When I heard Ira Silverberg got offered the job of Literary Director of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), I was simultaneously overjoyed and depressed. Ira and another agent, Betsy Lerner, have always been on the top of my Agent Wishlist.
Publisher's Marketplace broke the news on Twitter, linking to this Observer article that Ira huad accepted the offer. It's good news for books and the authors who will benefit from having him at the NEA and bad news for all us would-be writers who hoped to send our queries to Sterling Lord Literistic, Silverberg's home since 2008 before his departure.
But why am I so sad about losing an agent that I may have never had a shot with? Simply put, Silverberg understands writers and what makes a work worthwhile or not. Every thing I've ever read about the man suggests that if Ira believed in you he would go to bat for you and what new writer wouldn't want that energy and devotion to their work?
As a writer I think I fall through the gaps somewhere. Where I'm not sure because I'm still struggling not to find my voice, because I am certain to the core that I have a unique voice. I'm just not sure it's a voice that people necessarily want to hear. I'm not going to be commerical or I am. I can't know until my book is printed and I see the response of the reading public.
Ira was always the go to guy if you were gay or a freak or didn't "fit" somehow. He had a talent for making a square peg fit into the round hole. I always thought he'd be at some agency somewhere, wearing paisley, and that when my query came along - well, I'm a realist so I imagined it going several ways.
1. That my work wouldn't be good enough and I'd get some email rejection.
2. That he'd ask for a few pages and then tell me my work wasn't good enough.
3. That he'd look at my work and see a hint of promise and take me under his wing.
4. That my query would be ignored entirely.
Of course what I wanted most isn't on that list, but what are writers if not dreamers? We fuel our fires with whatever scrap we can get our hands on. Or at least I do. One word of encouragement can keep me going for quite awhile. I always thought this would be one of my biggest strengths in my literary endeavours and it is.
So maybe me & Ira won't be kismet. I've learned from this that all the hope in the world isn't going to make literary success happen. You need hope, luck, talent, hard work, and especially discipline. And maybe it's good news in a way. Maybe instead of sending Mr. Silverberg a query I've something new to aspire to. An NEA grant awarded to me by Ira Silverberg.
Congratulations Mr. Silverberg, I really mean it. I'll stop being such a selfish bitch now.
Publisher's Marketplace broke the news on Twitter, linking to this Observer article that Ira huad accepted the offer. It's good news for books and the authors who will benefit from having him at the NEA and bad news for all us would-be writers who hoped to send our queries to Sterling Lord Literistic, Silverberg's home since 2008 before his departure.
But why am I so sad about losing an agent that I may have never had a shot with? Simply put, Silverberg understands writers and what makes a work worthwhile or not. Every thing I've ever read about the man suggests that if Ira believed in you he would go to bat for you and what new writer wouldn't want that energy and devotion to their work?
As a writer I think I fall through the gaps somewhere. Where I'm not sure because I'm still struggling not to find my voice, because I am certain to the core that I have a unique voice. I'm just not sure it's a voice that people necessarily want to hear. I'm not going to be commerical or I am. I can't know until my book is printed and I see the response of the reading public.
Ira was always the go to guy if you were gay or a freak or didn't "fit" somehow. He had a talent for making a square peg fit into the round hole. I always thought he'd be at some agency somewhere, wearing paisley, and that when my query came along - well, I'm a realist so I imagined it going several ways.
1. That my work wouldn't be good enough and I'd get some email rejection.
2. That he'd ask for a few pages and then tell me my work wasn't good enough.
3. That he'd look at my work and see a hint of promise and take me under his wing.
4. That my query would be ignored entirely.
Of course what I wanted most isn't on that list, but what are writers if not dreamers? We fuel our fires with whatever scrap we can get our hands on. Or at least I do. One word of encouragement can keep me going for quite awhile. I always thought this would be one of my biggest strengths in my literary endeavours and it is.
So maybe me & Ira won't be kismet. I've learned from this that all the hope in the world isn't going to make literary success happen. You need hope, luck, talent, hard work, and especially discipline. And maybe it's good news in a way. Maybe instead of sending Mr. Silverberg a query I've something new to aspire to. An NEA grant awarded to me by Ira Silverberg.
Congratulations Mr. Silverberg, I really mean it. I'll stop being such a selfish bitch now.
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| By finding this picture I also found an interesting blog by another writer. Check it out here. |
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