Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown since 2005. She represents many genres and categories of books in addition to representing the British rights for Curtis Brown's children's list. She's lots of fun on Twitter, and from there you may have learned she's really into wombats and Peter Capaldi, but aren't we all?
Sarah Davies and Ginger Clark tag team on describing how a rolling auction works. All of the bidding publishers give their bid, and then the lowest bidder is asked if they can match the highest bid, and the other bidders are approached in turn, and this can go around a few times, perhaps up to seven rounds.
Compared to a best bids auction, where Ginger asks for editors to name their ultimate bid and no additional rounds of bid-taking happen.
For most books Ginger has sold she's initially sent out the submission to 12 editors. In special cases she's sent the submission out to upwards of 27 editors (and she notes that 25% of those 27 were at Penguin Random House, which is the strange reality of big houses merging into even bigger houses these days).
The most important 'gets' in a contract to Ginger are:
Translation rights, British rights, audio rights, joint vs. separate accounting on multiple book deal royalties (you want separate accounting!!) Ginger will only take joint accounting deals unless there are no other offers OR the publisher is offering them an insane amount of money. Other than that, deal-killers are up to the client, says Ginger.
Ginger's last bit of advice:
When picking an agent, pick someone you think will be a great advocate for you and will be a great, professional advice-giver—don't pick someone only because you think they could be your best friend, or that reminds you of your mom or Peter Capaldi, or because they own a wombat.
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| (l-r) Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker; wombat from How To Negotiate Everything |
Rotem shares a few acquisition stories, here is one:
She reads us
To the Sea by Cale Atkinson. It's important to be able for an author/illustrator to describe their story in a nutshell because Rotem does the same thing when she's doing a presentation for acquistions.
She asks us how we would position
To the Sea, what its key note would be, the audience throws out:
- friendship story
- problem solving
- summer
- adorable characters
- bold illustrations with limited palette
- being seen
From that we get this nutshell: "A touching friendship story with stunning art about finding someone who really sees you."
Rotem then helps the audience hone their nutshells!
At Hyperion, marketing approval is integral to an acquisition. If Rotem thinks marketing might not "get" a potential book, she will do rounds of work on something before it goes to acquisition (that's a big deal given her time demands at work are for acquired books, which means Rotem does this additional
Rotem talks a little bit about the profit and loss statement, the P&L. Which is roughly: The quantity that they think they can sell in the first year + what they think they should pay the author + what the royalties look like ÷ if the book can go into board book eventually and/or ebooks x how other comparable books are doing in the market + the square root of π...If Rotem is bringing a manuscript to an acquisition meeting, she will also bring her choices for who will illustrate to help the meeting attendees envision the project more fully.
Debra Dorfman
Debra Dorfman is Vice President and Publisher at Scholastic. She does series, licensing, non-fiction and commercial YA, and in this Pro Track workshop she's talking about what happens after your book is acquired.
She's explaining how it works differently at different houses, and is giving out a thick handout on how it works at Scholastic.
So how does acquisitions work?
First, an editor falls in love and champions your book.
At the acquisitions meeting, the editor is joined by
Marketing
publicity
finance
and a rep from book clubs and book fairs
all of whom weigh in with their views on the author and the manuscript.
As editors and champions of your book, they want to know about you because it gives them ammunition - if you have a website or blog, they want to know about it.
At the meeting, the editor presents their idea of how much to offer for the book and their vision for royalty, format and publication date... And they hopefully hash it out! She's sharing that editors even get nervous in the acquisitions meeting because if they're at that meeting - they really want to acquire your book!
And she's now walking us through a case study - and the acquisitions memo - for acquiring the "I Survived" historical series.
She's taking questions now, and sharing more about the inner workings of publishing in general and Scholastic in specific after the book is acquired - covering apps, ebooks, marketing, author videos...
Here's a great quote from Debra:
Part of my mission is to stay on top of our books - you have to champion each one.
Really interesting!
ARI LEWIN: "How An Editor at Disney/Hyperion Evaluates and Acquires," Pt. 2
Some highlights from Disney/Hyperion Senior Ed. ARI LEWIN'S lecture (Part 2)
-- Picture books - keep 'em short! Doesn't do original board books (too expensive to produce)
-- "Things I do not buy: I don't love a lot of historical fiction UNLESS the voice is so so good that blow me away. Examples of historical fiction that are exceptions include A Northern Light and The Book Thief."
-- "I personally have a tough time with quiet or slow-moving plots. Quiet, I don't do. I don't do a lot of problem novels unless the voice is really fresh."
-- Editorial meetings are like "a really cool book club" where everyone reads the submission and discuss it in a "frank and honest" way and how it might do in acquisitions, publicity, and marketing before making a final decision. If editorial director approves, then they move to acquisitions.
-- Acquisitions meeting: She says people "dread" this because it's so important for editors who love a book and really want it to be published. What she does before she submits to acquisitions committee (they meet once a week): "I really have to come up with a sales handle. I have to write the flap copy and make it sound so exciting and compelling, just like something they would absolutely want... often times, I will massage what the story actually is because I know how I will edit/revise it. They will understand the direction I will take it in."
-- She also does an acquisitions form that has a one or two line sentence "sales handle," like "This is Men In Black meets Boarding School" for the marketing department. She went on to discuss the other aspects of how books are acquired, which include a profit loss statement etc.
-- Earn out formula: Retail price of your book, $16.95 times the royalty (10%) times the number of copies gives you how much money the book earned, minus the reserves."
She does an Q&A now with the standing room only hall of conference goers. Again, a very informative nuts & bolts panel about the editor's point of view.
Posted by Paula Yoo
ARI LEWIN: "How An Editor at Disney/Hyperion Evaluates and Acquires," Pt. 1
Some highlights from Disney/Hyperion Senior Ed. ARI LEWIN'S lecture (part 1)
-- They accept electronic submissions because of recycling/environment (Disney ordered Sony Readers for the editors)
-- Does a lot of traditional editor stuff - network, schmooze with editors, reads their client submissions on the subway and at home
-- "I don't read the cover letters the agents send me. I want to see the WRITING. The pitch can be awesome but the writing or story might not be. I trust the writing more than the pitch."
-- "What I'm looking for: I don't know any editor who would really say 'I'm looking for fantasy only.' We all want the same thing - good, compelling, engaging stories and they can come from unexpected genres you've never worked for. So oftentimes you know it when you see it."
-- "My No. 1 thing is VOICE. I'm looking for a voice that's fresh and original and believeable. I want the character to feel real and not like anyone else I've read before. It can't be generic."
-- No stereotypes wanted in voice and characteristics of the character. Dialogue should be realistic "If your two teen girls sound alike, I sort of sniff that out."
-- Recommends E. Lockhart's "The Boyfriend List" as an example of realistic girl teen dialogue.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
Posted by Paula Yoo
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Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown since 2005. She represents many genres and categories of books in addition to representing the British rights for Curtis Brown's children's list. She's lots of fun on Twitter, and from there you may have learned she's really into wombats and Peter Capaldi, but aren't we all?
