Literary Agent Vicky Bijur thinks that writers and agents need to stay educated about the possibilities of epublishing. She tells us in this interview that a short cover letter gets her attention, and why she hopes that ebooks will just mean more total books sold.
To begin with, can you tell us your official title and why you're the best agent you know?
One of the things I love most about not working in a corporation is that titles are irrelevant in my corner of the world. I don't have to waste any energy worrying about my title. I can spend all that energy worrying about my clients.
No idea if I am the best agent--the criteria are too subjective. All I can hope for is to do my personal best of behalf of my list.
How about a personal fact about yourself?
Despite the fact that I'm married to a food writer, all I really care about in a restaurant is a low decibel level.
Can you let us in on what's "hot" with editors and agents today?
As soon as someone figures out what's hot, whatever it is goes ice cold. So I try to stay away from guessing about the latest trend. I am actually quite thrilled with the manuscripts and proposals I'm seeing.
How did you prepare yourself for the tough economic times that publishers are facing right now?
Agents these days spend an enormous amount of time in discussion about pricing, ebooks, digitization, electronic rights, and so forth. We agents and authors should be educating ourselves as best we can to stay ahead of the curve.
Do you think that ebooks and other advances in digital publishing are a good thing for publishers and writers
I love my Kindle. One of these days I am sure I will be getting an iPad. The hope is that readers will buy books in higher volume as prices drop.