Carly Watters

And one of the things I think is really interesting, because the review is called the power of fit.

And I think we talk about fit all the time, you know, this isn't a fit, or this isn't a fit for my list, or, you know, da da da da da.

And so here's a quote from the LA Review of Books.

The work of agenting, falling for a manuscript, pitching it best you can, and struggling to sell it comes into sharpest focus in her discussion of agents who represent authors of color because they demonstrate that the literary agent's most valuable quality is often persistence.

Few agents have the power of wily or sterling lord to singly, handedly make a career.

The pressure on the rest of them are considerable.

15% commission does not go far, especially when the portion of it goes to agency overheads and a steady stream of deals matter as much as large advances, which is exactly what Cece was just talking about.

This incentivizes agents to hedge.

building lists that balance literary and commercial writers.

And I think, you know, and we can kind of get into how fit plays into that, how being generalists, you know, play into that.

And how much do agents hedge against all of this, knowing how hard it is?

Cece, was there anything that stood out to you there?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I made a few notes because...

I mean, again, I need to dive into this book more.

But one of the things this makes me think about is like, what is my job?

You know, I just said my job as a salesperson.

I also think my job is an advocate and advocacy.

And that's one of the reasons why I do the show and want to teach and obviously, you know, spread the good word about, you know, how agents can can help their authors through just how difficult the book business is.

So I think about, yeah, like, what, what is my job?