Customer Reviews

Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2010, 20E: Who They Are! What They Want! How to Win Them Over! (Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As the book proclaims on its cover that it will tell you who wants what, you should know that there is a name index only. If you already know who you're looking for, this book provides a wealth of information on most but not all major agents; but if you you want to know which publishers and/or agents are interested in what material, you are out of luck. There is no idex for that. Know what you're getting.

You're a writer. You need reliable contacts either for screenplays, novels, etc.

Herman has an excellent and professional approach to providing a listing, with useful information which goes well beyond most internet listings or other sources.

Unfortunately, he felt it necessary to provide all sorts of agent-centric viewpoints (mostly his own) about the business, which are not really useful at best, and at worst irritating.

Looking at listings, you'll just have to ignore the "worst client" categories he proposed to agents... where agents had the opportunity to reply with things like "sends packages impossible to open..." (what an incredibly difficult life agents has, with such a clientele...). This is really worthless stuff, designed to belittle people and make them feel like supplicants. Which, is ass-backwards. Agents should be grateful that writers ask them for help. Agents should see themselves as FULL partners (and lucky to be so...) in a project.

Don't be put off with, or buy into, the crybaby agent-centric stuff Herman throws out about how agents receive 90 percent garbage... that they have to "wade through" it. At least... don't buy how boring and painful that is. Because: That's. Their. Job.

Writers have a tough job, too. They spend months and even years developing an idea... character development, style, point of view, a general knowledge of humanity/the universe/etc... and agents take about 15 minutes to decide if they like it or not.

Don't be fooled. These people aren't "experts". They work the way a reader works in a bookstore: pick up... like/dislike. Put back or buy. But in their case, they decide on pick up or buy based on their personal contacts in publishing companies. They base their decisions on who they know, and the tastes of those people. In general, they don't know squat about the real intricacies of writing, except that -- to be fair -- they can recognize when something is acceptable or not (although not always, if you look at quite a bit of the stuff that gets published).

So... don't base your personal sense of self-worth... or model your writing approach... on that attitude. Write what you need to write, with all the conviction you have, and if it works, it works.

If it doesn't... it doesn't.

But ignore all this agent whining about how tough it is to winnow through the thousands of manuscripts they get. Poor them.

THIS book, is indeed useful because when Herman has gotten away from his ego essays (some of which are outright incomprehensible, especially when he launches into attempts at humor), he does provide a useful list.

Good luck. But don't be cowed by this agent-looking-down approach.

You're the writer. YOU'RE the one these people are making money on the backs of.

Don't forget it.

I am brand new to the idea of writing and I picked up the 2009 edition of this book at the library. I really liked it and was excited to find the new 2010 edition here. I was happy to see that it really was updated and I found information I had not seen in the earlier edition. I especially like the fact that they list recent titles that the literary agents have sold. I found that very helpful. I also really like the type of questions that were asked of agents, as they were much more in depth than I had found in other books on literary agents. I found an agent listed with similar interests to mine. When I looked her up in other "literary agent" books, that specific personal information was not listed. Therefore, I might have missed out on an appropriate agent to query. I recommend this book.

I had gone through all the agents I could find for literary fiction on Agentquery.com, and an agent recommended that I buy this book which promises to give a writer a clearer understanding of what individual agents are really looking for. There is a lot of information in this book about their hobbies and what they think is "the client from hell," but just as with agency websites, there is very very little clarification about their true tastes in literature and what they are really looking for and what they SELL. A LOT say they are interested in literary fiction and you go to their websites and they focus mainly on horror or mystery. So, they may LIKE literary fiction, but they don't sell it. The book didn't take any of the work out of it for me, like having to research on-line after finding an agent's name, but it did give me access to more names, names of agencies I did not see listed anywhere on-line. So in one sense, it has helped because I can increase my queries by having more folks to send queries to, but too much in this book is irrelevant and silly. I don't need to know an agent's hobbies because kissing ass won't get me an agent,("dear agent, i love riding ponies, too!" wtf?) only finding someone who likes my kind of writing will and if they don't dig literary fiction or my type of writing, then I don't care what their hobbies are. Just not enough information about what each agent sells and the particular voice/style they like to work with.

Jeff Herman's book is an excellent resource for writers and he offers much practical advice. He also "kicks it up a notch" by allowing us a glimpse into the personal lives of those who would buy our work and that is a very telling thing for a writer. He also offers solid help with writing a proposal (a most daunting task at times for us non-fiction writers) in an easy format. The only negative thing I've found is that unlike "The Writer's Market" his book offers no information on what each publisher pays (royalties, advance offered, etc.) and for those of us who are interested in such things this is a serious subject I wish was included. Otherwise, a great book I would highly recommend.

You pour your life into a book. You craft it and work and rework it until it's finally at a stage where other people can look at it. Then what?

Then this book!

I used this book's recommendations to snare my first literary agent. It's a clear and straightforward guideline on how to do just that with a comprehensive listing of agents and publishers.

It takes away all the excuses you might have for procrastination.

Jeff Herman consistently provides literary enthusiasts with a wealth of information, contacts, etc. I echo the sentiment of others who state that his guide book(s) is like a Bible for authors, published or aspiring. And it's almost just as thick. I'm often asked, "What direction do I take to get published?" Of course, this all depends upon what one is writing. However, the answers and much, much more lie within the covers of this book. HIGHLY recommended!!!!

I bought this book because I thought it would be more carefully researched than the on-line sites. My mistake. An agent who went on her own in 2009 is still listed with the old agency in the 2011 edition. I emailed the authors to give them a chance to explain or defend themselves. They ignored my message.

Save yourself time and money and use on-line resources.

This guide to publishers, editors, and agents is better than any I've used before because of its in-depth look at the publishing world. The format is easy to read. There are many additional helps about query letters and summaries, as well as self-publishers. I especially like the "How would you describe the "author from hell" section. This book is well worth the money.

This was strongly recommended by an agent and the scope is impressive. The problem is that it contains so much information, I dread sorting through it. This is the by-product of pre-Web thinking, when print made sense. Now that the Web is nearly ubiquitous, placing this into a database (where it almost certainly already is) and letting people pay for access would be much more valuable, waste less paper and provide more up-to-date information. But since it's a massive book, not a website, it's hard not to laud it's inclusiveness, not just of publishers, editors and agents, but a solid section on how to approach each of them.

Hopefully, this and other such guides will move to the Web, where their value can be magnified with robust search tools and the most up-to-date content possible. But until then, this is a great addition to an author's library.