Doug Grad
Doug Grad Literary Agency
DOSSIER: Since agents are often seen as gatekeepers into publishing, they often have a lot of sway on getting a writer discovered. We know you work hard so that your writers succeed, but where is the line for you in determining a writer’s potential and whether you feel it’s worth it to develop that person to a point where you both can find success with a submission? Are you just thinking about that manuscript, or are you reading it with an eye toward what they might be capable of down the road?
GRAD: When I’m reading fiction, I’m looking for a number of things beyond the manuscript. Of course, one of the things we look for is whether or not there’s potential for a series. Is the main character someone I’d want to spend more time with as a reader? Is the setting or situation one that can sustain multiple returns? Are there enough story ideas beyond one or two that can take a series into five or ten books, or more? And of course, how good is the writing. I’ll have conversations with a writer about ideas they have for expanding their novel into a series. Some have thought about it already and have a number of story ideas they’ve been toying with. Others haven’t. I’ve sold 17 books by Ellen Byron, my multiple award-winning cozy mystery author. We’re now on her fourth series. But we didn’t sell her first novel! However, her writing was good (she was a working sitcom writer for shows like “Just Shoot Me” and “Wings,” and clearly she had a great sense of character and a great sense of humor. So I knew it would just be a matter of figuring out the right story to tell. We sold her first series to Crooked Lane (The Cajun Country Mysteries), then her second series, which was so totally different it was under a pseudonym (The Catering Hall Mysteries by Maria DiRico) went to Kensington. The third series went to Berkley (The Vintage Cookbook Mysteries) and then it was picked up by Severn House. Her new series—The Golden Motel Mysteries—will be hardcovers from Kensington. Ellen is not only smart, funny, a terrific writer, and never misses a deadline, but she’s open to collaboration. Since I was not only an editor for a couple of decades (Pocket, Ballantine, New American Library, ReganBooks), and was an actor before that, I’m pretty good at giving feedback and spitballing ideas…and Ellen is great at taking them and running with them. I have to fall in love with the concept of the book to take it on. It helps to have an author who is a kindred spirit. Since becoming an agent, I employ the “No Jerk Rule.” After 22 years in corporate publishing, I was determined to work only with people I could enjoy spending time with. Life is too short to be in an argumentative and stomach-pain-inducing business relationship!
DOSSIER: What are some of the things you find writers worrying about that aren’t really a big deal? On the flip side, what do writers need to be aware of that can hurt them when it comes to finding representation or getting published?
GRAD: I think that writers are for the most part pretty chill. The biggest issue for new or as-yet-unpublished writers is their lack of knowledge of the industry. And that’s okay—that’s what I’m here for. That’s why you hire an agent—you get an industry expert on your side to be your advocate. So while I work for the writer, writers who start being demanding in a way that sounds like they think they know more than I do about publishing, or are telling me how to do my job…that doesn’t sit well with me. If you hire a lawyer, or a plumber, and don’t take their advice, then what’s the point of hiring them? You’ll be in jail or standing in a flooded basement! Things that can hurt a writer are being antagonistic with their agent, editor, or publisher. I swear that I spend a lot of time talking writers off the window ledge after they complain that their publisher “didn’t do anything.” If they think they’re going to get the major full-court press as if they were Stephen King, then they need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Yes, it’s true, that most authors don’t get much in the way of marketing/promotion/publicity support from their publisher, whether it’s PenguinRandomHouse (I’m not specifically picking on them, by the way, just naming a Big Five house), or Joe Schmoe Books. A lot of what publishers used to do has been pushed onto the backs of authors. Hey, nothing stays the same, and the economics of the industry are vastly different than they were when I started in the 1980s, when publishing was great, and fun, and a license to print money. Some writers worry too much about their covers (I firmly believe that writers are the absolute worst judges of book covers), when they don’t realize what a cover is supposed to do—catch the eye in an intriguing way that makes a prospective buyer want to check it out. That’s pretty much it. Writers always want to busy-up their covers to make it “100% accurate” to what’s in the book. No! It doesn’t have to be! It needs to be clean, spare, easy to read, bright, colorful, or dark and foreboding. Eye-catching.
DOSSIER: Agents have different preferences when it comes to query letters e.g., citing comps or going over one page. There’s a ton of advice and guidelines out there, but what do you definitely want to see in that first paragraph? Is there at least one do or one don’t you have? Anything you’ve been dying to tell the writing community?
GRAD: The obsession over query letters cracks me up. I can’t tell you how many writers conference have panel discussions or workshops focusing on that. I know it’s hard, but it’s not that hard. If you can write a 300 page manuscript, you can write a 3 paragraph query letter. My advice is to write what you want to say, see how long it is, and then chop it down until it all fits on one page, with room for a heading and closing. And don’t cheat on the margins! 🙂 For that first paragraph, I want to see that the writer has the ability to distill the essence of the book into a sentence or two. Read the deal postings on Publishers Marketplace. Yes, I know, they’re a little convoluted, but they get right to the point. When I was an editorial assistant, I had to write Fact Sheets or Tip Sheets for a lot of books—I had to read the manuscript and distill it down to about 250 words. It was really hard to do that at first, but, like anything else, the more you do it the better you get at it. Pretty soon it wasn’t so hard, and my ABOUT THE BOOK sections became shorter, more succinct, and better. It’s a skill that can be developed. But you only improve by doing (unlike my golf game). Writing is rewriting, and that goes for query letters too. Write a draft. Sleep on it. Revise. Revise. Revise. I think that comps are fine, but they don’t have to stick to books. TV and movies are fine. It seems that going back in time too far is a no-no. I think a comp of “It’s like The Great Gatsby meets James Joyce’s The Dubliners” is going to make agents and editors reach for the Delete button. But don’t assume that we are all familiar with every contemporary title, either. I mean, geez, I’m reading manuscripts more often than doing pleasure reading. (Although I will admit to a recent Mick Herron jag—4 Slow Horses novels and a book of Slow Horses novellas.) The only other thing I’d want to see in the first paragraph of a query letter is anything notable about the writer. For instance, in Ellen Byron’s query to me (over the transom!), her opening line was something like, “As a working sitcom writer…” You’d have a hard time beating that for getting an agent or editor to sit up and take notice! But I know that not everyone can have that in their back pocket. But if you’re writing an espionage thriller and you open your letter with, “As a former CIA field agent…” that might work too.
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