Anna Sproul-Latimer

Today's #pubtip thread is about rejections. For more than 11 years, I have spent every working day both dishing out and receiving multiple rejections daily. It's given me Opinions on how to reject others well & a lot of judgment about people who do it badly. Boo, you people. Boo

My #pubtip tweet thread loyalists :royal wave: will recall that I look at clients and potential clients as a microbiome - a teeming multivariable entity of strengths and weaknesses. Qualifications, authority, voice, marketability, charisma - I’m thinking about them all.

Today's #pubtip: among first-time authors, I think *the* most common source of surprise and disappointment is the book tour or lack thereof. This is where I truly want to kill shows like The Affair and, well, any other popular media depiction of the book publishing experience.

Today's #pubtip: in book publishing and in life, you are deluding yourself that you'll stop feeling undeserving and insecure if you just achieve x, whether that's publishing a book, selling x number of copies, losing weight, whatever. You are straight-up deluding yourself.

Today's #pubtip: book writing is a really, really terrible career to get into if you just want cool people to like you. Being an agent is a much better choice if that's your personality type. LOL.

Here is something you learn over and over when you're a literary agent who reps nonfiction by extremely smart and perceptive people, often about social justice and often by women: the first person to be right about something usually comes off as a little annoying. #pubtip

A thing I like to post on here periodically is that I don’t accept Facebook or Instagram requests from people I don’t know! And #pubtip: they’re not great ways to handshake network with an agent. Most of us (not all, but most) think of these as personal space.

In #pubtip sum: my ideal relationship is with an author comfortable with the equality of the power dynamic and unthreatened by ambiguity. Now to go embroider that on a throw pillow

TL DR: "electability" is BS and this is also a #pubtip

Psst, this is also an important #pubtip for selling a book, particularly nonfiction. You can be the most qualified and intelligent person on Earth, but if you're not giving people the clarion call, the shock of recognition, the prickling in the eyes, etc.

Fun fact: I am disturbingly good at Flip Cup. I am good at it because helping authors all day has taught me how valuable it is to take a deep and centering breath before shooting one’s shot. (I am horrifyingly a good shot too.) This is the beginning of a #pubtip!

There is also a certain type of support professional who concentrates all of their talent on their ability to woo and sign new clients. Before hiring anyone in this field, talk to one of their existing clients to make sure they are still feeling flirted with years down the line.

It's also psychological. A lot of my role is literally just managing my authors' anxiety. (See @kate_mckean's excellent Substack for her thinking on this.) And also engineering the most competitive auction situations possible.😈

The value of a real support professional is relational and alchemic; it's in what we can create in relationship with you, in relationship with editors, etc. We have the creative and market intelligence to elevate work. We know acquiring editors' personalities and desires.

A good agent might not have time to do personalized brain picking with you, but if she wants to connect, she will withhold ZERO information about process, norms, competitive advance ranges and royalties, etc. ZERO. Knowledge of that is not our value add.

This is the mark of a charlatan, whether they're a freelance editor, coach, agent, or whatever. If someone tries to pretend like you need to hire them to get "industry secrets" that you can easily find on google or in a book, such a sample proposal, please avoid that person.

Small #pubtip thread: I was in a coffee shop years ago next to one of those "publishing coaches" doing a paid session with a poor author. As I eavesdropped, he told the woman with great fanfare that he had something very secret and valuable to share: a *real live book proposal.*

Here is another #pubtip I find myself giving almost all clients at one point--perhaps something that would be useful to you as well if you're an author/aspiring author as Very Online as I am. It's about retraining your brain for the rigors and anxiety of a book-writing career.

Today's #pubtip thread: A common question prospective clients ask me--and which I believe various agent-interview sites encourage one to ask--is how many clients I have. The wisdom seems to be that you want someone in the middle: s/o experienced but focused.

A #pubtip for y'all searching for your own authority today: those people who seem so much more certain & on the ball? Most simply don't have the socialization, self-knowledge, or innate intelligence required to recognize complexity and consider conflicting concepts simultaneously