in many cases—
often brought by photographers—
regularly claim that the challenged
use is protected as “news reporting”
fair use. However, several courts
have gone out of their way to
emphasize that “news reporting” is
not a shibboleth that automatically
leads to a finding of fair use. As
the federal court of appeals in
California put it in a recent case
involving a magazine’s publication
of “newsworthy” photographs of a
celebrity wedding:
“The tantalizing and even
newsworthy interest in the photos
does not trump a balancing of
the fair use factors. Simply put,
[the magazine] did not sustain
its burden of establishing that its
wholesale, commercial use of the
previously unpublished photos
constituted fair use.”
Further, “there is no ‘general
newsworthiness’ exception. In
other words, newsworthiness itself
does not lead to transformation. . .
The issue is not what constitutes
news, but whether a claim of news
reporting is a valid fair use defense
to an infringement of copyrightable
expression. The [magazine] has
every right to seek to be the
first to publish information. But
[the magazine] went beyond
simply reporting uncopyrightable
information and actively sought
to exploit the headline value of
its infringement, making a news
event out of its unauthorized first
publication of a noted figure’s
copyrighted expression.’”
Reversing the lower court,
the appeals court held that the
magazine’s use of the wedding
photos was not fair use.
COMEDY ROUTINE
The recent Broadway play “Hand
to God” included a one minute,
seven second version of the famous
Abbott and Costello “Who’s On
First?” routine. The owners of the
copyright in the routine sued for
infringement. The trial court found
fair use and dismissed the suit,
saying in part:
“Although Plaintiffs contend that
Defendants’ use of the Routine
does not ‘add anything materially
new or provide a different
aesthetic,’ and claim that the actor
playing Jason ‘merely re-enact[s]
the [r]outine as Abbot and Costello
performed it,’ ’ the tone of the new
performance is markedly different.
. . Hand to God uses the Routine
to create context and ‘a background
for the ever more sinister character
development of Tyrone, the alterego sock puppet.’ On the other
hand, simply because the Routine
occurs in a different time period,
a different setting, and between a
teenage boy and his sock puppet
does not necessarily make the
Routine’s use transformative. . .
It is the performance through the
anti-hero puppet, Tyrone, that,
according to Defendants, creates
COMMITTEE REPORT:
DIGITAL
The Digital Innovations
Committee continues its work
in keeping the membership
informed on new things
happening on the digital
front. Upcoming panels
organized by the committee
include a panel on how
to help authors use social
media effectively instead of
randomly as so many do; a
panel with advice for agents
on how best to do business
when selling rights into in
the world of e-book original
(or reissue) publishing; and
a panel introducing new
companies who are helping
authors manage online
selling of their own books in
innovative ways. In addition,
the committee is holding
regular meetings with digital
marketing heads of major
companies in an effort to
pull together a list of 'best
practices' advice that will go
out to the membership later
in the year.
new aesthetics and understandings
about the relationship between
horror and comedy that are
absent from Abbott and Costello’s
performances of the Routine . . .
“Whereas the original
Routine involved two actors
whose performance falls in
the vaudeville genre, Hand
to God has only one actor
performing the Routine in
page 14
order to illustrate a larger point.
The contrast between Jason’s
seemingly soft-spoken personality
and the actual outrageousness
of his inner nature, which he
expresses through the sock
puppet, is, among other things,
a darkly comedic critique of the
social norms governing a small
town in the Bible Belt. Thus,
Defendants’ use of part of the
Routine is not an attempt to usurp
plaintiff’s material in order to
‘avoid the drudgery in working
up something fresh.’ . . . . Nor is
the original performance of the
Routine ‘merely repackaged or
republished’ . . .”
That decision is currently being
appealed by the Routine’s owners.
FINAL CASE, FOR NOW
There is now pending in the
federal trial court in Manhattan a
fair use case that confounds many
legal observers. The publisher of
War is Beautiful, a book about
how the New York Times covers
war, obtained licenses from the
Times to include numerous
photos inside the book. But then
the publisher also created, and
published on the inside back cover,
a montage of 64 thumbnail-sized
reproductions of Times front pages,
without seeking licenses for those
reproductions. The Times sued for
infringement, and the publisher
claims “transformative” fair use. The
case is in its early stages, and there
have been no court decisions as yet
on the fair use issue. There is no
consensus among copyright lawyers
on this fair use question, and it’s
possible (as in many such cases) that
there will be a settlement before the
courts get to rule.
A significant footnote to this
case: When the Times sued the
book publisher, the publisher in
turn sued both the author of the
book and the author’s lawyers,
because they urged the publisher
to include the front-page montage
as fair use. (If the author’s agent
also encouraged the publisher to
include the montage as fair use, it
seems likely the agent would also
have been sued by the publisher.)
Most (if not all) legal observers
believe those “third party” claims
are baseless and will be dismissed,
but in the meantime they remain in
the case.
In two of the three cases
discussed above that were decided
by appeals courts, the higher
court reversed the holding of the
lower court, proving if nothing
else how unpredictable the fair
use issue can be. However, it
does seem clear that the courts
are increasingly willing to use
the “transformative” test to
expand fair use to cover “new”
expression and purpose, as in
Cariou and Google. But that
does not necessarily mean, as one
prominent creators’ lawyer has put
it, that “copyright has become the
exception to fair use.” Copyright
owners can and do defeat claims
of fair use, and prevail on their
infringement claims, but it is more
and more likely that they will have
to overcome a fair use defense
to do so.
A REMEMBRANCE
OF VIRGINIA
BARBER
(1935–2016)
sold to William Morris in 2000.
She represented a wonderful list of
literary fiction and nonfiction writers,
included Anne Rivers Siddons,
Peter Mayle, Rosellen Brown, Paul
Ehrlich, Andrew Delbanco, Elinor
Lipman, Lauren Acampora, Sue
Monk Kidd, Anita Shreve, and
Nobel Laureate Alice Munro.
In the early 1980s, a time that
seems impossibly long ago, I
was a young assistant for Elaine
Markson, who shared office space
with Ginger Barber. Ginger’s
office was a narrow space back at
the far reaches of the sun-filled
BY GERI THOMA
VIRGINIA BARBER died
recently at home in Charlottesville,
Virginia with her husband of 52
years, Edwin Barber, and her
two daughters at her side. Ginger
began the Virginia Barber Agency
in 1974, and the agency, eventually
known as the Writers Shop, was
page 15
floor-through on Greenwich
Avenue. I was dazzled by the two
of them—so full of life and fun and
excitement over their burgeoning
lists of literary writers, their names
on their own doors, the first flush
of real success still on them, the
feminist triumph of not having to
work for “the boys.” For at least
fifteen minutes after they returned
from lunch dates, they stood and
laughed and traded stories with
each other, opening a window to
the great publishing world to the
young women and the occasional
young man who worked for them.
Ginger openly talked about not
only the triumphs of her day—the
author saved from distress, the
pointed praise at lunch with the
big guy publisher, the fine new
deal, the great new author—she
was also able to laugh at the petty
distresses, like the ongoing debate
about whether or not kicking
smoking would yield an unwanted
ten pounds, the slights and temper
tantrums not quite calmed, and the
potential bestseller halted at the
extended list. Ginger handled all
those with a very well-mannered
and—we teased her—Southern
grace. It may be an awful cliché to
say that beneath that was strength
and steel, but there was. She was
a mensch and a deeply inspiring
presence, making us know that
those not of the Ivy League,
the silver spoon, the trust fund,
the boys clubs could make an
honorable and deeply satisfying life
in publishing—and have enormous
fun in the process.
Ginger spent a lifetime nurturing
her writers, her colleagues and her
friends, and she lives on in their
enduring triumphs.
A REMEMBRANCE
OF LORETTA
BARRETT
(1940–2014)
BY JEAN NAGGAR
I FIRST MET Loretta when she
was working as a senior editor
at Doubleday, spearheading the
Anchor list. She took me to lunch
and regaled me with wonderful
stories about the authors whose
books she was editing, the
colleagues she admired and
loved, and the hopes she had for
expansion. She was never afraid of
trying something new. Her positive
energy was like a swift current
that took me along with her to
wherever she was going. The only
thing Loretta seemed to fear was
having to say no to something she
had thought she would love—to
someone she considered a friend.
Loretta Barrett was many things.
She was a whirlwind of positive
energy, a dedicated supporter to
her authors, a warm and wonderful
friend with an equal mix of
intelligence and humor, always
interested in the lives of others. She
was a force of nature with a ready
laugh and booming voice. Most
of all, she was a true friend. Her
interests were wide-ranging, and
she had an encyclopedic knowledge
about an astounding number of
things. She enjoyed friendships with
an equally diverse group of people,
ranging from Betty White to Judy
Collins to the Pope. She always
delighted me with her singular
elegance and sense of style. Her wit
and sense of humor were legendary,
delivered in that quintessential
Loretta voice and followed by her
unmistakable laugh.
I did not know she was sick
until too late, and she was no
longer receiving visitors. I deeply
regret not having been able to say
goodbye. I look around for her
and miss her at every gathering of
publishing people, and whenever
I have a particularly funny snippet
of gossip or a horror story to share,
I miss having her to share it with. I
could always count on her laughing
or commiserating with all her
heart. Loretta had a very large and
generous heart.
She will certainly never be
forgotten by those of us who grew
up in publishing with her and were
privileged to call her a friend.
LOSS
BY JEAN NAGGAR
My friends who blazed their brightest
in the fall,
Danced to the wind,
Arms open wide
Their voices mingling with the breeze.
Like leaves they fluttered from
the trees
To drift into the past.
Where are they now?
Where the exultant beauty of
their flame?
Why have they left, and danced
so far away,
Leaving me rooted in this plangent
world
With flailing arms and eyes that burn
To catch the wind
That tore them from my sight.
So many memories remain
Mingling past pleasure with the pain
Of no return.
For Ginger Barber, Elizabeth Cater,
Anne Engel, and all those we have lost
in recent years.
page 16
A REMEMBRANCE OF
TIMOTHY SELDES (1926–2015)
BY GINA MACCOBY
I’D MOVED TO
Manhattan with the
ambition of getting
into the publishing
business. To support
myself while I was
kwls.org job hunting, I worked
as an office temp. On one of those
jobs I was hired by a writer named
Jeffrey to type a proposal and sample
chapters so he could send them to
his agent. When I presented Jeffrey
with a cleanly typed, line-edited, and
beautifully formatted proposal, he
said, “My agent needs a bright young
thing like you,” and introduced me
to Tim Seldes, owner of Russell &
Volkening.
The offices were in the Fred F.
French building on Fifth Avenue,
one of the first skyscrapers built
in midtown Manhattan. Every
wall was lined with books from
floor to ceiling, books I had
read in my father’s study—by
Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud,
Barbara Tuchman, Eudora Welty,
Nadine Gordimer. Tucked away
behind one large bookshelf was
a shipping station with stacks of
gray manuscript boxes, red and
white labels, rolls of brown paper,
corrugated cardboard and string,
and a scale for weighing the parcels.
In the six months or so that I’d
been temping I’d been in quite a
few offices, from corporate to oneroom operations and everything in
between. This one felt like home.
I still have two of the old wooden
bookshelves from Fifth Avenue in
my office.
Tim later moved the offices
to a beautiful loft space with
lots of windows down in the
flower district. His dear friend
Wendy Weil, literary agent
extraordinaire who had been
his assistant at Doubleday many
years before, always commented
when she visited how she loved
browsing the windows of the hat
wholesalers nearby.
Tim personified old-school New
York publishing. He was courtly,
gentlemanly, witty, and clubby. A
New Yorker born and bred, from
an artistic and socially connected
delight, and a sometimes wicked
sense of humor. Occasionally
he was just silly—“Is one egg
an oeuf?” He was a shrewd
businessman and had a keen
awareness of human foibles. He
told me once that he had wanted
to become a psychiatrist, then
nodded sagely, observing that we
all found ways to compensate and
follow our interests.
Tim greatly enjoyed publishing
lunches and often returned to
the office in a more jovial state
than when he headed out. On
the few days when he didn’t have
a lunch date, he would order in
and generously treat everyone,
a real boon for those of us on
“A New Yorker born and bred, from an artistic
and socially connected family, it seemed that
he knew everyone who was anyone.”
family, it seemed that he knew
everyone who was anyone. He
addressed me as “Miss Maccoby”
and promised that as his assistant I
would never have to run errands of
a personal nature for him.
In the morning he would stroll
into the office wearing a hat
and carrying a well-used canvas
manuscript bag. After watering
the plants, he would sit tilted back
in his executive chair, feet up on
his desk. His letters to clients,
publishers, would-be clients,
and the Admissions Committee
of the Century Club (to which
he was deeply devoted) were
models of deft, articulate, graceful
appreciation or persuasion, or
regretful refusal. He had a big
laugh—almost a shout—that
suggested deep appreciation and
traditionally slender publishing
salaries. He had a standing tennis
game with other publishing folk
at a Manhattan rooftop tennis
club, and according to some who
played with him, he was wicked at
the net.
A memorial service for Tim
was held at the Century Club in
February. Listening to the speakers,
each of whom related anecdotes
amusing and poignant that spoke to
different aspects of his life, personal
or professional—and often both
together—the warmth, affection,
esteem, and love each person felt
for Tim was palpable.
Over the years, Tim hired and
mentored many assistants and quite
a few went on to successful careers
as literary agents. We all feel that
we belong to a special club.
page 17
NEW MEMBERS,
SPRING 2016
LINDA BIAGI
Biagi Literary Management
www.biagirights.com
At Biagi Literary Management,
Linda Biagi represents publishers
and agents for domestic and
international rights. Building on her
impressive experience as a rights
director and editor at Bantam
Doubleday Dell, Little, Brown, and
Scholastic, her allegiance is always
to the integrity of the publishing
process with the best interests of
the author in mind. Her clients
include Fischer-Harbage Literary
Agency, E.J. McCarthy Literary
Agency, Skyhorse Publishing,
Pegasus Books, Red Wheel Weiser,
Open Road, MysteriousPress.
com, Entrepreneur Press, Crooked
Lane, Polis Books, Readers’ Digest,
and Ulysses Press.
SAMANTHA BRODY
Maria Carvainis Agency
http://www.mariacarvainisagency.com
Samantha Brody joined Maria
Carvainis Agency in 2015, where
she currently assists Maria
Carvainis and Elizabeth Copps
as well as handling the audio
rights for the agency under the
direction of Martha Guzman. She
received a B.A. in Anthropology
(minoring in Creative Writing)
from Northwestern University,
during which time she experienced
her first taste of publishing as an
intern at Jill Grinberg Literary
Management. Prior to MCA,
she worked first as a bookseller
at Books of Wonder and then as
a freelance sales and marketing
assistant at Rizzoli. While not
acquiring, Sam has a fierce love
of all books for young adults and
middle grade and credits Books
of Wonder for her additional love
of funny—and heartfelt—picture
books. She is perpetually hungry
for well-written stories that play
with genre, particularly in romance,
fantasy, and science fiction, and is
thrilled by the recent movements in
publishing for more diverse books.
FARLEY CHASE
Chase Literary Agency
chaseliterary.com
Farley Chase founded Chase
Literary Agency in 2012 after
nearly eight years at Waxman
Literary Agency. He’d previously
worked at The New Yorker, the
New Press, and as an editor at Talk
Miramax Books. In addition to his
domestic agenting, he has more
than a decade of foreign rights
experience and he regularly attends
the Frankfurt and London Book
Fairs. His work has been primarily
with narrative nonfiction, and his
projects include GHETTOSIDE
by Jill Leovy, DEVIL IN THE
GROVE by Gilbert King, THE
MATHEWS MEN by William
Geroux, HEADS IN BEDS
by Jacob Tomsky, and PITCH
PERFECT by Mickey Rapkin.
He studied English at Macalester
College and lives in NYC with his
wife and their dog.
JULIA CONRAD
Sarah Lazin Books
lazinbooks.com
Julia Conrad joined Sarah Lazin
Books in Fall 2015, after working
as an editorial assistant at Wesleyan
University Press, and as an intern
at Archipelago Books and New
York Review Books. She assists
Sarah Lazin and handles foreign
rights, permissions, and the Estate
of Richard Brautigan for the
agency. She received her B.A. in
English and Italian from Wesleyan
University in 2014.
STACIA DECKER
Dunow, Carlson & Lerner
www.dclagency.com
Stacia Decker joined Dunow,
Carlson & Lerner in 2016.
Previously, she worked at the
Donald Maass Literary Agency
and as an editor at Harcourt and
Otto Penzler Books. She began
her career as an intern and then
editorial assistant at Farrar,
Straus & Giroux after earning
an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing
from Columbia University and an
A.B. in Government and English
from Georgetown University. She
represents high-concept literary
and speculative fiction, commercial
thrillers, crime/mystery fiction,
and some sci-fi fantasy. Among
her clients are Frank Bill, Joelle
Charbonneau, Owen Laukkanen,
Fiona Maazel, and Chuck Wendig.
STEPHANIE DELMAN
Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, Inc.
http://greenburger.com
With a background in digital media,
Stephanie Delman joined Sanford
J. Greenburger Associates in early
2012. Under Heide Lange, the
agency’s president, Stephanie has
worked extensively on foreign rights
and negotiations for such authors as
Dan Brown and Brad Thor, and is
actively building her own list with
a focus on literary, historical, and
suspenseful adult fiction. Stephanie
was raised near San Francisco and
page 18
has a degree in Writing Seminars
from Johns Hopkins University,
where she also worked at various
literary magazines. She has a soft
spot for intertwined narratives,
epic journeys, and dark, speculative
fiction. Stephanie is on Twitter as
@imaginarysmd
RENÉE DONOVAN
Zoë Pagnamenta Agency
http://www.zpagency.com
Renée Donovan is an assistant
at the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency.
She grew up in San Francisco
and received a degree in Human
Biology from Stanford University.
During her summers, she had
the pleasure of interning at W.W.
Norton & Co., Sterling Lord
Literistic, and McSweeney’s.
Besides her love of books, she also
loves dance, and trained at San
Francisco Ballet School and Tisch
School of the Arts. She especially
enjoys science writing that
combines academic subjects with
compelling storytelling. She joined
the agency in September 2015.
SANDY HODGMAN
Hodgman Literary LLC
www.hodgmanliterary.com
Sandy Hodgman launched
Hodgman Literary as a full-service
foreign rights agency in 2015,
representing a select group of
agencies and authors. A graduate
of Colgate University, she began
her career in the Editorial
Department at John Wiley &
Sons and then Little, Brown.
Moving over to the foreign rights
side of the business, she has
handled the U.K. and translation
rights as Rights Director for both
HarperCollins Publishers as well
as independent agencies, most
recently LJK Literary Management
and The Einstein Thompson
Agency. She has worked with
authors including Madeleine
Albright, Ree Drummond, Mireille
Guiliano, Gregory Maguire,
Rafael Nadal, Ruth Reichl, Jeremy
Rifkin, Jill Smokler (aka Scary
Mommy), among many others.
She is on Twitter @sandyhodgman
LISA LESHNE
The Leshne Agency
www.LeshneAgency.com
Lisa Leshne has over 25 years
of experience in publishing. In
1991, she co-founded The Prague
Post, the largest English-language
newspaper in Central Europe, its
book division, and website, and
served as Publisher in Prague
for almost a decade. She later
worked for Dow Jones, and was
Executive Director, International,
for the Wall Street Journal
Online, managing digital business
operations in Europe and Asia.
Prior to founding The Leshne
Agency in 2011, Lisa was a literary
agent at LJK Literary. Lisa’s clients
include several New York Times
bestselling- and award-winning
authors, and she prides herself
on working closely with clients
through all stages of the publishing
process for maximum impact and
success. Lisa is most interested in
memoir, narrative, and prescriptive
non-fiction, especially on sports,
health, wellness, business, popculture, political, and parenting
topics. Lisa also enjoys literary and
commercial fiction, plus young
adult and middle-grade books.
Originally from Champaign,
Illinois, Lisa has a B.A. in
Sociology from UC Santa Barbara
and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
Twitter @LeshneAgency
ANDREA MORRISON
Writers House
http://www.writershouse.com
Andrea Morrison is a Junior Agent
at Writers House, where she
began as an intern in 2009. She’s
a graduate of UCSD’s Literature
& Writing program and she has
earned her M.F.A. in Fiction
from Columbia University. She’s
currently building her list of clients
in genres ranging from picture
books to middle grade and YA
to literary fiction and narrative
nonfiction. In all categories, she’s
looking for work that defies genre
lines, gorgeous sentence-level
writing, and for characters that
need to be heard—for stories
that grab your heart and don’t let
it go, even after they’re finished.
You can find her on Twitter @
AndreaAgency
STEVEN SALPETER
Curtis Brown
http://www.curtisbrown.com
Steven Salpeter is an Associate
Literary Agent at Curtis Brown,
Ltd. in New York. He interned
at Brandt & Hochman Literary
Agents, Inc. and went through
the internship program at Writers
House before joining Curtis Brown
to assist Mitchell Waters and help
Timothy Knowlton manage many
of the literary agency’s venerable
estate clients. He is actively seeking
new clients across a broad range of
literary and commercial interests
for the adult and YA markets.
page 19
AAR CANON
OF ETHICS
WE THINK IT'S a good idea to
be reminded of our mission as
agents, the professionalism we want
to model, and the standards we
uphold as members of the AAR.
Each year, our members reaffirm
their commitment to our canon of
ethics, as follows: The members of the Association of
Authors’ Representatives, Inc. are
committed to the highest standard
of conduct in the performance of
their professional activities. While
affirming the necessity and desirability
of maintaining their full individuality
and freedom of action, the members
pledge themselves to loyal service
to their clients’ business and artistic
needs, and will allow no conflicts of
interest that would interfere with such
service. They pledge their support
to the Association itself and to the
principles of honorable coexistence,
directness, and honesty in their
relationships with their co-members.
They undertake never to mislead,
deceive, dupe, defraud, or victimize
their clients, other members of the
Association, the general public, or any
person with whom they do business as
a member of the Association.
Members shall take responsible
measures to protect the security and
integrity of clients’ funds. Members
must maintain separate bank
accounts for money due their clients
so that there is no co-mingling of
clients’ and members’ funds. Members shall deposit funds
received on behalf of clients
promptly upon receipt, and shall
make payment of domestic earnings
due clients promptly, but in no
event later than ten business days
after clearance; provided, however,
that if funds for a client are received
more frequently than quarterly and
if those funds do not exceed a total
of $100, then payments to clients
may be made quarterly, so long as
when funds received exceed $100
or upon the client’s specific request,
payment to the client shall be made
within ten days thereafter.
Revenues from foreign rights
over $50 shall be paid to clients
within ten business days after
clearance. Sums under $50 shall
be paid within a reasonable time
of clearance. However, on stock
and similar rights, statements of
royalties and payments shall be
made not later than the month
following the member’s receipt,
each statement and payment to
cover all royalties received to the
25th day of the previous calendar
month. Payments for amateur
rights shall be made not less
frequently than every six months. A member’s books of account
must be open to the client at all
times with respect to transactions
concerning the client.
If a member receives in writing
a claim to funds otherwise
due a client, the member shall
immediately so advise the
client in writing. If the member
determines that the claim is
serious, and that the funds should
not be remitted to the client
because of the claim, the member
shall proceed in accordance with
the following:
For a period not to exceed 90
days, the member may deposit the
funds in question into a segregated
interest-bearing account pending
possible resolution of the dispute.
No later than the expiration of
that 90-day period, if the dispute
remains unresolved and the
claimants do not otherwise agree
with respect to the disposition of
the disputed funds, the member
shall take such steps as may be
necessary to deposit the funds with
a court of competent jurisdiction,
with appropriate notice to the
claimants, so that the claimants will
have an opportunity to present to
that court their claims to the funds.
Upon so depositing the funds, the
member will have complied with
the member’s obligations under this
Canon of Ethics.
In addition to the compensation
for agency services that is agreed
upon between a member and a
client, a member may, subject to
the approval of the client, pass
along charges incurred by the
member on the client’s behalf,
such as copyright fees, manuscript
retyping, photocopies, copies of
books for use in the sale of other
rights, long-distance calls, special
messenger fees, etc. Such charges
shall be made only if the client has
agreed to reimburse such expenses.
1. A member shall keep each
client apprised of matters
entrusted to the member and
shall promptly furnish such
information as the client may
reasonably request.
2. Members shall not represent
both buyer and seller in the
same transaction. Except as
provided in the next sentence,
a member who represents a
client in the grant of rights
page 20
in any property owned or
controlled by the client may
not accept any compensation or
other payment from the acquirer
of such rights, including but not
limited to so-called “packaging
fees,” it being understood that
the member’s compensation, if
any, shall be derived solely from
the client. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, a member may accept
(or participate in) a so-called
“packaging fee” paid by an
acquirer of television rights to a
property owned or controlled by
a client if the member:
a. fully discloses to the
client at the earliest practical
time the possibility that the
member may be offered such
a “packaging fee” which the
member may choose to accept;
b. delivers to the clients
at such time a copy of the
Association’s statement
regarding packaging and
packaging fees; and
c. offers the client at such
time the opportunity to arrange
for other representation in the
transaction.
In no event shall the
member accept (or participate
in) both a packaging fee
and compensation from the
client with respect to the
transaction. For transactions
subject to Writers Guild of
America (WGA) jurisdiction,
the regulations of the WGA
shall take precedence over the
requirements of this paragraph.
the client. Members may not
solicit or accept any payment
or other thing of value in
connection with their referral
of any author to any third party
for any purpose, provided that
the foregoing does not apply to
arrangements made with a third
party in connection with the
disposition of rights in the work
of a client of the member.
7. The AAR believes that the
practice of literary agents
charging clients or potential
clients for reading and evaluating
literary works (including
outlines, proposals, and partial or
complete manuscripts) is subject
to serious abuse that reflects
adversely on our profession.
For that reason, members may
not charge clients or potential
clients for reading and evaluating
literary works and may not
benefit, directly or indirectly,
from the charging for such
services by any other person
or entity. The term “charge” in
the previous sentence includes
any request for payment other
than to cover the actual cost of
returning materials.
5. Members may not receive a
secret profit in connection with
any transaction involving a
client. If such profit is received,
the member must promptly
pay over the entire amount to
Notwithstanding the foregoing,
members who participate in
conferences or other events
where writers are charged
separately for individual
consultations with agents in
6. Members shall treat their
clients’ financial affairs as private
and confidential, except for
information customarily disclosed
to interested parties as part of
the process of placing rights, as
required by law, or, if agreed with
the client, for other purposes.
which the writer’s work is
read or evaluated may provide
such consultations. The AAR
believes that the potential for
abuse presented by the practice
of charging reading fees in
such circumstances is mitigated
by the fact that the agent
is acting within the context
of an independent writers’
conference. Moreover, the
concern that such participation
would reflect adversely on
our profession is outweighed
by the potential benefit of
such participation to writers,
a benefit that cannot be
duplicated in another manner.
It shall not be a violation of
this Paragraph 8 if a member
provides an evaluation of a
nonclient’s material if:
a. any payment therefor
is made directly to a charity
qualified under Section 501(c)
(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code or to an established
educational institution;
b. the member shall
personally create the evaluation
and provide it within a
reasonable time;
c. the member does not in
any way benefit financially from
the activity; and
d. the member conducts
the activity in an honorable way
fully consistent with the AAR
Canon of Ethics.
The provisions of the previous
two paragraphs of this Paragraph
8 do not in any way dilute the
AAR’s belief that literary agents
should not charge clients and
potential clients for reading and
evaluating literary works in the
ordinary course of business.
page 21
ASSOCIATION OF AUTHORS’
REPRESENTATIVES, INC.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS – 2016-2017
Gail Hochman, President
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents
1501 Broadway, Suite 2310
New York, NY 10036
(212) 840-5760/ Fax (212) 840-5776
ghochman@bromasite.com
President
Elizabeth Harding (’17 end of first term)
Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Ten Astor Place
New York, NY 10003
(212) 473-5400 x140
eharding@cbltd.com
Liaison: Children’s Books Committee
Denise Shannon (’17 end of first term)
Denise Shannon Literary Agency
20 West 22nd Street, Suite 1603
New York, NY 10010
(212)-414-2911
dshannon@deniseshannonagency.com
Liaison: Small Business Committee
Cynthia Cannell (’17 end of second term)
Cynthia Cannell Literary Agency
54 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
(212) 396-9595
Cannell@cannellagency.com
Liaison: Newsletter Committee
Jennifer Weltz (’17 end of second term)
Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc.
216 East 75th Street, Suite 1E
New York, NY 10021
(212) 794-1082
jweltz@jvnla.com
Liaison: International Committee
Jody Kahn (Administrative Secretary)
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
1501 Broadway, Suite 2310
New York, NY 10036
(212) 840-5770/ Fax (212) 840-5776
jkahn@bromasite.com;
Administrator@aaronline.org
Brian DeFiore (’18 end of second term)
DeFiore and Company
47 East 19th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 925-7744
bdf@defioreandco.com
Liaison: Digital Committee
Wendy Sherman (’17 end of second term)
Wendy Sherman Associates, Inc.
27 West 24th Street, Suite 700B
New York, NY 10010
(212) 279-9027
Wendy@Wsherman.com
Liaison: Membership Committee
Elliot H. Brown, Esq. (Attorney-Dramatic)
Franklin Weinrib Rudell Vassallo
488 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 935-5500
ehbrown@fwrv.com
Sally Wofford-Girand (’17 end of first term)
Union Literary
30 Vandam Street, Suite 5A
New York, NY 10013
(212) 255-2112
swg@unionliterary.com
Wendy Strothman (’18 end of second term)
The Strothman Agency, LLC
63 East 9th Street, 10X
New York, NY 10003
(617) 750-6859
wendy@strothmanagency.com
Victoria Marini (’17 end of first term)
Gelfman Schneider / ICM Partners
850 Seventh Avenue, Suite 903
New York, NY, 10019
(212) 245-1993
victoria@gelfmanschneider.com
Victoria Skurnick (’17 end of first term)
Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency
307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2407
New York, NY 10001
(212) 337-0934
vskurnick@lgrliterary.com
Susanna Einstein (’17 end of first term)
Einstein Literary Management
27 West 20th Street #1003
New York, NY 10011
(212) 221-8797
susanna@einsteinliterary.com
Liaison: Small Business Committee
Susan Ramer (’18 end of second term)
Don Congdon Associates, Inc.
110 William Street, Suite 2202
New York, NY 10038
(212) 645-1229
Sramer@doncongdon.com
contributors
Ken Norwick, Esq. (Attorney-Literary)
Norwick, Schad & Goering
110 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 751-4440/ Fax (212) 604-9997
ken@norwickschad.com
Jeff Gerecke (OFF THE BOARD POSITION),
Treasurer
Gina Maccoby Literary Agency
P.O. Box 60
Chappaqua, NY 10514
(718) 664-4504
Jeff.grecke@verizon.net
The Newsletter for the Association of Authors' Representatives
The Pitch is edited by Noah Ballard of Curtis Brown, Ltd., Jody Kahn of Brandt & Hochman and Cynthia Cannell
of Cynthia Cannell Literary Agency. Copy-editing was provided by Charlotte Kelly of Cynthia Cannell Literary
Agency, and the design was done by Rachel Loeb. Please reach us at aarnewslettereditor@gmail.com.

Spring 2016 - Association of Authors` Representatives

Transcription

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