Steven Malk's Workshop - The Big Picture: How To Take Charge of Your Career and Chart a Plan

Agent Steven Malk of Writers House represents some of the biggest names in our industry.

Steven Malk during his presentation

And of course, the guy who helped Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith, Marla Frazee, Kadir Nelson, Loren Long, Sara Pennypacker, Jennifer Donnelly,  Sonya Sones, Adam Rex, Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen and Cynthia Ryland take charge of their careers had a lot to offer the rest of us!

The room was packed.  Packed!

Steven started out by telling us the single biggest mistake he sees authors and illustrators make is to not have a career strategy.

He walked us through illustrator Mary Lundquist's SCBWI success story, letting us see how Mary's clear sense of what she wanted to do, her focus and her willingness to work hard paid off... from him spotting her work in the portfolio show at this very same conference last year to deals for three books!

He then gave us tips on planning our careers, of which I'll share only a few here:

Take a deep breath and slow down

"If this is a career you intend to have for twenty or thirty or forty years, it's worth taking the time to have a plan."

Know your history - know the books out there

"There's a conversation that's been going on for decades and you want to join in and be part of it."

and

Get Your Priorities Straight

Figure out what's important for YOU.  Is it:

Creative control?
Awards?
A close relationship with an editor?
Lots of readers?
How often do you want a new book to come out?
How much do you want to travel?

(Those aren't mutually exclusive, and there's no right or wrong answer -- but you should know what you're aiming for, as it will influence the choices you make...)

Steven shared some of his must-read books, talked about being "very optimistic about the business," and concluded with answering many questions from the session attendees.

Ken Wright: The Financial Realities of Your Career: Frank Questions and Answers

Former editor/publisher and now Writers House agent Ken Wright answers any business-related questions from the room. (He notes-he's not a financial advisor.)


Six months before one of his client's book comes out, Ken holds a marketing meeting with his author an their publisher.

There's no rule of thumb on advances. It's market driven. He's not fan of big advances, because of the risk of not earning them out and then not looking like an success to your publisher.

Advances for first time novelists can range from $15,000 to in the hundreds of thousands. He says first-time nonfiction authors would likely get a higher advance than for fiction.

He's a big advocate of promoting your book through school visits, but said that he has a few clients who do a little TOO much of that, which takes away from their writing. Every book and every situation is different, but self-promotion is always important and necessary.

It's OK to take work-for-hire or technical writing or other kinds of gigs if money is an issue. And you don't necessarily need to use a psuedonym--that's on a case-by-case basis.

In addition to the initial negotiation, as an agent, he takes care of sub-rights, flow through (release of money to the author), and contract delays that affect the writer.

Agents definitely increase the response time from publishers. As a rule, he checks in with editors about his submissions every two weeks.

What's a good persentage of your earning to spend on marketing? The rule of thumb is 5%.