Interview With Power
Literary Agent Theresa Park
Park Literary & Media
(PLM)
1. Theresa, how did
you discover best-selling author Nicholas Sparks?
I was working as an assistant at the
venerable literary agency Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, when another
assistant brought a query letter to me for a novel called “Winter for
Two.” He was the assistant to a recently
deceased senior agent who continued to receive unsolicited queries (aspiring
writers had no idea she had died -- this was back in 1993, before web- and
email updates were the norm; the main source of information about agents were
printed literary guides that were only published once a year), and it was his
job to distribute the deceased agent’s queries amongst the staff.
“This isn’t really for me, but I think
you should take a look,” he said, dropping the letter on my desk.
I
scanned the letter: “Really?” I gave him
a skeptical look. “Love between old
people?”
He shrugged. “Why don’t you ask to see the manuscript? If it’s bad, you can always send it back.”
Reluctantly, I did as he urged and took the
manuscript home to read the day it arrived in the mail. Despite my initial skepticism, I found myself
riveted – and emotionally wrung out – by this very short novel. I am perhaps the least romantic woman in all
of New York, and yet I found myself on the verge of tears while reading the
manuscript, too choked up to speak. If this book is having this kind of effect
on me, what kind of effect is it going to have on the rest of the (infinitely
more romantic) women of the world? I
found myself wondering.
Nonetheless, I felt the novel needed
work, and so I decided to ask the author to rewrite the book, based on very
extensive notes that I sent back, 50 marked-up pages at a time. He was extremely accommodating and clearly
very smart . . . so then I had him rewrite it AGAIN. I also suggested that we change the title to something
simpler and more understated. “How about
‘The Notebook?’” I offered. When the
book was finally in a state that I felt confident to submit to publishers, I
sent him an agency agreement, and asked him if he had any last questions for me
(we had not met at that point, and had actually only spoken by phone a handful
of times).
“Uh, yeah . . . how old are you?’
“Twenty-seven.”
“How many books have you sold?”
“Four.”
“Have you ever sold a novel?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Great!
You’re my agent!” he exclaimed.
I later discovered that although Nick had
sent his query letter to 25 agents, I was ultimately the only agent who wanted
to take a chance on him and his debut . . . 20 + years (and 20 books, 11
feature films, 1 furniture line and many adventures later) we are still
partners on a creative journey that began for both of us when we were only in
our 20’s.
2. How did you help
shape or nurture his writings?
We’ve always had an extraordinary degree
of creative give-and-take, even at the earliest concept stages for his
books. The most challenging part of the
process is often the development of an idea that feels original, surprising and
strong, and yet still works within the constraints of the genre that his fans
expect and love. We do a lot of
brainstorming during that period, and then once Nick feels settled enough to
start writing, he usually ships up pages to me for my feedback and
editing. This continues throughout the
book’s completion, sometimes under extreme time pressure as deadlines and
publication dates loom . . . .
3. Did you ever think
he would be one this big, this fast?
I felt certain in my bones that THE
NOTEBOOK would be a best-seller. But I
can’t say I ever envisioned the path his career – or my involvement in it –
would take. I had been an assistant for
less than a year when his query letter crossed my desk (I had been a lawyer
prior to that), so I don’t think I even knew enough to envision what an
author’s long-term career could look like.
Looking back, Nick’s success seems meteoric, but I was so young and new
at the game back then that I don’t recall thinking about it that way.
4. Are there any
other writers you have elevated and launched that mirror him?
Well, I have represented a handful of other
authors for the same length of time – folks who came to me very early on in my
career, and have remained beloved clients (and usually dear friends). But very few of them continued to publish so
prolifically . . . some became screenwriters, or ended up focusing on teaching
careers, or only ended up writing a few books, every several years. Life intervenes, so to speak; it takes a tremendous amount of commitment
and focus on the part of an author to continue to publish books at the rate
that allows an author to build a following quickly. Not everyone wants to follow that grueling path,
as life offers many other rewarding (and often more lucrative) options.
5. What trends do you
see in book publishing?
Overall, I would say that it has become
much more difficult in the past 10 years to break out – and build a following
for – new authors, unless they have a pre-existing social platform or public
profile that extends beyond the world of bookstores. Changes in brick-and-mortar merchandising
(shrinkage of bookselling space in larger shopping venues like Costco, Walmart
and Target; the loss of Borders; the decline of B&N) as well as the way in
which e-books are sold have made “discoverability” a very elusive thing. Furthermore, the loss of reviewing outlets,
which parallels the decline of newspapers and magazines, makes it difficult to
garner attention for more than a few select titles each season. Readers look for recommendations in much more
dispersed, decentralized locations online, so trying to generate broader
interest across our cultural landscape has become hugely challenging. The women reading The Skimm aren’t necessarily reading The Atlantic Monthly, and those readers may not be following Reese
Witherspoon’s recommendations . . . yet
you might need all of those constituents to create a critical consensus these
days.
The other trend that hasn’t been heavily
documented but that I personally believe is having an impact on reading habits
– and thus book buying / consumption -- is the erosion of focused reading
habits. While people have been decrying
the shrinkage of people’s attention spans for decades, we’ve reached new levels
of electronic diversion and distraction, which makes reading an entire book a
hugely concerted effort. Anecdotally, I
believe that the massive glut of high quality, “binge-able” TV content has also
made inroads on free time that people used to devote to reading . . . I
personally struggle to avoid getting sucked into new series all the time, as I
know I won’t get ANY reading done for weeks!
6. What do you see
for the industry's future?
I am not one of those catastrophists who
predicts the end of book publishing, but I do think that new forms of
distribution and marketing of book-length content are necessarily going to
evolve. Traditional print publishing
remains very much a B-to-B (business-to-business) model, with only a very
attenuated relationship between author and reader. But the tensions and failures of that model –
particularly as retailers (other than Amazon) struggle to stay afloat – are
already encouraging many authors to build careers in the digital
self-publishing universe, bypassing the selectivity and sometimes randomness of
publishers’ and retailers’ choices.
Even those authors who continue to be
published by the traditional “Big Five” publishers are increasingly under
pressure to develop their own means of reaching readers directly, something
that publishers are still woefully ill-equipped to do. Authors can no longer count on publisher-sponsored
bookstore display and the occasional Amazon banner ad to inspire readers to buy
their books. Whether through the medium of film & TV, social
media, influential brand partnerships or widespread grassroots appearances, the
authors who succeed long-term will need to devote themselves ( hopefully with the help of their agents) to building consumer recognition and loyalty
directly, rather than relying on publishers and bookstores to do so.
7. Who is your
hottest writer now?
All of my clients are engaged in
fascinating and promising work – and they’re all at different stages in their
careers, so it’s difficult to make that kind of judgment. Is someone whose debut just came out to great
critical acclaim “hotter” than someone whose 20th book just spent 3
weeks at #1 on the NYT list? Or is the
really “hot” author the one whose novels sell modestly, but all of them get
snapped up in Hollywood the moment they hit the market? It’s impossible to make those kinds of assessments.
8. What advice do you
have for struggling writers?
Treat your calling like a job. Put in the disciplined, regular hours that,
say, a lawyer or banker would. Also, think
about the kind of career you would like to have, and try to make decisions
according to a strategic plan that will get you there – again, your agent
should be able to help you develop that plan.
Whether you wish to model your career on Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan
Tropper or Jonathan Kellerman, it’s worthwhile to think about the steps that
will get you closer to your goal. Does
it entail writing the kind of material that is likely to be adapted for film
& TV? Developing a deep and direct
relationship with your fans, like John Green?
Cultivating relationships with critically lauded giants who will blurb
and mentor your work? Whatever it is,
embrace a direction for your career – being a writer is not only an artistic
calling, it’s also a profession.
9. You are not only a
literary agent but a principal of POW! Productions-- producing movies. What is
that experience like?
It’s a terrific outgrowth of my long
history as a literary agent. I’d always
been a passionate consumer of movies, but I really just backed into the role of
producer. Nick Sparks had 11 feature
films based on his books, and other clients of mine also had feature films
and/or TV movies based on their novels.
Over time, my team and I worked in varying capacities on countless
films, with almost every studio in Hollywood.
As Nick Sparks’s eventual producing partner, I came to know many
individuals in the industry, and also gained an understanding of how films get
developed, financed and made. In recent
years, I began to option materials myself (usually NOT my clients’ work, as it
can be tricky to address potential conflicts of interest, and also to balance
the roles of advocate and producer) and build on these longstanding
relationships in Hollywood to nurture my own projects.
I’ve really relished this new chapter in
my career, partly because it’s allowed me to venture into creative territory
that I don’t visit very often as a literary agent (science fiction, YA, and
middle grade fiction, for example). More
than that, I’ve really enjoyed acting as a bridge between the worlds of
publishing and Hollywood – I think I’m able to understand and explain the mysteries
of film development and that industry’s culture better than most publishing
folk. And conversely, I am able to
explain to producers and studios what authors and their agents expect to gain
from having a book optioned, and how to ensure that the creators benefit from
that process in a way that is meaningful to their careers.
10. Which is better:
the movie or the book the movie is based on?
Impossible question! They’re entirely different media, so even if
they’re (theoretically) telling the same story, the way people experience them
is viscerally different. So many of the
conventions of novels – lengthy internal monologues or thought processes, for
example – just aren’t possible in film. Likewise,
the powerful visual storytelling that film relies upon can’t be mirrored in
words. Of course, terrific films can be
based on mediocre books, and vice-versa – it all depends on execution, and on
the talents and vision of the parties involved.
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