I have to be honest, here…I don’t know everything there is to know about this subject. I know some things through experience but some of this will be a bit of guess work. If anyone has anything to add, or if you flat out disagree with me, feel free to chime in.

Ok. I have a representative. I actually just signed him. This is my second representative – I parted ways with the first guy amicably. I want to make books, right now, and needed a literary agent who could help make that happen. So I hired one. Bob Mecoy. He represents a lot of folks I like. We talked and we connected. I interviewed several reps and I felt like Bob was the one for what I wanted to do.

So, why Bob?

Well…he knows people in the book world, for starters. What good is a literary agent if he doesn’t know anyone? A lot of folks sign with an agent to say they have an agent but their agent is incapable of setting up meetings and making things happen; can’t close a deal. Hell, if I’m going to hand over 15% for that I might as well name my mom as my agent. She could use the cash.

I feel like Bob and I can work well together. We speak the same language. I talk about a book I want to do and his ideas on how it would do and where it would sell parallel mine. Also, he has some ideas that go beyond what I originally planned. An agent should be able to see the potential in your work – they should be able to see more potential than you currently see. I felt like I had that with Bob.

I feel like there has to be a symbiotic relationship between talent and agent. They work for you, true, but you also need to work for them. You need to give them a book that’s going to sell for enough money to make their time worthwhile.

When I first went looking for an agent I was told by several different people that I would never be able to land a literary agent. This was despite the fact that I was bringing someone a deal – I was looking for an agent because Random House flat-out told me, “If we’re going to go any further, you’re going to need to hire an agent.” The thought a lot of comic folks had was, “Comics don’t make enough money for the good literary agents to get involved.”

So I hired a manager – someone who’s setup to take my comic projects and sell the ancillary rights. They can negotiate book contracts and some of the bigger agencies can even get you to meetings to find new work but, for the most part, their looking to set your work up with a studio and make you some movie money and take their 10%.

Once POSTCARDS came out, however, and we were receiving a ton of press in some huge publications (USA Today, for instance, the #1 paper in America), I quickly realized that I could certainly land a strong literary agent. I decided to focus my career in that direction and to my surprise, agents were interested.

So, what to look for in an agent...

Three of the criteria I used are noted above: client list, contact list, and creative connection. Another thing that I believe is important is history. I found during my searches that a lot of agents bounced around at several publishers before becoming an agent. Bob Mecoy, for example, was senior editor at Simon & Shuster and executive editor at Crown Publishing. That’s a good guy to have representing you, right there.

Reputation is also a plus. When I asked a couple of publishers what they thought about Bob, they had great things to say about him. Same with his clients. So, his clients loved him and, most importantly, publishers loved him or at least knew of him and heard good things. How could that be bad?

With Hollywood agencies, it seems like their client list is the most important thing because it represents a package deal. They can bundle up this book with this screenwriter and this director and there you go – a full-package. With literary agents, it’s really just you and your book they’re selling. So, what I’m saying is, you can get away with an agent that’s not in a big house but has a lot of connections and a solid reputation.

Where to find an agent? Asking people who represents them is always a good start. A lot of folks put their rep’s info on their websites – ten minutes of sleuthing will probably come up with two or three people who’re representing comic folks. Publishers Marketplace is a great resource for finding agents and looking up the agents that you’re talking to. Use the “Who Represents” feature and type in the agent you’re researching to see who they represent and what deals they’ve closed. You can type in your favorite cartoonist or writer to see who represents them and what deals they’ve closed for them. A lot of agents have bio pages on the site along with contact information and instructions.

Important! Follow the instructions carefully and do your research! Know about your agent and do not send form letters! Agents talk to each other a lot. You mess up with one and you’ll likely mess up with a lot of them. Give it a bit of a personal note. Talk about their client list or where you read about them. Just make sure you’re not sending the same query to twenty people. And, most importantly, sell yourself. You have to have a book and you have to have some attention turned towards you. If a publisher (preferably a book publisher) is already interested – great! If you’ve recently had a windfall of press – great! If you’re a guy with an idea for a book come back when you have a book. If you still use the word “aspiring” come back when you drop it from your resume.

You don’t need an agent to start making comics. You don't need an agent to sell your comic to a comic publisher. Chances are that any agent that’ll look at you when you’re just starting out is not the best agent you can get anyway. You need an agent to further your career, sure, but it’s important that you have a career to begin with or, at least, enough people saying you have a potential career.

Ok, I’ll cut this off for now and leave it open to questions and comments.

Labels: editorial-control

Every so often I get an email from someone asking me if I'm looking to work with any new writers. The short answer is, "yes." The long answer is, "Yes, but we probably won't work together for at least two years." The truth is – I have a lot of "new writers" that I already want to work with. Look at Postcards - the less-established writers, guys like Chris Stevens and Jay Busbee – I've known them for close to four years at this point. The second volume of Postcards currently has seven writers that I'd consider "new" and I've known each of them for over two years.

So, yeah, I'm looking for new writers. But that doesn't mean I'm looking to publish new writers starting with my next book.

I've met a lot of great writers over the past several years. Some of them came to me and some of them I've found. Some of them I've managed to get into anthologies I've edited (Western Tales of Terror and now Postcards) and some of them I've decided to edit their graphic novels or comic projects (like Eric Hobbs' Broadcast and JJ Khars' Rose Colored Crash). But they all have one thing in common – before I agreed to work with them in any capacity I talked to them several times, over the phone and usually face-to-face. I got to know them. I got a grasp on their limitations and their strengths.

It's important that an editor has a strong working relationship with a writer. An editor needs to understand what can be expected and how good a writer can get and the only way to have that understanding is if a) the editor is very familiar with the writer's published work or b) the editor is very familiar with the writer.

It's also important to me is that I become comfortable with how a writer conducts themselves in public. I have to admit, I'd be more willing to work with a socially inept artist than writer. A good artist is hard to find and if someone can put down some gorgeous work that's all I need. I don't ask artists to do any extra promotion. If they want to take part in some of the promotional stuff that's cool, but as far as I'm concerned – they put in their time when they drew their pages. They spent hours in front of that table rendering a single page of script. Once I get those high-res scans their job is finished.

The writer's job, however, isn't done yet. They're the ones that I expect to take part in interviews and signings. They're the ones that I depend on to participate in the podcasts and roundtables. The writers become the public face for the book if I'm not around. That's part of the job, in my opinion. I prefer any writer I work with be someone I can trust representing me when I'm not around. And that's not something I get out of one email. In fact, here's how it'll usually go down…

You ask, "Can I send you some samples of my work?"

Are the samples illustrated? If all you have is a script, come back when you have a comic. If you can't find someone to illustrate a couple of pages of your story it means: a) it's not good or b) you don't know how to work with people.  Neither of those choices makes you look all that attractive. I'd sooner read someone's short story than a comic script.

So I get your samples and I read them. I usually assume what you're sending me is the best you have and if the best you have is good but not great my answer will likely be, "I need to see more. Can you send me your new stuff as it comes out?" I'll also give feedback, most likely, just to see how you respond to feedback. You'll be surprised how many folks respond with a two page email explaining their artistic choices and telling me why I'm wrong. I could be wrong, sure. And I've confessed to being wrong many times. But if you go straight for a defensive posture and start lobbing grenades at me I don't care how wrong I may be, we're done.

If I don't like the work I'll probably just say it's not my thing. There won't be any critique. If I'm head-over-heals for the work, I'll set up a phone call.

We'll chat about a bunch of stuff, not just comics. I'll try to find out where you have an online presence. Blogs, social networking sites, message boards – I do a little snooping, yes. I also try to find out if we'll be in the same area anytime soon. Conventions are always a good rendezvous point. I also tend to travel a lot and, if you're coming to DC, I have no problem with grabbing a drink with you since I'll likely be drinking anyway.

As you can see, it's sort of like a job interview with me. And this is just so I can see if I want to work with you. If I decide I do, I still need to find something we can work together on. I have anthologies I put together, sure, but right now there's only POSTCARDS. I hope to get some more books started but even if I do we're talking limited real estate.

I tend to edit graphic novels on spec. Not an entire 140-page project, of course, but enough to get it to the pitch stage. At any rate, it's still work for me so I have to really love it and believe in it to sign on with it.

So saying that I'm looking for folks to work with doesn't mean I have something right now. It just means I believe in new blood. It means that you can certainly send me some samples. It means that one day we could work together on some project. But that's really all it means.

I think you need to go into it knowing that. I think you should establish a relationship before asking for work. And this goes for any editor, really. Maybe it's just me, but there are few things that burn me up more than a writer I've never met before, whose work I've never read, writing me an email and asking if they can be in some project they read about on the internet (right now that'd be Postcards: California Dreaming). It just feels like you think you're already there – that your stuff is as good as the stuff I'm currently working with, you don't need an editor, and you don't care all that much about where your work ends up as long as it's printed somewhere. It's insulting to me and my book.

Besides, don't you know it's harder for someone to say no if they like you? I guess what I'm saying is, plan for a couple of projects down the road, not the next one. There's no rush…

____________________________________

If you want to get an idea of an up-and-coming writer that's doing it right, in my opinion, you should get in touch with Elton Pruitt. He contacted me a little over a year ago just to introduce himself. He'd check in with me now and again and send me whatever short comic he recently completed and ask for some feedback. I soon realized that he was doing this with a lot of different editors. But he wasn't annoying about it. His correspondences didn't feel like auditions. He wasn't kissing my ass every time, either. He's a nice guy. The guy you cheer for. And he was listening – he was improving. I found that he was getting pieces published in various anthologies. His writing wasn't the Best Thing I've Ever Seen but it was certainly good. I thought he could benefit from a good editor. So when it came time to put together my pitch-list for Postcards 2 I included him. He never once asked for it – I just knew we could work together and I wanted to give him his shot to be alongside some great creators in a great book. And his pitch was good. His script, after several revisions, was also good. I imagine you'll see him in the book.

He took his time, improved his craft, and kept reminding me that he existed. By doing so, we're working together less than two years later. He'll likely be in a book that'll be great exposure for him and cut him a check for his creator-owned story. I'd say Elton's the kind of guy you should study a little bit.

Labels: editorial-control, jasonrodriguez

My job is to support you. I help you pull a thought out of your brain. I help you nurture it. I talk to you about what we’re going to do with it once we’re ready to harvest it. I help you process it – I help you make it work. Together we package the idea – try it out – repackage it – repeat. We isolate what’s right and we discard the rest. We build it up and we cut it down.

Repeat.

I live by the big picture. We chart a course and I keep you on it. You have a scene that’s the funniest thing you’ve ever written and I tell you that you’ll have another opportunity to use it. I let you know what doesn’t belong and let you know when you’re too afraid to go where we agreed you should go. I pat you on the back when you do a good job and will ask for a complete redo if it isn’t working.

Repeat.

I go from idea to pitch to synopsis to outline to story to script to thumbnails to pencils to inks to tones to letters and give input at every step. I package it up. I guide the design. I copyedit and take care of the front, back and filler matter. I look at several potential covers and oftentimes suggest a different approach. All the while I listen to your inputs and stay in line with your vision. If we wander too far, we go back to the beginning.

And we repeat.

I get it to the printer and spend days repeatedly reading the proof. I come up with marketing ideas. I set up interviews and meetings and spend hours on the internet and in libraries looking up new contacts and new places to promote the work. I organize signings. Shake a lot of hands. Make a lot of phone calls. I make sure the book is well represented online and in print. I protect the brand – I understand what can be ignored and what can be harmful. I protect against the potentially harmful weeks in advance.

Repeat.

All the while I’m looking for new books. New talent. New ideas. I contact a new creator once a day. My contact list is filled with hundreds of writers and artists that I’ve been watching. I know their likes and dislikes, where they live and what’s going on in their towns, their spouses’ names, how many kids they have, their favorite teams, their pets’ names, and their favorite comics. I know what their dream project is and I want to help them make it happen.

I’m the editor. People often ask me what I do and my answer is, “What do you want me to do?” This new column is going to go a bit deeper into that answer. It is going to be various musings on storytelling, deadlines, tools, marketing, production…the things I do everyday. I will be candid. I will say what worked and what I’ll never bother doing again. I will speak from experience but also think about what’s next – what I haven’t tried yet.

I will be cross-posting this on several public forums. You can read it on the Eximious Blog, DC Conspiracy Blog, Art DC boards, my MySpace page, and my Engine Ning blog. Hopefully there will be discussions on all of those forums. Columns will be posted when I feel like posting, but it’ll likely be at least weekly.

That’s all for now – I look forward to talking to you.

Labels: editorial-control, jasonrodriguez