Publishing is a Business of Relationships

A badge to the US Book Show

Publishing is, in many ways, a business of relationships.

On May 22^nd I attended the US Book Show which was co-produced/presented by The AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) and Publishers Weekly.

What is the book show you might ask? Well, I can tell you that it is not a replacement for the now defunct Book Expo, aka BEA. BEA was a long-running bookselling trade show. I used to think of BEA as one-stop shopping for an agent because so many publishers were all under the Javits Center roof. All I had to do was put on a pair of comfortable shoes and walk from meeting to meeting, pitching projects and closing deals. In fact, the last time I had the pleasure of trotting around the enormous floors was in 2019 when I was eight months pregnant.

Me at BEA in 2019.

According to the website, the US Book Show is “an in-person conference for publishing professionals.” And it was! There were over 600 editors, designers, publicists, agents, publishers, sales teams, and others shifting between various floors of NYU. Once everyone chilled out and realized it wasn’t a replacement for BEA and was never meant to be, we all got to spend a day focused on continuing education and strengthening the industry at large (and criticizing it a bit too).

***I also want to point out that the programming was entirely done by AALA volunteers, as was the majority of the funding secured to produce this event. PW staff supported the back-end operations and logistics. Take another tour around this panel line up and schedule. Heck, take a look at this thorough website. If you have ever been a part of a planning committee you know what a huge effort this is. Shout out to everyone who made this day run as smoothly as it did!***

Jennifer Weltz, President of JVNLA and US Book Show visionary, alongside other volunteers welcoming registrants.

Publishers Weekly has a round up here and Kathleen Schmidt has her recap here, though I am not in total agreement since she missed some fabulous afternoon panels (subscribe to her newsletter btw because she is a treasure trove of knowledge!). I know Jane Friedman was also in attendance, so keep an eye out for her coverage as well.

Me and Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential and marketing and publicity authority.

The overall themes were focused on collaboration, data led/backed innovation, and the collective sharing of information.

Colleagues from JVNLA! Ty Billman, Cole Hildebrand, and Jennifer Weltz.

What I love about writing this newsletter is that it is the one corner of the world where I don’t answer to anyone (other than my relentless self-imposed standards and anxiety 😊). While I was onsite, I thought a lot about what might be “the most beneficial” or how I might capture the essence of the whole show and “report back.” Then I realized that was impossible.

I always say that selling a client’s book proposal is about 10% of my actual day-to-day job. What I do as an agent is network, keep tabs on the industry, build and maintain relationships, put out dumpster fires, and so much more. My experience at the US Book Show is a great example of how many hats I wear.

Today’s newsletter is a roundup of just some of the people I got to see and spend time with at the US Book Show. Hopefully this gives you a sense of the depth and breadth of what 24 hours in NY for an 8-hour conference with 60-minute panels and networking in between looks like (oh, and I left early!).

My advice to you is to go through this list and research these people and organizations. Familiarize yourself with their work, follow them, support them, connect with them.

Some of these editors may be people who have/will see your work.

Some of these businesses and agencies might be places you want to pitch (find their submission requirements and follow their query guidelines).

At the very least, I hope you enjoy a subjective recap of some awesome people who work across publishing!

Sarah Pelz, Executive Editor at Harvest with me and Ty. ***Little known fact, Sarah introduced me to Ty, which is how we started working together at The Ekus Group! I have been working with Sarah for over 10 years as her career has evolved. She has acquired both culinary and parenting books from my list.***

Cristina Garces, Executive Editor at Ten Speed Press. We are working together on Frankie Gaw's next cookbook!

Literary Agents of Change superstars: Farley Chase, Katie Kotchman, Sonali Chanchani, and Kelly Sonnack.

If you don’t know about LAOC go check out the mission and the newly launched Equity Directory --a database of BIPOC literary agents created by Literary Agents of Change to help querying authors and illustrators find and connect with BIPOC agents.

Corinne Moulder, VP of Business Development and Kellie Rendina from Smith Publicity.

Angela Engel, founder and president of The Collective Book Studio. CBS is one of the few hybrid publishers that not only has a fair model for authors, but produces (and distributes!) STUNNING cookbooks. If you are on the fence about traditional versus self-publishing, you may want to consider hybrid and check out CBS.

And here’s a rundown of who I talked with that was NOT pictured:

·       Molly O’Neill (not that Molly who we chatted about and remembered fondly) Agent at Root Literary

·       Gail Hochman, Literary Agent and previous AALA president

·       Doug Seibold, Publisher of Agate and founder of Agate Publishing Academy. I just closed a deal with Doug and it was fun to be able to celebrate IRL!

·       Founder of Quirk Books, David Borgenicht

·       Jane Friedman, publishing industry maven. This is the first time we have met IRL though we have spoken virtually when I was a guest on one of her Sunday Sermons here.

·       Cevin Bryerman of Publishers Weekly

·       Monika Woods, founder of Triangle House literary agency

·       Esther Margolis, founder and publisher of Newmarket Press who pulled me aside to make sure I said hello to my mom. I love when this happens (which it does all the time!).

·       Scott Richmon, CEO at Bookstr

·       Edward Nawotka, Senior International and Bookselling Editor at Publishers Weekly. I met Edward on the bus when we both attended the Yale Publishing course a million years ago. We remained in social media touch but this was the first time reconnecting IRL in a while.

·       Kara Watson, VP/Executive Editor at Scribner. She had a proposal under consideration from me when we ran into one another. We also had just seen one another the week prior at this book launch. Little known fact, Kara is the one who introduced me to Julia and said she has a book in her!

·       Katie Kotchman, Literary Agent at Don Congdon Associates and President of Literary Agents of Change.

·       Dana Newman, founder and president of Dana Newman Literary. We collaborated on a potential project many years ago and this was the first time we got to meet IRL!

·       Alexandra Aceves, editor at Holiday House (primary focus is YA). She braved the audience questions during the panel all about book auctions and posed a question about her own career that really impressed everyone. Essentially, she asked if she “should” bid when she knows she will be outbid due to the size of the house she works at. The panel unanimously agreed that she should because even if you don’t win the book, if you stay in this industry, colleagues will remember your passion for projects.

·       Olivia Peluso, Executive Editor at DK who I am currently working with on three books! This one that just came out, this one launching this fall, and this entertaining one that is currently in production.  

·       Apologies to anyone who happens to be reading this who was also at the show and who I forgot to mention. You win the Not So Secret Agent award for finding my humanity and can call me out in a comments below. ***wink, wink***

Phew! I am tired and reinvigorated all over again just reliving this and linking these rockstars in this recap for you. I can feel you introverts crawling under your covers and saving this post for a deeper dive later.

And I see you extroverts reviewing the 102 tabs you just opened.

Actual bathroom pic from US Book Show

No need to panic.

Listen, this is why people have agents. We are out there for you, literally and figuratively making sure YOUR work stays relevant and top of mind.

Thanks for reading, subscribing, and sharing!

Sally

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Not So Secret Agent Shout Out:  

I have been deep in the archives of Literary Agent Kate McKean’s Substack Agents & Books. This is an invaluable resource of industry info about proposals, agents, queries, and more. I am so grateful to other agents who have covered these grounds—you absolutely must subscribe!

Not So Secret Agent Upcoming Missions: aka, places you can catch me in the wild!

Saturday June 8th 

The James Beard Media & Book awards

Monday June 10th

I'm donating a (critique/AMA call/consultation, etc.) to LAOC's Literary Auction for Change. Register now to start bidding on June 10! Keep an eye on my social for when this goes live.

Monday June 17th 

7-8:30pmET for the Everything Cookbooks virtual Pitch Slam event. A few tickets are still available and equity spots are available as well.

August 18th

I am a guest speaker for Julia Skinner’s eight week writing class, Bloom. Julia is a client of The Ekus Group and is graciously offering 20% off with code SUMMERWRITING. If the cost remains a barrier you can contact Julia here.

***save the date*** Paid Subscribers have two opportunities for Not So Secret Agent office hours:

Thursday July 11^th from 3-4pmET and/or Tuesday July 23^rd from 10-11amET

Come with questions, come to listen, and come to learn from what other people ask!

This is not a time to formally pitch me but you are welcome to come with ideas for general feedback.

Paying subscribers will get a dedicated email with information on how to attend. You are welcome to attend both times. I am hoping that based on your time zone and mine, and the chef/caregiver/writer/culinary instructor/etc. job you may have, that at least one of these two options works for most of you.

News & Awards:

The International Association of Culinary Professionals invites you to submit your nomination for the 2024 IACP Toni Tipton-Martin Award.

The IACP Toni Tipton-Martin Award uplifts an emerging food writer who demonstrates readiness to professionally transition their work into full-time Food Journalism in a specific print or digital media platform: cookbook; newspaper; magazine; broadcast journalism; website; or other venue. Candidates for this $5,000 award may be self-nominated or may be nominated by IACP Members, non-members, and any member of the culinary community. The winner will be selected by the IACP Board and Toni Tipton-Martin. 

Click here to submit your nomination!

Thanks for reading, subscribing, and sharing!

Sally