Adventures of an Independent Publisher

I had a noteworthy email exchange with a literary agent today. I found the posting for the book/author he's representing on Publishers Marketplace interesting and emailed him to find out more. It wasn't until he wrote back that I realized that I'd been in contact with him before - he had previously sent me a proposal, which Barricade ultimately turned down.

Anyway, the gist of his email was this: whereas the author of the book we had turned down previously was seeking a publisher, any publisher, for his book, this new author was seeking a publisher who can pony up a considerable advance. I believe his exact words were "she's not going to write a book for the same amount of money she would get for writing a magazine piece."

Ouch.

I swiftly wrote back that I understood but that I hoped he and his client realized that the energy, enthusiasm, and effort (I coined them the three E's right then and there) that I could bring to this project was no small thing. Neither is hearing from your publicist every day as many of my authors do. He wrote back that he liked that - the three E's.

But he's still not sending me the proposal.

- Jen Itskevich
Publicity Director