Folio Literary Management Opens Up Shop
So it’s officially the first month since I started my own agency, Folio Literary Management, with two friends of mine – Scott Hoffman, formerly of PMA Literary; and Paige Wheeler, who’s folded her Creative Media Agency into the new entity. It’s so very cool to be sharing in the operating of own gig – I guess I can still say this because the honeymoon’s still in full blossom – although I’m constantly surprised and daunted at how much work and minutiae is involved: landlords, rent, office phones, office furniture … the list seems endless. Every time we come to the end of one list, there are about three new lists that have unfurled overnight. But the end, I hope, is in sight – we’re hopefully going to sign the office space for New York this week or next; and the DC office is in place, so soon we’ll all be able to get back to the business of actually being literary agents.
At the moment there are six of us – I should introduce them all now, in this first installment, so later, when I refer to them and you don’t know who I’m talking about, you can go back to this first posting to refresh your recollection.
Paige Wheeler is a whirlwind – she has 89 (I exaggerated once and said 90 – “No,” said she, “only eighty-nine”) books coming out this year. And she spends time with each author, really cares about each project – it’s really invigorating to watch. She does mostly commercial fiction – mysteries, thrillers, romance – with some nonfiction and other areas thrown in. She has a background in TV and editing, so it’s great to have her on board.
Scott Hoffman does more pop culture, edgier stuff – but since he has an MBA, and comes from the DC politico world (yes, he was a lobbyist!), he also does more serious fiction and nonfiction, too. His business and nonpublishing background is so terrific – it really feels like he comes to publishing by treating it as a business (as opposed to an old boys’ network), and his ideas are fresh and innovative.
Julie Culver handles our foreign rights. She used to be at Lowenstein-Yost, and is now working with us, both selling international rights and working on her own projects, mostly commercial women’s fiction and nonfiction.
Erin Cartwright, who’s been an editor at many of the big houses – S&S, HarperCollins, Avalon – does a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, including YA. She’s really smart, and it’s great to be able to make use of her editorial background.
Jenny Rappaport does SF&F, some horror, some romance, and a bunch of other stuff, including YA. She’s really tapped into the SF&F market, which is very cool.
And then there’s me, Jeff Kleinman. I handle a variety of fiction and nonfiction, but don’t do much genre stuff – although I love thrillers and suspense novels. The stuff I really really love are those character-driven big novels – a couple of my books, Robert Hicks’s The Widow of the South and Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running both hit the List for a while, so if you’ve read those (and if you haven’t, you should! They’re FANTASTIC!) you’ll have a pretty good indication of the kind of book I like.
So that’s us. At the moment.
We started the agency for a number of reasons, but primarily because we all felt frustrated in our current roles – it doesn’t seem enough, anymore, just to sell the books to the publishers; we’ve got to figure out how to sell the books to the public, as well. Publishers are doing their best, but the publicists and marketing folk are all overworked; and, of course, there just ain’t enough of that green stuff to go around, to provide every author the best publishing experience possible. I’m hopeful that Folio can, in some small way, address the needs of author, publisher, and reader – making letting more people know about the book, and helping support the author’s and publisher’s own efforts. We have a bunch of initiatives planned – some of which we’ve begun implementing for our authors; others are still at the conceptualizing stage – but in any case it feels just so cool to be talking about how to help our authors more than we otherwise could.
Although sometimes it’s a bit bizarre, too. A couple of weeks ago I was in the middle of a big book auction – an incredible first novel that eventually landed at Random House – and was discussing the situation with one of the editors who was bidding on the book. Then one of the other lines rang. Thinking it was another bid coming in, I answered – but instead of the editor I’d expected, it was the Dayton Public Library, returning my phone call. I put ‘em on hold, hung up quickly with the editor, and proceeded to have a lovely discussion with the Nashville Public Library about an upcoming reading my author was giving, and how to motivate their regional branches and regional book-clubs to show up at the event. Then back to the auction.
As I was talking, I felt very much like I was wearing too many hats – after all, I’m just a literary agent, not a PR or marketing guy – and I was way out of my depth. The Dayton Public Library was, I knew, something I should foist off on the folks who were working on the PR initiatives for Folio (although, I also know, a lot of PR folk don’t deal with libraries, anyway). But I also felt – and still feel, very strongly – that unless I, personally, understand what we’re up against, unless we understand the concerns of, say, the libraries, bookclubs, and readers – I won’t be able to be effective in helping to craft those initiatives. Time will tell, I guess, to see if those ideas of ours pay off – about 60-odd people showed up in Dayton for the reading that night, which was encouraging, at any rate.
Natalie’s asked me to write something once a month or so, and I’ll probably fill you in on all of the behind-the-scenes doings as Folio grows. But if there’s something special you want me to address, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email – jkleinman at foliolit (dot) com [sorry, spammers!] – and be sure to put something like “Natalie’s Blog” in the subject line, so I won’t think you’re an impoverished Nigerian woman dying of cancer but offering to leave me – me, yes me! – the balance of her $20 million estate.
Onward!
At the moment there are six of us – I should introduce them all now, in this first installment, so later, when I refer to them and you don’t know who I’m talking about, you can go back to this first posting to refresh your recollection.
Paige Wheeler is a whirlwind – she has 89 (I exaggerated once and said 90 – “No,” said she, “only eighty-nine”) books coming out this year. And she spends time with each author, really cares about each project – it’s really invigorating to watch. She does mostly commercial fiction – mysteries, thrillers, romance – with some nonfiction and other areas thrown in. She has a background in TV and editing, so it’s great to have her on board.
Scott Hoffman does more pop culture, edgier stuff – but since he has an MBA, and comes from the DC politico world (yes, he was a lobbyist!), he also does more serious fiction and nonfiction, too. His business and nonpublishing background is so terrific – it really feels like he comes to publishing by treating it as a business (as opposed to an old boys’ network), and his ideas are fresh and innovative.
Julie Culver handles our foreign rights. She used to be at Lowenstein-Yost, and is now working with us, both selling international rights and working on her own projects, mostly commercial women’s fiction and nonfiction.
Erin Cartwright, who’s been an editor at many of the big houses – S&S, HarperCollins, Avalon – does a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, including YA. She’s really smart, and it’s great to be able to make use of her editorial background.
Jenny Rappaport does SF&F, some horror, some romance, and a bunch of other stuff, including YA. She’s really tapped into the SF&F market, which is very cool.
And then there’s me, Jeff Kleinman. I handle a variety of fiction and nonfiction, but don’t do much genre stuff – although I love thrillers and suspense novels. The stuff I really really love are those character-driven big novels – a couple of my books, Robert Hicks’s The Widow of the South and Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running both hit the List for a while, so if you’ve read those (and if you haven’t, you should! They’re FANTASTIC!) you’ll have a pretty good indication of the kind of book I like.
So that’s us. At the moment.
We started the agency for a number of reasons, but primarily because we all felt frustrated in our current roles – it doesn’t seem enough, anymore, just to sell the books to the publishers; we’ve got to figure out how to sell the books to the public, as well. Publishers are doing their best, but the publicists and marketing folk are all overworked; and, of course, there just ain’t enough of that green stuff to go around, to provide every author the best publishing experience possible. I’m hopeful that Folio can, in some small way, address the needs of author, publisher, and reader – making letting more people know about the book, and helping support the author’s and publisher’s own efforts. We have a bunch of initiatives planned – some of which we’ve begun implementing for our authors; others are still at the conceptualizing stage – but in any case it feels just so cool to be talking about how to help our authors more than we otherwise could.
Although sometimes it’s a bit bizarre, too. A couple of weeks ago I was in the middle of a big book auction – an incredible first novel that eventually landed at Random House – and was discussing the situation with one of the editors who was bidding on the book. Then one of the other lines rang. Thinking it was another bid coming in, I answered – but instead of the editor I’d expected, it was the Dayton Public Library, returning my phone call. I put ‘em on hold, hung up quickly with the editor, and proceeded to have a lovely discussion with the Nashville Public Library about an upcoming reading my author was giving, and how to motivate their regional branches and regional book-clubs to show up at the event. Then back to the auction.
As I was talking, I felt very much like I was wearing too many hats – after all, I’m just a literary agent, not a PR or marketing guy – and I was way out of my depth. The Dayton Public Library was, I knew, something I should foist off on the folks who were working on the PR initiatives for Folio (although, I also know, a lot of PR folk don’t deal with libraries, anyway). But I also felt – and still feel, very strongly – that unless I, personally, understand what we’re up against, unless we understand the concerns of, say, the libraries, bookclubs, and readers – I won’t be able to be effective in helping to craft those initiatives. Time will tell, I guess, to see if those ideas of ours pay off – about 60-odd people showed up in Dayton for the reading that night, which was encouraging, at any rate.
Natalie’s asked me to write something once a month or so, and I’ll probably fill you in on all of the behind-the-scenes doings as Folio grows. But if there’s something special you want me to address, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email – jkleinman at foliolit (dot) com [sorry, spammers!] – and be sure to put something like “Natalie’s Blog” in the subject line, so I won’t think you’re an impoverished Nigerian woman dying of cancer but offering to leave me – me, yes me! – the balance of her $20 million estate.
Onward!
2 Comments:
As a publisher who also feels it's not enough to publish then dump all the marketing into the lap of the author and an author who wishes she had someone to help with the job, I'm going to enjoy your shared adventures. :-)
Congratulations and many, many bestsellers to all of you!
I don't suppose you'd loan me some of that Nigerian money for promotion? Oh, wait. I think I got some, too!!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home