Revisiting the Fraying of Frey...

Back in 2005 we may have been the first folks to point out that the missing link in the big brouhaha about what was true and what was not in James Frey’s purported memoir, A MILLION LITTLE PIECES was the advice he had to have gotten from his then agent, the usually very good Kassie Evashevski.  Frey’s first response when the stuff hit the fan was, “…we tried to submit it as a novel…” and no one on TV or in the papers, not even Oprah, was asking who “we” was.  Not surprising.  The general press absolutely doesn’t get the role of the literary agent.

So, late as we are, we must take note of the next chapter in the saga.  The extraordinarily talented Frey has done a novel, and a few months ago no less a publishing mench than  Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit sold it to Jonathan Burnham at HarperCollins.  BRIGHT SHINY MORNING is scheduled for the summer of 2008.  We’ll be among those waiting at the bookstore.  Frey is a compelling writer.   

Okay, that’s Frey’s second chance and in our view his talent deserves  it.  On the agent front, Evashevski – who was with Brillstein Grey during “the troubles” – went to ground for something like a year, then surfaced last spring at UTA.  The address is below and the following quote from her AR&E file is worth repeating here:  “…while [Evashevski] sells a lot of dramatic rights to books already represented by other agents, she, more than most dramatic rights agents, is capable of marketing primary volume rights.  And willing to do so when something really grabs her.  A ton of heart on the page is the sine qua non of what she takes on, and non-fiction remains a better bet than fiction.”  (Which may have made her the wrong one to tell Frey how to novelize the story; or when he'd done it, to connect with the the right editors to make the buy.)

London Bridge is Falling Down...

Another major agent story that passed us by while we were off in nineteenth century Manhattan – absolutely fascinating, you should go – is the implosion of the once mighty PFD agency in London.  This one really has been well reported, but distilled to its essence it involves a large, highly prestigious agency that was sold some years ago to a fairly arm’s-length parent company who recently indicated they were ready to sell, but were unable or unwilling to come to an agreement with the in-house consortium of agents who wanted to buy.  So the agents (a very big chunk of the agency’s roster) said, fine, we’re out of here.  They’re planning to open a new agency in early 2008, and so far the indications are that almost all their very prestigious authors will be going with them.  We’ll list the agents involved when the new agency officially opens and we have the firm data. 

Meanwhile this sounds very much like the story of the demise of the once mighty Scott Meredith Agency.  Meredith almost single-handedly broke the grip of the editors who as late as the sixties were demanding that agents approach them one at a time; a feat Meredith was able to pull off because at the time his agency represented an enormously high percentage of bestselling authors.  No publisher could afford to be blackballed by Scott Meredith.  When he died suddenly in the early ‘90s, his widow also could not come to an agreement with the in-house agents who wanted to buy the agency.  The result was the formation of the still active and healthy Scovil, Chichak & Galen, who took virtually all the Meredith clients with them.  Leaving a totally defanged and utterly discredited Scott Meredith Agency that wound up with only the much criticized quasi-scam ms reading service Meredith had himself started.  Plus, of course, the humongously valuable backlist of books – many still selling – on which the Meredith Agency remains the agent of record.

Bringing us to the bottom line on the PFD story.  Whatever the shake out eventually looks like, the backlist stays with the original agency.  Whoever owns that entity will continue to get the commissions on all royalties paid on contracts signed when PFD was a fully functioning agency, alive and well and selling books in London and points north, south, east, and west.  This is why the “agent of record” clause is so important.  (Another thing the general press frequently doesn’t get.  And sadly, neither do a lot of writers.  Though it’s less critical, because authors continue to get their share of the royalties earned by previously published books whomever their current agent might be.)   

DO I REALLY NEED AN AGENT WHEN I’VE ALREADY GOT THE DEAL?

Astonishingly, this question continues to come up, even from experienced writers who should know better.

Short answer:  Yes, you do.  There is simply no way a decent literary agent is not going to be able to cut you a better deal than you can cut for yourself.

Moreover, when you approach an agent with a deal in hand – whether it’s because the publisher approached you as a known expert on a given subject, or in response to something you wrote in a magazine or a newspaper, or because you got an editor interested at a writing conference or through a mutual connection – that agent is going to see it as a point of pride to get you more money and better terms than you have already been offered.  And no, you won’t offend the publisher.  They all – without exception – expect to work with agents 99% of the time.  Most much prefer doing business with someone who knows which clauses are likely to be negotiable, and which represent standard industry practice, more or less graven in stone for all but authors with a great deal of clout. 

We were reminded of this because at the moment we’ve been corresponding with a long-time writer who is in precisely that situation, and having gotten a Customized Fingerprint from us, can’t now see why he should take this virtually done deal to the agent he winds up with, rather than signing this contract on his own, and getting the agent to go to market with the next project.  For our response see the preceding paragraph.  But also note what follows:  It’s just been announced that Canadian film director David Cronenberg's first novel has gone to Nicole Winstanley at Penguin Canada.  She, we’re told, wrote him "several months ago to inquire about whether or not he'd consider writing a novel."   Apparently Cronenberg had one in mind if not underway. 

He did not, however, fall into Penguin’s open arms.  The sale has been reported as being made by Andrew Wylie.  (Think Philip Roth, the late Norman Mailer, Elmore Leonard, Larry McMurtry, et much al.)  Meaning that Cronenberg – who does not appear to have previously been represented by the agent – asked Wylie to negotiate with Penguin.  The agent did better than that.  He set up an auction and Penguin was forced to take the book as a pre-empt, no doubt for decent money, to avoid having to bid against other publishers.  The book meanwhile sounds as if it’s not yet written.  Publication is scheduled for early 2010. 

Any odds you care to name says the illustrious (or notorious, depending on your pov) Mr. Wylie got Cronenberg a better deal than he could have gotten for himself.  Never mind that as a director he is no doubt accustomed to negotiating in the world of film.

GREEN THING

Sometimes some things are more important than even a book contract.  We know a writer in London who recently told his publisher he simply couldn’t finish the book on any kind of deadline because he was helping to save the planet.  (Though he was much more unassuming than that.) 

We’re speaking of Andy Hobsbawm, one of the founding principals behind a super site called Do The Green Thing.  It’s powered by creativity seeking to change the behavior of us all, and based on the simple principle that this is an emergency, and the net is the easiest, most effective way to reach millions of people.  If you’re concerned about climate change – and you should be – you should definitely visit.  No, you won’t have to give up your current contract.  Remember Martina Navratilova’s story when a reporter asked her why when in training she ate only the white of a nicely fried egg:  "Think of a plate of bacon and eggs," she said. "The hen is involved, but the pig is committed." Like Martina, Andy decided to be a pig. You can be a hen and still go take a look.

THE SCREENWRITERS STRIKE

It is a constant puzzle that the Writers Guild of America, largely writers for film and TV, has managed to bind their members into such effective solidarity, while the Authors Guild serving writers of  book-length works, has never managed to achieve the same unity or effectiveness.  (Yes, we know about the Writers Union and certainly the ASJA, but neither of them have anything like the same clout either.)

Partly it’s the way the different aspects of the writing profession function; partly some mysterious alchemy we don’t pretend to understand.  And yes, like the rest of you, we’re missing new episodes of some of our favorite shows.  But if ever there was a looming disaster for those of us who make our living stringing words together, the issue of electronic content is it. 

The bottom line is pretty straightforward.  If in the already arrived digital future – destined only to grow larger – anyone can put what we write on the Internet in any way, shape, or form without having to pay us a just and reasonable royalty, we’re cooked. 

That sentence began as just, reasonable, and prompt royalty.  But in the book publishing world prompt is already a dead issue; we’re not only cooked, we’re done to a turn.  But the Internet…   You go, guys.  You’re carrying the water of us all.

Kassie Evashevski

United Talent Agency

9560 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 500

Beverly Hills, CA  90212

310-246-6059

Eric Simonoff

Janklow & Nesbit Associates

445 Park Avenue, 13^th Floor

New York, NY  10022

212-421-1700

Andrew Wylie

The Wylie Agency, Inc.

250 West 57th St., Suite 2114

New York, NY  10107

(212) 246-0069