Tough sell for writers at NY literary "speed-dating"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes.
That's what hundreds of aspiring authors were doing this week at a New York trade fair, and the odds were against them.
Literary agent Peter Miller said there were as many as 15 million wannabe writers in the United States with books to sell.
"If you do the math, it's less than half of one percent of the people that want to get published actually get published," Miller said as he prepared himself for a barrage of pitches.
Among those he gave short shrift was Kathleen Dolan who was selling her self-help book of anecdotes and poems titled "I Need A Face-Lift! (Spiritually Speaking)."
"I make very quick decisions about whether I can make a whole lot of money for you and me," Miller told her, adding that he had a firm rule: "I don't represent porn or poetry."
Larry Tavlor, a retired family practice doctor and a Mormon who came from San Diego to attend the event at BookExpo, was promoting his book "Diminishing Love", which he said presented scientific proof that gay marriage is wrong.
"As lust increases, love diminishes and families are destroyed. And it's related to oxytocin," Tavlor said, referring to a hormone released during orgasm and childbirth.
"So you can't be lusty and loving at the same time?" Miller shot back. "That's what I want to be."
Miller spent the rest of the three minutes questioning Tavlor on the real estate market in San Diego.
WHO YOU ARE MATTERS
Michael Murphy, a former publishing executive who now runs his own literary agency, was a little gentler, though apparently no more interested in Tavlor's book.
"This is a position book," he said. "With a book like this, who you are is as important as what you have to say."
Several dozen agents and editors were taking pitches at Wednesday's "pitch-slam" at the end of a one-day seminar that also included workshops on writing the perfect book proposal.
"Don't feel like you're a failure if you don't come out of here with a contract," Lauren Mosko, editor of writers' guide "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market", told her workshop. Continued...
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