Meet Eric Smith - Literary Agent for P.S. Literary
ERIC SMITH is a literary agent for P.S. Literary. He’s a triple threat as an agent for award-winning and New York Times bestselling titles, a frequent blogger about books and the publishing industry, and author - when he finds the time (his latest, Don’t Read the Comments).
I’ve been following Eric on Twitter for over a year now - probably because his posts are frequent, relevant, and relatable on my feed. Three particular areas I’ve been curious about, just so happen to be three he’s well versed in: building a social media presence, agenting, and writing while agenting. With a shaky hand, I shot him an email to ask if he’d be willing to participate in this Q&A - of course this was after I embarrassed myself by querying him with a piece that was totally not in his wheelhouse. Thankfully, he obliged and even offered some references of other agents, authors, and bloggers I’m excited to add to my growing follow-list…
Twitter seems like THE place to network with other writers and agents. Still, not every agent is as active (or popular) as you. Has being such a rock star on social media helped or hurt your work life? To put it another way, do you feel like the submissions you've received have gotten better, worse, or just out of control as a result?
Actually, I’m not sure I’d call it THE place to meet agents? It’s a good place, sure! But so many agents don’t really use Twitter or social media as a means of their day-to-day work. Just go to any literary agency’s website. I promise there will be a bundle of folks who you haven’t seen on Twitter yet. So if you’re doing your agent research, make sure you’re doing it off of social media as well.
When it comes to being active on social media, it’s certainly helped. Twitter is what helped me get hired at my first publishing job, it’s how I connected with my current coworkers at P.S. Literary, and I’ve discovered authors I work with on there. Even in my writing life, I’ve connected with writers, and my upcoming YA anthology, Battle of the Bands, is being curated with an author I met because of social media, Lauren Gibaldi. So it’s had a positive impact on my career.
As for social media having an impact on submissions… I’m not sure it has? I like to think maybe the queries have gotten a bit better, due to agents dishing advice? I get a few queries from time to time, from writers who have said they’ve used my website to figure out how to write their query letter, which is always nice!
Everyone uses their social media outlets for different reasons - networking, promotional, or just a community for public ranting. How would you describe your brand on Twitter? Professional? Personal? A little of both?
It’s a mix of both. No one is on social media to be promoted at. No one. So f that’s all you’re doing, just shouting about your book or your deals or whatever… no one is going to care. You have to be a person. Not a brand.
Many of your posts are about being a literary agent, but others are relatable as a writer or are just about the comedic experiences of fatherhood. Many writers struggle to even start a valid platform. Do you have any advice or thoughts from a professional standpoint? Do you believe having a social media presence is necessary for writers pre-publishing or just a nice outlet for community support?
It depends on what you’re writing, really! If you’re writing non-fiction, then yes. Have a social media presence. Build a platform. It’s important to show you’re the expert in whatever you’re writing, though remember, your platform can be publishing-based too (i.e. publishing articles, essays), and not just based on a follower count. But yes! Be active.
In fiction, having one is nice, and it helps introduce you to the writing community. It helps you meet readers, librarians, booksellers, all the people who will help your book along the way. It’s not going to make or break you getting a book deal though. Plenty of my authors have under or around 1,000 followers on Twitter. They do just fine.
You've mentioned in one of your tweets it's not necessary for new writers to build a following of 5k+. However, most query forms request for writers' twitter handles - why? Do some agents consider/care/check authors' existing social platforms and weigh that in to their ultimate decision? Could you guess where the incorrect information about building a set number of followers even started?
Cause sometimes platform does matter. Writing non-fiction? Memoir? An agent is going to want to look you up on social media, as well as check out your publishing clips. I can’t guess where that comes from, but maybe it comes from people thinking platform on social media is as important in fiction as it is in non-fiction. It’s good to have, but not something that’s an end-all thing. Again, I’ve sold plenty of projects by authors without that kind of social following.
Most agents don't outwardly state their own writing ambitions, but you're famous for it. You've noted your own insecurities and put many of us at ease knowing that even a literary agent feels anxious about pitching his/her/their own work. As a writer with the advantage of literary agent experience and connections, how "impossible" is it in this day and age to get a publishing deal? Do you have to be a celebrity (or write about one), or have mad capital to market and promote the hell out of your debut book in order to lock in a follow-up release?
Every author is a debut author as some point. If it was impossible to get published and have a debut novel… well, there wouldn’t be any novelists, right? Ignore the noise surrounding that kind of negative thought, write the best book you can. It’s not impossible, it just takes time and work, same as it does for anyone.
And if you want to see some amazing agents who also write and talk about their writing dreams often, go find Rebecca Podos (who I’m lucky enough to represent!), Seth Fishman, Lauren Spieller, and Rena Rossner. They all write, and are just brilliant.
Like kids, literary agents are famous for smelling fear and bullshit. As an agent, do you find yourself summoning that inner child while you're reading query after query? What are some of your big red flag no-nos? What's your secret recipe for a green light (aka request a partial/full manuscript)? As a writer, do you ever find yourself whining like toddler during your submissions: "but wwwhhhhyy don't they wanna read my whole manuscript??"
Alas, there’s no secret recipe or answer to requesting a manuscript based on a query. All you have to do is write a solid pitch, and have an interesting story to tell. That’s it! Unfortunately, there’s no life-hack to “well how do I write an interesting book”, you just have to do it.
As for red flags, those are pretty easy to find. Sometimes it’s an entirely outrageous word count that tells me maybe the writer doesn’t read what’s on bookshelves (“my 200,000 word picture book…), or it’s a lot of boasting about how their book is the next gigantic bestseller, next Harry Potter, next… etc. I’m never looking for the next thing, I’m looking for something new. And I like working with humble people.
No whining here. Publishing is a personal and subjective business. If an editor isn’t right for something I’ve written, that’s fine. Life goes on, we’re all still friends.
Agenting is a hustle when you're critiquing, editing, and promoting another person's book. How do take off your "agent" hat when you're writing? What are some challenges you've found for yourself [as an agent] promoting or querying your own work?
That’s hard. I get asked that a lot. It’s tough to push the industry noise out of your head while writing, but it’s the same advice I give every other writer who is worried about the market, sales, etc… write what you care about, and worry about that other stuff later. That’s my approach while writing my weird books.
And there isn’t a specific challenge to promoting my own work, or having my agent query my work, because I’m an agent. It’s just a job like anyone else’s, except it feels a little weird when I know the editors reading something I’ve written. But you shrug it off and keep writing.
Competition for any writer to earn shelf space and ideal digital promotional placement is hard. As a writer who just so happens to also be an agent, is it equally as challenging - possibly more so - to get your work published and promoted because of the assumption you're a celebrity of sorts in the field? How so?
Agents aren’t celebrities or anything like that in their fields. No one outside of the industry knows or really cares who we are, and that’s how it should be. There definitely aren’t librarians or booksellers saying “oh this is the agent who works with so and so” and then stocking that book. The authors and their work come first. The authors are the rockstars.
Blogging seems to be going in and out of fashion. Some agents ask for writers' blog sites, others don't. I've heard varying opinions on whether a writer needs to have a regular blog on their website, but the idea and vast amount of topics are often unrelatable to their genre. It seems daunting! What are your thoughts? Why or why not?
I don’t think so. I think forcing a blog is always a bad idea. They’re good to have if you have something to share, stuff to dish. But if you don’t… why have one? It just ends up making your website look out of date. If you want to see amazing examples of authors who blog, check out folks like Chuck Wendig, Dahlia Adler, and/or Delilah S. Dawson.
Mr. Smith is one of my favorite Twitter people. His sense of humor has lightened some of my darker days and I’m grateful for how honest he’s been about his experiences. He’s worked his way up the ladder of writing word-by-word too, so I’m confident one of these day I’ll get my chance to pass the query stage and collect a happy-dance. Until then, I’ll continue enjoying a good chuckle from his posts and blogs - sometimes at my own expense. Besides, if it took him a “long time” to establish his career, I might as well accept the bitter reality that a “long time” probably won’t be anytime soon for me either…
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Simply Sally
“I always wanted to work on books, to write them, to help make them happen. It took a long time to make it my career, and I’m sure someone reading this is maybe wondering how to make it theirs. Just be patient, keep working hard. Good things come to those who keep pushing forward. You got this!”