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How To Be Your Own Literary Agent [Paperback]

Richard Curtis (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 15, 1996
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN LITERARY AGENT is the most practical and thorough guide to book publishing for writers. Richard Curtis, a top literary agent for more than twenty-five years, provides a comprehensive overview of the publishing process, from submissions to contract negotiations to subsidiary rights to marketing and beyond. In this completely revised and expanded edition, Curtis takes into account the enormous changes in the publishing world over the past ten years.

Included are new sections on what the electronic revolution means to you, and how to take advantage of it; the new breed of literary agents: how to find them and interest them in your work; how you can have a say in your book's design, cover art, jacket copy, and promotion; what author and agent organizations can do for you; how book chains and the superstores affect your chances of getting published; and why the American Booksellers Association convention is important to you. No other book provides such detailed and accessible information. For novices and veteran writers alike, HOW TO BE YOUR OWN LITERARY AGENT takes the mystery out of getting the best deal possible and ensuring happy publication.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The head of his own literary agency in New York, Richard Curtis is also the publisher of e-reads® and the author of more than fifty books.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Mariner Books; Revised edition (February 15, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0395718198
  • ISBN-13: 978-0395718193
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,965,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars AVOID this book until you actually have a deal on the table, July 12, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: How To Be Your Own Literary Agent (Paperback)
This book has a lot of interesting info and "real world" statistics. Also useful information on what you can negotiate for in a book deal and what's standard and what isn't, etc. But all in all, it is totally discouraging. His first chapters are so depressing that you might never overcome having read them if you haven't finished your book yet. For example, he says that stats on unsolicited manuscripts sans agents are at least 5,000 a year per publishing house and he says it is simply not economical for them to hire readers, because less than one in a thousand amounts to something the house might want to publish. They all get sent back without being looked at. That is, if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

And he says agents don't want anyone who is not already published. Next to no chance of getting one unless your cover says something like "I invented the submarine and have written a book . . . " So--you can get a loan if you have money in the bank. And you can get a literary agent if you've been published. The same old story. It sounds very certainly impossible.

From what Curtis, an agent of 20 or 30 years says, there're tons of manuscripts that can't even get read and it has no relation whatever to what is good and what isn't. I'm ready to quit the entire idea and I'm only 1/3 of the way thru the book.

According to Curtis, it takes an agent. Period. And if you have no way of finding one of those without the same blind mailings you'd send to publishing houses, you may as well put the "grand novel" away and hope in 4 or 5 or 10 years, by some luck, you run into someone who is connected.

So I'm left wondering, why does anyone bother to write at all, much less buy Mr. Curtis' depressing book? There must be SOME way to get through, right? He offers precious little hope, I'm afraid.

I don't know if this writer-editor-agent meant to be so discouraging, but wow! Completely! Avoid this book if you want to keep writing.

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars writers beware, June 18, 2000
This review is from: How To Be Your Own Literary Agent (Paperback)
Don't buy this book if you're still trying to sell yours to a publisher. Though it does have invaluable information on how to negotiate a contract, it spends the first chapter or two telling you how hopeless your attempts at selling your own book without an agent are. More agent propaganda and self-aggrandizement.
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28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be Black to TAKE BACK THE POWER!, February 25, 1999
By 
Erika "Mad Dog" Lopez (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How To Be Your Own Literary Agent (Paperback)
I've spent my life getting fired from jobs, then my agent even fired me in the middle of selling my fourth book. I had too many questions... wanted to be a part of my own career. I was so annoying. But agents and gallery dealers hate for us to know and want too much, because then they'll be at OUR mercy instead! Ha! TAKE BACK THE POWER AND READ THIS. It's not one of those fluffy, inspirational "you-can-be-a-writer-too!" books. It's filled with information you might have to read three times with a highlighter in hand.

I'm a writer and I've been so busy making books for the last three years, this is the first book I've READ in a long, long, time. I'm sure glad I didn't choose BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY instead, I'll tell you that much. This one's saving my life. Know what they're talking about when they say "sub serial rights," or whatever (I'm STILL figuring that one out). It's your work, your sexless life you're selling... know the stakes... stop being apologetic and GLAD they return your calls. Be a Viking while kissing their butts from here!--- Good luck to you all. If you're a cranky, bitter writer and read one book in this year, make it THIS one.

And if you don't choose to go it alone, at least you'll be more of a partner to your agent. I guess.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
In the beginning are the words: fifty thousand, seventy-five thousand, a hundred thousand or more. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
primary subsidiary rights, hardcover deal, midlist books, unearned advance, subsidiary income, hardcover publisher, backlist books, option clause, royalty statements, book packagers, net royalty, ancillary rights, profit participants, royalty account, reduced royalty, publishing people, multiple submission, affiliate companies, foreign publishers, higher advance, electronic rights, literary rights, author grants, publishing contracts, collaboration agreement
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, British Commonwealth, Pocket Books, Random House, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles, Publisher's Editions, Writers Guild of America, Consenting Adults, Literary Market Place, Basic Agreement, Knowledge Central, Moon of Saturn, National Writers Union, Steven Spielberg
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