Admin time

As it’s nearly the end of the tax year I’m working today on annual statements for my clients. I am not a natural admin person but am a fan of having straightforward documentation so me, my authors and the tax man, should he come knocking, can all see what’s going on. Apart from this I’m busy with preparations for the London Book Fair – and the York Festival of Writing – I realised last night I haven’t written my workshop yet as I’ve been so tied up with the organisation of the Festival as a whole. That might be bank holiday Monday’s job…

A tough year

A good writer does not mince words and so my summary for the Kate Nash Literary Agency’s first year stands. Launching any new business in a recession is difficult but publishing is going through its own particular stormy weather and evolving. In 2009 we said goodbye to Borders UK, we should have said hello to the Amazon Kindle and we got our knickers in a twist about the Google Book Settlement.

I remain concerned about erosions of authors’ rights and underwhelmed by a rosy future belonging only to the ebook. However, I am more optimistic for 2010 as a whole, and will continue to report the journey.

All glamour and champagne

There are no doubt people who assume the life of a literary agent is (apart from being drowned by vast paper mountains) all glamour and champagne. Actually, it’s hard work and at this time of year there is the additional drudgery of royalty statements. Royalty statements are produced by publishers, typically six-monthly, to show how many copies of an author’s books have been sold and therefore how much in royalties is owed to the author.

Advances and provisions for returns will generally be offset against this figure so authors receive additional monies only after their advance has “earned out” (as the phrase goes).

The upsides of royalty statements are:

• that hopefully royalties are owed and therefore a cheque is enclosed.
• they contain valuable information. The agent and author can see in detail how a title has sold and where things stand.

The downsides are:

• admin involved in dealing with them and checking. Especially if your agent is a one-person business like me and therefore there is no one else to pass this chore onto.
• every publisher has their own system and conventions and so deciphering what is going on isn’t as straightforward as you might think.

It’s Friday

Having completed the judging for the SWWJ, I was able to get back to The Pile of full manuscripts this week but I am still behind! I will catch up soon but once one becomes an agent and has clients to look after, reading material for clients becomes a priority above reading submissions. As I only have one pair of eyes I’m looking for a reader or two (email with CV and rates if interested please).

Last week I made it to the RNA Summer Party in London where the Joan Hessayson New Writers prize was awarded to Allie Spencer. Watching the line up of debut authors waiting to hear the results announced reminded me when I was in that line-up back in 2005, and also how successful some of my fellow nominees have become with their literary careers since then.

Back in the office, Lelsey Cookman’s Murder in Bloom was published on 18th May and I’ve been watching it doing well on amazon. I was asked to do some one-to-one appointments at the RNA Annual Conference in July, so sent off my bio etc for the programme. Feedback from publishers has started to come through from my early post-Book Fair submissions, some of which is encouraging, and a large print sale of my own latest short novel to Linford Romance/Ulverscroft.

I’m looking forward to spending a couple of days away from it all over the bank holiday weekend. The weather forecast is looking good.

Meeting prospective clients

I had an email today from a writer looking for an agent who wanted to potentially meet me at the London Book Fair. While on the one hand this might seem enterprising and a good idea from the writer’s point of view, from mine, it’s not. I’m not going to meet someone on the basis of a two line email. The writer enclosed no samples or information about her work, and without this I have nothing to judge whether we might wish to potentially work together or not.

Additionally I really don’t have time at the London Book Fair to meet with prospective clients, unless circumstances are exceptional. For a literary agent, the Fair is about the business of selling rights and the priority is meeting publishers and overseas agents.

I would encourage writers to visit the Book Fair and to take a look around and learn more about the business of publishing, but its not a forum to find a literary agent. If you do want to meet literary agents face to face then attend a writers conference where agents will be present. I shall be both at Winchester and the RNA Annual Conference in July and at either I would be more than happy to speak informally with writers seeking representation. At Winchester there is an official one-to-one appointments system, or otherwise just corner me in the bar.

Reading day

I have been having a reading day today in an attempt to catch up. This involves, you guessed it, reading material all day, and especially requested fulls from The Pile and also from existing clients. Today I’ve finished two scripts and am half way through another which I hope to finish tonight although I admit I am going a little pie eyed so need a break.

I already read almost every evening, on train journeys once or twice a week, and then also during the day when I get the time but stuff has been piling up at a faster rate than I can read it. How many novel length manuscripts do you think I’ll read in a year?

Client list announcement at Book Brunch

My debut client list is announced at Book Brunch today.

First cheque and a conference invite

Two exciting things happened today: the first is that the first advance cheque arrived from a publisher for a book sold by the Kate Nash Literary Agency. So it will be a novelty at the bank tomorrow morning actually paying some money in, as so far the Agency has been about paying money out on all the various business expenses.

I will be announcing book sales and my debut client list this week so watch this space.

The second exciting thing was getting an invite to come to Winchester Writers Conference in July. I will be doing some 1-to-1 appointments there on Saturday 4th July. Full details tbc.

My new assistant

It has gone a bit mad

I have had 8 queries so far this week. Many, I think, are a result of being on the front page of this month’s Writers News.

If you’ve queried me in the last couple of weeks, it is going to take a little longer than I would like for me to get back to you. I’m now actively working with four authors whom I’ve taken on as clients, plus I have full manuscripts that I have asked to look at to read (3 on The Pile at the moment). This leaves less time available to look at queries, but I do want to consider every submission carefully so I hope you will bear with me. Thanks for your patience.