I am an unpublished novelist who has been querying providers for more than a year. Three weeks ago I received my first manuscript demand from an agent, and tonight I found an offer of representation from said agent in my own mailbox. You can imagine how excited I used to be. He didn’t call you?
It just popped into your mailbox like web publishers clearing house sweepstakes? Ya, no shit. I’d be weeping too. Then I’d reach for my abacus. NYC of under 10 % just. 36.50 a pop for costs. 36.50 to send a manuscript out, I have only one small tiny question: why’s he in the business? How’s he paying his Verizon bill?
I get it now. Author is reimbursed fully. The contract is also clear that unused marketing money will be returned to the author in the event of contract cancellation, blah, blah. So, if you are got by him a little deal, you pay for it? Oh, I love this basic idea. I bet it’s a moneymaker.
Marketplace because he sold a publication in May that is similar to mine. The agent included press clippings of his recent film and reserve sales with my mailing. He previously press clippings regarding a book he sold just? Notices in Publishers Marketplace don’t count. If you’re a member, you can post whatever you want. Miss Snark’s clippings documents have a tendency to be or for books that are released and that day is normally a YEAR after the sale.
- The identification of all the individual demands in the portfolio
- Product prices
- No Credit Checks or Turndowns
- Market control
- Steering Committee (i.e., group of people who get things started)
- University degree in Computer Science or related field preferred
- Streaming requires new license agreements with the record brands
- Inactives (Less than 1x monthly)
Unless he’s in the Hot Deals column at PW? Sad and deluded, the acceptance notice taunting me, I’m considering informing this agent he may stand for me if the up-front charge part of the agreement is scratched. I can hear the desperate unpublished novelist speaking in the above paragraph, and I now ask you for possible check. He asked for the money up front / He sold a novel similar to mine last month. Have you talked to him ever? What should I do, Miss Snark?
Well, you’re going to do what you’re going to do. I believe his business practices are privately of exploitation. Standards and practices in the wonderful world of parenting are clear: Authors do not pay Agents. Agents remit to authors. If expenses are charged to an author, they are to be paid only when the ongoing work is sold and the amount of money gathered. 10K advances. There are a great number of novels that sell for less. One of the first things I’d do is find out who his clients are and present them a bell. Maybe he’s legit. Maybe he’s just strange. And Miss Snark is secretly Carrie Nation maybe.
A weakness, likewise, is something that impacts the organization’s cost or differentiation advantage. Lists of strengths and weaknesses should not include factors that are common to every firm within an industry. For instance, you could not count “well-known brand” as a strength for a company in the jeans or cosmetic industries, because so many brands are equally famous. Rather than writing that main opportunities of the business are overseas expansion and brand extension, it is very important to displace it with a broader definition and explanation. The example of a more successful explanation could be: “Eastern European markets, with developing spending power and proven appetite for Western consumer brands, represent opportunity.
