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Literary Agents: Do You Need One? What Should You Expect? And How Do You Know You Have a Good One (or a Bad One)?

July 16, 10 am PT (1 pm ET), 2025

Agents—a lot of people love them, some people don’t, and most can’t even get their foot in the door to talk to one, so that cranky editorial guy Jeevan’s bringing (a good) one to you!

Literary Agents: Do You Need One? What Should You Expect? And How Do You Know You Have a Good One (or a Bad One)?

A “Cranky Editorial Guy” session

July 16, 10-10:45 am PT / 1-1:45 pm ET

Agents – a lot of people love them, some people don’t, and most can’t even get their foot in the door to talk to one, so that cranky editorial guy Jeevan’s bringing (a good) one to you!

Wendy Keller is the founder of Keller Media, a 36-year old premier nonfiction literary agency based in Marina del Rey, CA, that not only represents authors to all major publishers but also handles various subsidiary rights and agreements with foreign agents and houses.

She and Jeevan will be talking about the things you should know about agents, what they do, and how to approach them. But it wouldn’t be a cranky session without, well, crankiness, so they will also talk about the sticky issues that come with agents sometimes (especially for publishers), how to know if an agent is not doing a good job (and how you can protect yourself), and, yes, do you even really need an agent?

Past Recordings

May 13: Threat, Benefit, or Both? What AI Means for Your Book and the Publishing Industry

Next Session (July 16)

Tuesday, May 13, 10:00-10:45 am PT (1:00–1:45 pm ET)

Is AI the end of book publishing and authors as we know it? This conversation features Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, VP of Editorial at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and Thad McIlroy, a published author and journalist, founding partner of Publishing Technology Partners, a contributing editor to Publishers Weekly, a board member at Johns Hopkins Press, and the principal of The Future of Publishing.

Recording

Slides

Zoom Chat Highlights & Resources Summary

🌟 Key Themes Discussed in the Meeting Chat:

  • AI’s Impact on Authors:
    Many participants shared that their books had been used in large language model training sets—some without consent. Concerns included copyright, revenue loss, and ethical implications.
  • Publisher Responses & Compensation:
    • HarperCollins paid $2,500 per title for limited AI use, per Authors Guild guidelines.
    • Wendy Keller (literary agent) shared that publishers are adjusting contracts, with some requiring authors to declare that no AI was used in content creation.
  • Author Reactions & Actions:
    • Some authors are joining Created by Humans and the Authors Guild to protect rights.
    • Resources like The Atlantic‘s dataset search and the Good Law Project were mentioned to check if one’s work was scraped.
  • Use of AI in Book Creation:
    • Authors asked about citing AI-generated content and using AI tools for promotional planning.
    • Tools like Perplexity and Circleback were mentioned for research and transcription, respectively.
    • Concerns about AI hallucinations (false information) and carbon footprint were raised.
  • Fiction vs. Nonfiction Considerations:
    Participants debated differences in how each genre is impacted by AI and how AI may challenge the creative voice and value proposition for authors.
  • Ethical and Strategic Tensions:
    Conversations highlighted a “Hobson’s choice” for authors—between “creating for art” or “creating for the market”—and echoed past shifts in the music industry due to digitization.

📚 Shared Resources:

📬 Contact Info:

About the host: Currently the VP of Editorial at Berrett-Koehler, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam has been in publishing for thirty years in acquisitions and administration and has worked with over 700 authors and books.

March 18: Are Editors Even Important or Needed Any More?

It’s a good question: Are they? Many authors have indicated how even with traditional houses, they receive minimal editorial guidance or work. And I hate to admit it, but I have looked at many traditionally published books over the last couple of years and wondered—did an editor even look at this? Is this also turning the tide towards self-publishing since editorial shaping was one of the hallmark advantages of traditional publishing houses?

I’ll venture some guesses, vent (as expected) about the industry and authors and others all contributing to this, and then briefly address what authors should expect from their editors but also what editors expect from authors. And then I’ll take the abuse and questions.

Future topics will include:

  • The importance of writing about the one thing, not everything.
  • Book piracy – how bad is it and what are the real costs to authors (and publishers)?
  • Is self or hybrid publishing the right option for you? (Sometimes, it well may be.)
  • When do you let go? How consistently polishing and over-polishing your manuscript actually works against you.
  • A book does not create a movement; a movement creates a book – so how should you build that movement?
  • When do you need permissions to reproduce something versus what is covered under fair use?