Authors Lunch
Ask an Expert: Best of the Best Editor Jake Morrissey
James McBride’s THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE (August 8, 2023, Editor: Jake Morrissey, Agent: Flip Brophy) topped best books of 2023 lists, and, based on PL’s comprehensive tabulation, was the consensus pick as the very Best of the Best Book of the Year. Here, Riverhead executive editor Jake Morrissey talks to us about working with McBride, the editing process, and why this book resonates so much with readers and critics. How did you and McBride come to work together? What’s your relationship like? James McBride’s debut, The Color of Water, was on Riverhead’s first list in 1996, so when […]
Dealmaker Updates – December
Ask an Expert: Vicky Bijur
Vicky Bijur started her eponymous literary agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and for the Charlotte Sheedy Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction and has served as president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, now the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). She has been on the AALA Royalties Committee since 1993 and is chair of the AALA Ethics Committee. What are some questions to ask a prospective agent? 1) Will you keep me reasonably informed throughout the process of selling my book? For example, can we discuss the list of publishers to whom you would submit […]
Dealmaker Updates – November
Authors Talk: Elizabeth Crook
The Madstone. (Little, Brown & Company, November 7, 2023. Editor: Ben George. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman.) Elizabeth Crook has published five previous novels, including The Which Way Tree, The Night Journal, which received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America, and Monday, Monday, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 and winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. She lives in Austin, TX with her family. How did you find your agent? In 1990 a friend introduced me to James (Jim) Landis, who was then editor-in-chief of William Morrow. Jim was […]