Agents Panel: Ginger Clark

Ginger Clark

Ginger Clark is literary agent with Curtis Brown, LTD.  She represents science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, literary horror, and young adult and middle grade fiction. In addition to representing her own clients, she also represents British rights for the agency’s children’s list.

Ginger said the business has changed a lot over the last five years. The Department of Justice suit over ebooks cost publishers a lot. Where once we had six big publishers, now we have five.

This means "you have to be even better than before. You have to make sure everything you do is at the next level of excellence."
 
On self-publishing: 

"It seems to be me that self publishing is something people sometimes do because they get impatient. You want to make sure when you self-publish, you take as much time with the book as you would with an editor who bought it at a traditional publishing house and you went through a couple of rounds of revisions with notes."

On bringing out-of-print works in again
Her agency has a department that facilitates bringing these back; they also sell rights to out-of-print works to digital publishers. 

For a couple of clients, this has brought in five figures of royalties that weren't there before. "But we're not a publisher. We remain a literary agency."

On New Adult: 
This is an area publishers have been ignoring. Self publishers did well in this area and now publishers are paying attention. "That's another sign of how the digital revolution has changed our business."


On creating a brand: 

"I would love my clients to think of themselves as brands because this is a for-profit business. Thinking of yourself as a brand ... you're going to see more success earlier on." 

You can't force yourself to have a different personality or attitude on social media, though. It's about giving your fans an authentic part of yourself. "Maureen Johnson on Twitter is Maureen Johnson in person."


On Twitter: @Ginger_Clark
Her agency website: