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'The nice thing about agenting...'

4 November 2013

'The nice thing about agenting is that you can carry on until you annoy everyone. I'm going to do it until I don't enjoy it. And I do enjoy it, not every single minute, but more than 90% of it. Even the negotiating is good fun up to a point. And that moment you get your authors' new manuscripts, and your heart is in your mouth because you want to be able to love it - that's still the most exciting part...

Publishers as people aren't risk averse, as corporations they are. Often editors would like to buy books that they aren't allowed to. . Years ago, if you wanted to move an author you could always find a publisher who would say "We can do better" - now you get that British builder's response: the sucking through the teeth, the shaking of the head. The thought is "If they can't sell him, how can we?" rather than, 'We can reinvent this author". So all the money goes to the big bestsellers, or debuts, because a debut author has never failed.'

Carole Blake agency Blake Friedmann in the Bookseller