“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.” –Frank Herbert, DUNE
Fear has taken hold of the minds of many people in trade book publishing during the pandemic brought on by COVID-19 and rightfully so: Scholastic temporarily laid off over 100 employees, Rowman & Littlefield has ceased paying salaries to their entire company, Markus Dohle released a company-wide letter to Penguin Random House that everyone at the company will have to tighten their belts and Macmillan closed the imprint Thomas Dunne Books while laying off a number of employees… Publishers have gone as far as to push publication dates out, and authors that are having books published during these current troubled times are having to turn away from live book tour events, to online media. Outside of publishing, the world seems even scarier, and we must all remind each other that we are in this together—more than ever, we all need to treat one another with kindness. Even with that in mind, we must respect that some hold onto the view that things look grimmer than ever in book publishing, but that does not mean there is not any hope…
With book publishers tightening the purse strings, many literary agents are hesitant to submit manuscripts to editors at publishing houses and hopeful writers, looking to become published authors, are hesitant to send their queries to literary agents.
If it was not already an art to figure out not just who to submit a manuscript to but when—literary agents are grappling with that now more than ever. For instance, conventional wisdom always held that July and August, as well as the winter holidays, were death sentences for submitting manuscripts to publishers. The reason, of course, being that publishing is very slow in the summer months and people are away during the holidays. The funny thing is that my colleagues at the Trident Media Group literary agency, and I, continue to submit books during those months, and we find that we do a great many of our deals then! How is that possible? Literary agents that believe in the stigma that July/August and the winter holidays are bad months to pitch book publishers create wide openings for us, as their competition, to go in and submit books while editors have desks clear of manuscript reading piles.
At the Trident Media Group literary agency, our literary agents just closed seven-figure book deals for actor Billy Dee Williams of STAR WARS Lando fame with Knopf and #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George’s next Inspector Lynley novel with Viking. Those two book deals ran in Publishers Weekly last week, and they were two of the six book deals announced! Personally, I performed a six-figure deal for New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker with Forge Books right before the pandemic and another six-figure deal for National Jewish Book Award-winning author Ronald H. Balson with St. Martin’s Press, just last week. All of this in the midst of the global pandemic. Now, none of this is to brag—rather, it is meant as good information to see that even though the world is suffering, life must continue, and we all must find a way to go onward.
The current book publishing climate is also a question of which projects to submit right now. For instance, a lighthearted or humorous book, or an escapist fantasy adventure, might be more of a welcome distraction than a book about a global pandemic. In rolling with the punches a bit, for the time being, writers will also have to think about the types of projects they want to query literary agents with: can the zombie apocalypse novel wait a bit while I try out my fairy tea party children’s book? It is important to be sensitive in reading the room over the current socio-economic and political climate.
Regardless of what may be occurring in book publishing right now, publishers still need new material, and that will always be a fact. The good thing about book publishing is that when a publisher buys a book, they are envisioning a publication one to two years out. So, while the current times may seem grim, publishers are looking forward to publishing in better days. Editors at publishing houses are reporting that they do not feel the submissions have all ceased. It remains more so a question of how much publishers will pay for books and how aggressively they will be seeking additional rights to books.
It is also important to point out the resiliency of books and stories during the pandemic. There there has been a recent uptick in the sales of eBooks, digital audio and paperbacks, notably the classics (readers finally feel like they have the time to read massive tomes such as WAR AND PEACE or THE TALE OF GENJI). Customers can still get books delivered to their homes; it just takes longer nowadays. Readers seldom want to give up books as essential luxury items, which is why the Trident Media Group literary agency didn’t have any layoffs during the 2009 Economic Crisis—in fact, we grew our business during that time. Life must go on and it will, as it always has, so have hope!
BIO – Mark Gottlieb is a highly ranked literary agent both in overall deals and other individual categories. Using that same initiative and insight for identifying talented writers, he is actively building his own client list of authors. Mark Gottlieb is excited to work directly with authors, helping to manage and grow their careers with all of the unique resources that are available at book publishing’s leading literary agency, Trident Media Group. During his time at Trident Media Group, Mark Gottlieb has represented numerous New York Times bestselling authors, as well as award-winning authors, and has optioned and sold books to film and TV production companies. He previously ran the agency’s audiobook department, in addition to working in foreign rights. Mark Gottlieb is actively seeking submissions in all categories and genres and looking forward to bringing new and established authors to the curious minds of their future readers.
I have a 120000 word manuscript in the creative nonfiction genre that is targeted for beta readers in November. This work has taken over five years to create with the help of over a dozen highly talented critique peers also published or are professor level editors. Written novel style are 38 vignettes that tell the story of how I became the person on an out of body experience in search of how and why I was run over by a loaded log-truck. Traces my sharecropping family’s existence from 1945- 2012 up and down the Sunshine State. The book culminates with two vignettes. One the actual tragic event, the other a post event chapter set at an event where I’m now a published author on your with a message of resilience, redemption and the never ending quest for enlightenment. Two vignettes have been published already. One has won a first place in the creative nonfiction genre in a publication with international submissions. The fiction award winner that year was from Greece for example. I am a dual above the knee amputee trained teacher with an extremely marketable story that I’m prepared to promote. Am being compared to Rick Bragg and Harry Crews in style. I embed poetic description in the work as I’m an accomplished oral presenting poet with my own creative material. Have been referred to you by author Shelley Fraser Mickle who will be happy to send you a recommendation for my work. I would prefer to have my work represented than have to wade through the layers if the publishing world. That’s why I’m contacting you to review either a section of my manuscript or the entire book. I have a self published novel in the thriller genre already as well, but my group would kill me if i was to not give this work the the viewer base it deserves. Another member of our group published a novel a few years ago that is now being made into a movie starring Kathy Bates and Lawerence Fishbern and they believe mine is superior to that book. Thank you for accepting queries from new authors. I look forward to corresponding with you on the possibility of your representation.
I strongly suggest you rewrite this and pitch it in a clearer format to the agent himself.