"WORDS ARE, IN MY NOT-SO-HUMBLE OPINION, OUR MOST INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE OF MAGIC. CAPABLE OF BOTH INFLICTING INJURY, AND REMEDYING IT." ~ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Jenny Bent is Awesome

Last night, I had the privilege of listening to a lecture by Jenny Bent (the owner and founder of the The Bent Agency).  She spoke about what it's like to work with an agent and she busted some of the myths/misconceptions in the publishing industry. I took a copious amount of notes so I could share the info with you guys!  But first, let me tell you about Jenny.

She's awesome. Totally personable, upbeat, and very honest with her insight. I'm not someone who thought agents were scary to begin with (I mean, of course they might reject me--that's scary... but otherwise, they're people too and have the same fears/problems/joys/etc that the rest of us do.) But if I had been, I would feel much better now.

Jenny loves what she does--and, trust me, it shines through. In her words? She loves selling. She loves negotiating. She doesn't like to write, but she loves working with writers.

For more info, check out The Bent Agency website: http://www.thebentagency.com/
Or, Jenny Bent's blog: Bent on Books

And now onto the stuff she spoke about!

Querying/Finding an Agent
  • Don't query agents based on location. NY agents are great--but so are the agents in locations all over the country. 
  • Don't overlook new agents. While older ones have more experience, younger ones often have more energy! Plus, with a smaller client list--they'll have more time for YOU.
  • Do NOT write for the market. Do be aware of the market. Do let the market influence the way you pitch. But write the stories that YOU are driven to write! 
  • Along that note, don't listen to what people tell you will/won't sell. ALL trends circle back.
  • Jenny found 1/3 of her clients from the slush pile. While she says publisher house slush piles are over, as a new writer you can still get picked up from queries. (PHEW! I didn't even know that people thought this wasn't true. Thank God because I would have panicked!)
  • Credentials help you to stand out from the slush pile. Namedropping helps too. 
  • Also, when you query--allow your Voice to come through! Don't let 15 people read it (or your WIP) so that it ends up not sounding like you anymore.
    • OH and if you need help with Voice in a query or synopsis? CJ Redwine is a GENIUS and holds very, very reasonably priced online workshops for both things. I'm taking the synopsis one now and loving it. And I'm taking her query workshop starting March 1st. She pays a LOT of attention to Voice. Make sure you check them out. (And make sure to say I sent you!) http://queryworkshop.blogspot.com/ 
  • Don't query for multiple projects at once.
  • It IS okay to mention that the novel you're querying is part of a series. But stick to information about the specific book you're referring to in the query.
  • It's totally fine to query an agent with a new project that rejected a different one. Jenny rejected some of her current clients the first time through--and didn't remember them the second time they queried!
  • More now than ever, agents are more hands-on with editorial process.
So you make it past the slush... What's Jenny Bent's representation process?
  1. Jenny offers representation.
  2. She doesn't do agency agreements (feels they're unfair to the writer) and goes on a handshake.
  3. Revisions.
  4. Submission strategy meeting--discussions with the author about the best houses to submit to.
  5. Calls publishers.
How to decide between multiple agents offering representation (you lucky freaking duck--Sara's words, not Jenny's)
  1. Do your homework--know about the agents. Look at their client lists.
  2. Talk to them, ask questions.
  3. Remember: an agent has a sales job. Are they comfortable when they speak to you? Do you like them?
The numbers game: Jenny gets 50-100 queries a day. They're all screened by interns. Of those that come in, she sees about 10/day. She asks for about 1 manuscript/week. And she picks up 3-5 first time writers a year.

Jenny on E-Books: At this point, e-books haven't affected her ability to sell. There's a LOT to still be figured out about them. Like price points and royalties... Jenny's 100% sure that e-books are going to change everything. But right now? E-books only make up 4% of total book sales.

Other stuff:
  • Publishing Houses read submitted manuscripts online (e-readers, etc) so agents submit your manuscripts online.
  • Most publishers don't pay for author tours anymore--it doesn't make sense. You fly, stay in a hotel, and sell 20 or so books if you're lucky at a signing... Book promotion techniques are changing.
  • Someone asked if it was appropriate to friend-request an agent/editor on facebook. Jenny said that while she doesn't accept requests from people she doesn't know, she doesn't get mad when people try or think it's a bad thing to do in general, if you want to.
  • But what about the RECESSION? And how HARD it is to make a sale these days? Well, to this Jenny says that in her 15 years of experience the SAME thing has been being said. It's always hard to make a sale.
  • Hardcover books are NOT necessarily more prestigious than paperback. Not anymore anyway. Jenny doesn't even want to see her clients' first editions in hardcover. (Think of it this way, if you put something out hardcover in today's market, you'll sell like 5,000 copies. And mathematically when paperback comes out, you sell half as many as you did in hardcover. So that means you'll only sell like 2,500 in paperback.)
Well, there ya have it! See you kids tomorrow for my Friday Funny :-)


♥ me

13 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for taking copious notes. I'm feeling much better about my search for publication now : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. She sounds awesome! Jenny was actually one of the agents I spotlighted on my blog. She sounded just as awesome as you said she is! And about the young agent thing: My agent had JUST come into her new agenting position when she offered to represent me. She had a good bit of experience in publishing and had some great connections, but she was a brand new agent and she is AWESOME. So I definitely second what Jenny said: new agents rule.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This was such a good post, I love hearing this kind of insiders point of view.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was an awesome post. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, I'm back and married! YAY. I did happen to catch your trailer for Shattered! VERY VERY AWESOME! I'm very impressed. You sure have got a talent for working with that video stuff. I'd read your book based on that trailer! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice. I love Jenny. She seems like she'd make a great agent.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It was so nice to meet you last night. Your blog looks great! I'm so impressed with it. I look forward to keeping up with your progress!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, this is such great stuff, Sara! I love Jenny Bent, so I obviously love this post. Thank you, thank you! This rocks. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, really helpful post! Thanks for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very thorough notes! Thank you for sharing.

    I hope to have that problem of having to decide between multiple agents wanting to represent me. Don't we all? Laugh. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! How lucky were you to get to go to this? Great insight! But, oh my word, this one was kind of new to me:

    "Jenny found 1/3 of her clients from the slush pile. While she says publisher house slush piles are over, as a new writer you can still get picked up from queries."

    What??? I didn't realize that this was a concern. Gulp. That seems to make things seem that much more difficult. Ah well, suck it up, Carol! I will be brave...eep.

    Thanks for passing along the info!! Good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for passing on this info! Jenny sounds wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Fab! I'm so glad you posted this--especially the bit about having 15 people read your stuff (because when I first started out I thought the more cps you had the better, etc. etc.) I wish Jenny represented fantasy so I could query her! She sounds really fantastic :)

    ReplyDelete

Yay! I love when you have things to add :)