Every year, about 300,000 books are published in the United States alone. It’s somehow hard to believe that each of these projects has a team behind it—there’s an author, an editor, a publicist, a marketing team, and a literary agent. “What I do, in my role as an agent, is craft, help edit, create, and try to make as good a product as possible before I go out and approach publishers,” literary agent Harvey Klinger explains. Klinger, an alum of the Writing Seminars, is the founder of his own eponymous literary agency and has played an integral role in the publishing process for the past 30 years. Along with Thoroughfare, J. Mag, and the Black and Blue Jay, Her Campus JHU invited Klinger to speak to the students of the Writing Seminars program on November 4th.
“I think having gone through the Seminars, having gone through the process of critiquing one’s own work as well as the work of others, made me uniquely well-suited to do the work that I’m doing,” Klinger says. It was chance he became an agent. After a lackluster stint at Doubleday as an editorial trainee, Klinger got a job as an assistant at a literary agency, and received a crash course on “How Not to Be a Literary Agent.” Shortly after, he was brought on as an agent at a publicity firm and went independent two years later. That was in 1977.
Since then, the publishing industry has changed quite a bit. According to Klinger, there has been “an enormous amount of consolidation among the publishers so we’re left with the Big 5 [Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster] and some smaller independents.” Additionally, thanks to the introduction of eBooks, writers are faced with new means to market their work. However, self-published work isn’t taken as seriously by the industry. “What I think about the vast majority of self-published work is that they can’t get published traditionally, [and the writers] can’t get agents.” The only self-published content publishers are going to be interested in are written by self-made wonders—writers who already have fanbases—like Amanda Hocking or a Colleen Hoover. “If you have the talent, don’t just go and put your book up on Script or Hulu, or any other kind of lulu. Go out there, and get an agent!” So, Harvey, how exactly would I do that?
“Basically what I’m always looking for is a great new voice for fiction, and in nonfiction, it’s someone who already has an established professional platform and presence in whatever subject he or she wants to be writing about.” Years ago, publishers were keen on acquiring debut nonfiction projects, thinking that the Book would make the Author. Nowadays, if there isn’t built-in publicity for a nonfiction author (think Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker resume, or countless celebrity books), it’s difficult to cut a nonfiction deal. But fiction? “It’s about the book.” What Klinger recommends is looking at other novels that you consider somewhat similar to your own work—most times the agent of the novel will be in the Acknowledgements. While he can’t speak for all agents, Klinger often responds to queries when the prospective writer tells him “I read the Art of Adapting, or Barbara Wood’s new novel, and I think I have a terrific historical I think would also be of interest to you.” He also evaluates the writer’s background, and a brief synopsis of the project—if he likes what he sees, he’ll request the opening chapters of the novel.
“I read the opening few chapters, and I know right away whether or not I can relate to the voice. I have a first novel that I dearly love called The Art of Adapting by Cassandra Dunn, which was published by Touchstone in July. Cassandra sent me a few chapters and I liked them and then she sent me the whole novel, and we went back and forth for three drafts over the course of six months.” About a year ago, Klinger gave Dunn a call, and told her “this is the call that’s going to stay in your cell phone forever.” When editors and publishers listen to his pitches, they know when he’s excited about something, because most of them have all known him for so many years.
“Every author is different, every experience is different, some are more meaningful, and some are great flukes that get dropped in your lap.” But regardless of the project, Klinger has found that he has maintained relationships with most of his authors. Barbara Wood, author of 22 historical fiction novels, is one of Klinger’s oldest clients. “When you’re so involved in the creative life of an individual it’s hard not to have a strong working relationship and a friendship. Barbara and I are dear friends because, let’s face it, the writing world is fairly lonely. It’s nice to have an agent you can consider a friend despite the amount of loneliness and rejection involved,” he says. Because each project requires such personal attention, the typical cycle involves working closely with a small handful of clients at any given time, usually 6-10 (“it’s very difficult to be an effective agent if you’re spread too thin”). The other agents in Klinger’s office (Sara Crowe, Andrea Somberg, and David Dunton) work the same way. Publishing is also a seasonal industry—when people come back from vacation during the post-Labor Day period, “they’re hungry, everyone’s asking what you read over the summer that you’re excited about.”
This past summer, Klinger mostly read novels from debut authors, pieces he’s been working with them to develop. They’re “all over the map”—literary, commercial, women’s fictions, and general fiction. Adult fiction doesn’t conform to the same market trends that Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction does; it hasn’t changed much in the past 30 years (women’s fiction is always going to be of interest to editors and publishers because women are statistically the most voracious readers). In the Young Adult market, there has been a recent saturation of dystopian literature (thanks, Hunger Games). However, when Sara Crowe, the YA agent at Klinger’s agency, is pitching publishers, the work she represents doesn’t fall into specific categories. She’s more interested in the quality of each individual project. At one time, the publishers were buying trendy projects in bulk, all hoping they’d have the next Harry Potter. Klinger doesn’t think that same frenzied behavior exists, because very few wizard/vampire/zombie books were well-received. “The publishers are often following our lead in terms of what we think is going to be hot,” he says, “We say ‘here it is,’ but whether or not they are going to respond well is anyone’s guess.”
At its most basic, the publishing community is composed of writers, agents, editors, publishers, salespeople, marketing people, and publicists, collaborating to produce something that’s going to end up in the public’s hands, something people are going to want to read. “The bottom line in all of this: getting people to read. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Harry Potter significantly contributed to the enormous growth that we have seen in the Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction markets because it made reading enjoyable and entertaining for kids. Their parents saw that and they started reading together, so reading became a fun joint effort, not like homework, but like a hobby, which to me is great. I would like to think that that carries over, and that as young people develop and mature, they will always discover that books are there to be enjoyed. Print books, eBooks, Kindle—however you are finding yourself reading, keep doing it.”
To learn more about the Harvey Klinger, Inc. visit www.harveyklinger.com.