By Olivia Snaije PARIS: Until very recently, literary agents have been viewed in France with suspicion and the very topic seen as taboo. Traditionally, authors would submit and sell books directly to publishers. Agents were viewed as mere interlopers, interfering with a privileged relationship between author and publisher and introducing a mercenary, Anglo-Saxon element into the closed publishing circuit. But …
Are French Authors Better Off With or Without Agents?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s feature story about the increasing influence of literary agents in French publishing, author Jonathan Littell is quoted as saying that, as an American (albeit one writing in French), getting an agent was second nature to him. “In the Anglo-Saxon literary world if you want to publish a book, you look for an agent first,” he …
Bonus Material: Why Don’t Romance Writers Get More Critical Respect?
By Edward Nawotka Romance writers, are, if anything, unashamed of what they do—not the least of which is make a lot of money and have a lot of fun doing it. At the Web site Allromanceebooks.com, discussed in our lead article today, the site asks readers to rate each book’s “heat index” (explained below). Readers gobble up the books, but …