Light at the End of the tunnel?

Alan Rinzler, a well respected literary agent, has an interesting post on his blog that may indeed renew some of my hope in the long term health of the publishing industry. One by one, he goes through all the recent downsizing, turmoils, etc. and comes to the same conclusion: Agents cannot stop soliciting or selling manuscripts and publishers cannot stop buying them. As he puts it: "Traditional book acquisition is alive and well."

For evidence he gives two examples from his own recent past, both auctions in which he lost out on representing the writers because he underbid. And one of them was an "unknown." Interestingly enough, they both were non-fiction books of the self-help variety on topics that seem to be written about before.

So go figure.

If you think about it, of course, it all makes sense. Agents depend on sales to make their livings. They also depend on residuals from previous clients who have struck it rich. If they ever get to the point where they don't need to find fresh talent, they probably should get out of the business. It's all about the next best thing and who is going to bring it to the table.

I guess if I were an agent, I would be scouring my slush pile, reviewing my active proposals and helping my current clients refine their work. I would be pounding pretty hard on a lot of doors and ideally sending encouraging notes to my authors who are waiting for a sale.

Of course, I'm not and my agent is not doing a lot of hand holding now or ever for that matter. But it sure would be nice to get a response from an email or a returned phone call. Or better yet, some advice as to what to do to make the proposals in his hands more saleable.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel but in my case, I may need to find a new route.