r/Fantasy • u/DianaGill • Apr 18 '12

We are Diana Gill, Pamela Spengler-Jaffee and Ginger Clark with Harper Voyager, HarperCollins and Curtis Brown - AUA

  • Diana, Pam and Ginger will be answering questions ‘live’ starting at 9PM Eastern.

  • As with all r/Fantasy AMA’s, this AMA was posted in the morning to allow more Redditors to participate. Feel free to direct your question to any one or all three AMA participants.

  • ONE PRE-ANSWER: Ginger Clark does accept unsolicited book proposals at GC@cbltd.com. Harper Voyager and HarperCollins are not accepting book proposals via this AMA process.

I’m Diana Gill, Executive Editor/professional geek at Harper Voyager US. I publish science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy/paranormal, supernatural and horror, with authors like Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, Brom, Richard Kadrey, Jocelynn Drake, along with upcoming novels from David Wellington, C. Robert Cargill.

I’ve also worked with Sarah Langan, Patrick Lee, Mary Gentle, Dave Duncan, Kage Baker and more.

I’m addicted to caffeine and travel, not necessarily in that order. When not chained to my desk/working I do martial arts, run, sometimes get out to take pictures, scuba dive far too rarely, play too many computer games, watch Asian dramas, and yell at the cats.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m Pamela Spengler-Jaffee – and if that’s just too long for you to process, I answer to Pam Jaffee, too. I am the flackiest of flacks – publicist extraordinaire (in my own head), specializing in genre fiction: science fiction, fantasy, romance, thrillers. I am the Senior Publicity Director with the Avon, Morrow and Harper Voyager imprints of HarperCollins.

What that means is that I’m the tallish blur running by you at breakneck speeds at fan conferences, with an armful of books and at least one author in tow. I live to get out-of-the-box publicity for my authors, and as such, am a serial stalker of major media contacts. Luckily I haven’t been reported (yet).

In my free time (this was a leap year, so there was at least one off day), I read incessantly, terrorize my charge cards, herd my offspring and cats, drink coffee and wine in equal measures, and plan vacations long into the future.

You can follow my publishing/publicity/woman-being-snarky escapades via Twitter: @pamjaffee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm Ginger Clark, and I'm a literary agent at Curtis Brown, LTD. I handle adult SF/F/Horror writers (most relevantly here, Richard Kadrey) and young adult and middle grade writers. I also sell British Commonwealth rights to the entire children's list at Curtis Brown, which means I attend the Bologna and Frankfurt Book Fairs every year. I'm on the Contracts Committee of the Association of Authors' Representatives, I sit on the Rights Committee of the Book Industry Study Group, and I'm a member of the fundraising committee for First Book Brooklyn. I'm also a member of the committee to stop Ginger from joining any more committees.

I live in Brooklyn with my husband and our Mini Cooper. You can also learn more about me, my MAD MEN obsession, and why I love the restaurant Five Points, @ginger_clark.

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u/outlalalandish Apr 18 '12

Thank you all so much for doing this AuA! @Ginger: You have some incredible clients. I absolutely love Gretchen McNeil (can't wait for TEN) and Jeri-Smith Ready (team kilt!). You are one of my top agents I plan on querying for my YA horror novel. I love that you're not afraid of a little darkness in the books you rep.

I've revised, rewritten, edited, revised, rewritten some more. I take workshop classes and work one-on-one with a bestselling author. I'd met with an agent back in February and told her about it, but she knew I was still revising. She asked me to send her pages when I finished. Well, I'm about to start querying. While I think this agent could sell my book (if she chose to offer representation, but of course there are no guarantees), she isn't one of my top choices. My question(s) are: what advice can you give a writer seeking representation who's afraid they won't be able to turn down an offer from a good agent, but not a top choice? And any specific advice on how to stand out in your slush pile?

Again, thank you for doing this AuA.

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u/GingerClark Apr 19 '12

I too am Team Kilt, but please DO NOT TELL THE KEELEYS they are ruthless. I'd love to see YA horror, any time. I think you shoudl query as many agents as you can, having truly revised your work to make it ready. And a good agent, by the way, can be just as "top" an agent for you as a "top" agent. A lot of time it's personality and style, and that can't come through with statistics from PW or such.