Voices on Writing

Betsy Amster: The No-Nonsense, Whimsical Literary Agent of Los Angeles

By Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Common wisdom has it that you should get to know an agent before you sign with them. "An author/agent relationship is like a marriage," you hear over and over again. That makes sense. So before I signed with Los Angeles literary agent Betsy Amster, I got to know her and observed her with her clients, some of whom I referred to her or who had been on my radio show. But it wasn’t until after Betsy was a guest on my show twice and sat on a panel at the ASJA/University of California, Irvine, writers conference in October of 2002 that I asked her to take a look at a project I had tried to sell, to no avail. I liked Betsy’s no-nonsense style, her whimsical sense of humor and the fact that she said if she wasn’t an agent, she’d be a lawyer. I also liked that she had an editing background. Before opening her agency in 1992, she spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage and two years as editorial director of the Globe Pequot Press. She runs occasional publishing workshops at The Loft, a literary center in Minneapolis, and at one of the best writers conferences west of the Mississippi: the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

BDB: What drew you to agenting and what keeps you agenting?

BA: I had the opportunity to start my own business when I moved to Los Angeles in 1991. I had spent ten years as an editor at Vintage and Pantheon and then two years as the editorial director of the Globe Pequot Press, which was owned at the time by the Boston Globe. I discovered my inner entrepreneur at Globe Pequot, where I had to acquire the entire list on a limited budget. I learned to track down interesting writers, persuade them to work with us, and then launch their projects from scratch. Becoming an agent was the logical next step, especially given the fact that there were so few agents in Los Angeles at the time. I adore what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else.

BDB: What do you especially like to see come in the door?

BA: I handle literary fiction, a smattering of commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction, gift and lifestyle books, and books on psychology, self-help, social issues, popular culture, women’s issues, parenting, gardening and cooking. I’m looking for fiction that takes my breath away or makes me laugh; narrative nonfiction that takes me somewhere I haven’t been before; and category nonfiction where the author has a truly original idea for a book and the platform to support it.

BDB: Describe what you mean by platform.

BA: By platform I mean some form of national or at least regional recognition, public speaking experience or previous publications, and appropriate credentials (for example, if you want to write self-help, you generally need some sort of degree in psychology, or publishers will be reluctant to consider your proposal). Novelists don’t need a platform per se, but it doesn’t hurt for them to have ideas about how to market their work and a burning desire to reach reading groups. A number of my novelists come out of PR, and they’ve been in a good position to think creatively about how to get attention for their work.

BDB: Do you ever find treasures via the slush pile or do you work by referral only?

BA: Most of my projects come to me via referral, but I do sell a handful of projects every year that have come to me unsolicited.

BDB: What about when a prospective client has had a project with an agent and wants to leave them to find another agent?

BA: I try to find out whether the prospective client wants to leave the other agent for reasons that make sense to me or not. The situation is complicated if the other agent has already submitted the project widely. As often as not, I counsel writers to stay where they are and try to make the situation work.

I’m most comfortable when a prospective client has already terminated their relationship. A number of the projects I’ve placed were represented in earlier incarnations by other agents. The authors came to me months or even years later.

BDB: Sometimes authors, or aspiring authors, are nervous about having an agent so far from New York. How do you assure them they shouldn’t be nervous?

BA: I don’t generally find this to be a problem, especially when prospective clients understand my track record. It’s not at all difficult to have access to editors in New York. And I must admit, I love my long leash.

BDB: Are your clients exclusively from the West Coast?

BA: I have clients all across the country, although I do believe the fact that I’m a West Coast agent is part of my "brand identity." New York seems far away to a lot of writers in the West, many of whom like the idea of having an agent in the same or an adjacent time zone.

BDB: How do you like to be approached? (snail mail? e-mail?)

BA: I prefer snail mail sent to Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises, P.O. Box 27788, Los Angeles, CA 90027-0788. E-mail is info@amsterlit.com.

BDB: What about follow-up -- are e-mails or calls okay, and if so, how soon after submission is proper to follow up?

BA: It depends on how a writer comes to me. I tend to respond most quickly to writers that have been referred to me by editors or other writers, largely because these projects don’t go through the readers who scan my slush pile for me. Processing promising projects that come to us through the slush pile takes longer -- sometimes as long as a month or two, depending on how much material we’re getting.

BDB: If you like what someone has sent you, how will you respond? (e-mail? phone call?)

BA: I like to call -- it’s the beginning of a relationship, after all!

BDB: Do you consider yourself a per-project agent or an agent for the long term?

BA: I’m definitely an agent for the long term. Building an author is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job.

BDB: What’s the ratio of fiction to nonfiction that you handle?

BA: I handle about 1/3 fiction to 2/3 nonfiction.

BDB: How do your criteria for the fiction you handle differ from the nonfiction? In other words, are you likely to handle a nonfiction project you see as saleable but don’t love (I’m assuming you must love fiction to take it on)?

BA: No, I still need to love or at least admire it! I see projects that seem entirely viable, but that don’t do anything for me, and I don’t tend to take them on. Part of what I’m selling is my enthusiasm.

BDB: Describe your dream client/dream project.

BA: My dream client is someone I can conspire with. What’s entertaining to me about book publishing is that although it’s organized into conglomerates whose size can be alarming, you sell to individual editors who share your taste and are susceptible to your enthusiasm. Anything the author and I can do to help an editor and his or her house fall in love with a project is worth doing. This generally takes some thought and creativity. The more the author and I can put our heads together, the better.

My author Maria Amparo Escandon is a case in point. When I was selling her first novel, Esperanza’s Box of Saints, she came up with the idea of packaging each manuscript in a box full of milagros, prayer cards, and other religious paraphernalia. The publisher made it a lead title and used the same approach when they sent galleys to review outlets and key accounts. When I submitted her latest novel, Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co., we packaged it with a model truck just like the truck in the book. You have to use this approach selectively, but when it works, it really works.

I also value clients who are what I call "inspired perfectionists" -- in other words, writers who are incredibly creative but also have the patience and the focus to get everything right before their material is submitted.

BDB: Your client from hell?

BA: Someone whose expectations are unrealistic. I also have trouble with writers who don’t take feedback well. I think I have a keen sense of what editors want to see (and also what turns them off), and I like to be able to implement that.

BDB: How involved do you become with the editing/revising of a proposal or manuscript?

BA: I get very involved, since I used to be an editor, and I know how high the bar is.

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BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT, editor of The ASJA Monthly, is Southern California chapter president. She hosts Writers on Writing, a weekly show on KUCI-FM and on the Web at www.kuci.org and is author of Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt/Harvest, October 2004). Visit her Web site at www.penonfire.com.