Upcoming Agent Spotlight Interviews & Guest Posts

  • Kelly Dyksterhouse Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 12/12/2022
  • Savannah Brooks Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 12/19/2022

Agent Spotlight & Agent Spotlight Updates

  • All Agent Spotlights & Interviews have been updated as of 7/15/2020, and many have been reviewed by the agents. Look for them to be fully updated in 2023.

AGENT SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW WITH MARK GOTTLIEB AND QUERY CRITIQUE GIVEAWAY

Today I’m thrilled to have agent ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Mark Gottlieb here. He is a literary agent at Trident Media Group.

FYI, I’m taking over the agent spotlights from Casey. I will be providing all the same information we’ve shared in the past in an interview format. In addition, one lucky commenter will win a query critique from the agent being interviewed.

Status: Open to submissions.

Hi­ Mark! Thanks so much for joining us.

About Mark:

1. Tell us how you became an agent, how long you’ve been one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent.


Unlike many people who choose book publishing as somewhat of an accidental profession, it was always expected of me that I would one day work at Trident Media Group, a family-owned and operated literary agency. I think it comes as a comfort to many of my clients that I’m not leaving the literary agency, nor book publishing anytime soon. Anyway, you could say I was sort of groomed for the position at a young age. That’s why I chose Emerson College in Boston, as they were one of the only schools at the time offering an undergraduate study in publishing. My company bio expresses my professional journey from my time at Emerson College, onward:

Mark Gottlieb is a highly ranked literary agent both in overall deals and other individual categories. Using that same initiative and insight for identifying talented writers, he is actively building his own client list of authors. Mark Gottlieb is excited to work directly with authors, helping to manage and grow their careers with all of the unique resources that are available at book publishing’s leading literary agency, Trident Media Group. During his time at Trident Media Group, Mark Gottlieb has represented numerous New York Times bestselling authors, as well as award-winning authors, and has optioned and sold books to film and TV production companies. He previously ran the agency’s audiobook department, in addition to working in foreign rights. Mark Gottlieb is actively seeking submissions in all categories and genres and looking forward to bringing new and established authors to the curious minds of their future readers.

About the Agency:

2. Share a bit about your agency and what it offers to its authors.

Trident Media Group (TMG) is a prominent literary agency in New York City dedicated to championing authors throughout their careers. Founded in 2000, TMG represents a wide range of bestselling and distinguished authors, as well as newly emerging authors. Our clients have won major literary awards and prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the P.E.N. Faulkner Award, the P.E.N. Hemingway Award, and The Booker Prize, among others.

Our diverse group of literary agents are skilled in all genres of fiction and nonfiction. With an eye toward innovation, our clients are supported by dedicated departments in all areas of rights and career management. TMG’s robust Foreign Rights Department leads the industry in sales of both fiction and nonfiction abroad. Our author services include Digital Media & Marketing, Business Affairs & Administrative services, and Film & Dramatic rights sales.​

What He’s Looking For:

2. What age groups do you represent—picture books, MG, and/or YA? What genres do you represent and what are you looking for in submissions for these genres?


We represent all genres, generally excluding poetry, short stories, novellas, and textbooks.

We are always seeing a high demand for commercial fiction, genre fiction, thrillers, women’s fiction, romance, YA, literary/general fiction, high-end nonfiction and health books written by authors with major platforms in the areas of history/politics/current affairs, business books and celebrity nonfiction.

3.  Is there anything you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are interested in?

An ideal project would carry an important social message or moral to the story, and while not only being beautifully written, it should be accessible or have some aspects of commercialism to the writing, even if it is literary fiction. I also look for authors that have good writing credentials such as experience with writing workshops, conferences, or smaller publications in respected literary magazines. Having awards, bestseller status, a strong online presence/platform, or pre-publication blurbs in-hand for one’s manuscript is also very promising in the eyes of a literary agent.

What He Isn’t Looking For:

4. What types of submissions are you not interested in?


I am not interested in cozy mysteries, erotica, urban fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, and personal (non-celebrity) memoir.

Agent Philosophy:

5. What is your philosophy as an agent both in terms of the authors you want to work with and the books you want to represent?


In the case of literary fiction, lending some accessibility is what I find to be important. The literary community as a whole tends to be very insular and the books themselves also read like they're too cool for school. Uncompromising literary fiction often contains prose that are more concerned with being stylish and flowery, thereby torturing the narrative and losing the reader in the poetics. A piece of advice I tend to share with clients in such a pitfall is a famed quote from the author Charles Bukowski: "An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way." That will help the moral of the book shine through, which is ultimately what attracts me to a manuscript, since many of the books I represent are concerned with important social messages.

For genre fiction and commercial fiction, it is important to be aware of the genre conventions and tropes, in order to either generally avoid them, or spin them in a new and interesting way. For instance, I find it the strangest thing that in most every zombie novel, the protagonist wakes up in a hospital bed from a coma, to suddenly realize they're in a world full of zombies. I'm sure that was a neat trope when it started out, since the motif of dreaming/waking kind of plays with the zombie theme in reverse (our protagonist wakes from the world of the living to the dead, whereas his antagonists have fallen asleep from the world of the living to a dream-like state in the world of the dead). Nowadays that trope is just old hat to most readers of zombie books.

In nonfiction, I mainly make an evaluation based on the author’s platform.

A manuscript that recently spoke to me that I decided to take on, and subsequently sold to a publisher, is World Fantasy Award-nominated author Christopher Brown’s TROPIC OF KANSAS. Description: on the front lines of a revolution whose fuse they are about to light, a fugitive brother and sister are harboring explosive government secrets; pitched as a novel of political dissent akin to the Americana of THE ROAD, the brave new corporate world of JENNIFER GOVERNMENT, or a post-9/11 MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE; the story of ordinary people seeking to refresh democracy in a mirror America ruled by a telegenic dictator of a businessman. The famed and award-winning editor David G. Hartwell of Tor Books had bought the book in his very last book deal, but suddenly passed away in a terrible freak accident. We were able to move the project over to David Pomerico of Harper Voyager where the project now happily resides and is slated for publication in 2017.

What initially drew me to the project was that the author not only had a lot of “street cred” as an award-nominated author and short story writer—he had already collected pre-publication blurbs from William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Cory Doctorow, as well as trade reviews from Locus, Boing Boing, Tangent, and many other trade review sites and notable authors. Christopher had also tapped into the heart of near-future sci-fi with an important social message—a hot topic for right now in SF. 

Christopher’s writing focuses on issues at the nexus of technology, politics, and economics and often fit within the literary subgenre sometimes denominated avant-pop—"pulp fiction for smart people," in the words of the author, answering questions such as “Whatever happened to the guest appearance of Jorge Luis Borges on The Love Boat?” or “What if Beltway psychological warfare operatives co-opted Saddam’s Frazetta-dealer?”

Harper Voyager has also compared TROPIC OF KANSAS to READY PLAYER ONE, STATION ELEVEN and HIGH-RISE.

Editorial Agent:

6. Are you an editorial agent? If so, what is your process like when you’re working with your authors before submitting to editors?

If interested in a manuscript, I tend to offer representation upfront, with the expectation that an author will remain open to editorial discussion, if need be. Every manuscript is different; I have read manuscripts that read very tightly and needed few if any editorial comments from me. In those instances I might provide just a few bulleted points or so for the author to keep in mind. In other instances I have written ten or twelve-page editorial letters. While that may seem like overkill, it expresses my firm belief in an author’s career growth.

Query Methods and Submission Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting)

7. How should authors query you and what do you want to see with the query letter?


My advice to authors along the querying process is to really nail the writing of that query letter. A query letter that reads well is usually a good indication to the literary agent that the manuscript will similarly read well, inclining the literary agent to request a manuscript. Oftentimes the query letter can go on to become the publisher’s jacket copy, were the publisher to acquire the manuscript via the literary agent.

A good query letter is: upfront in one-two sentences what the book is about in hook or elevator pitch fashion (should mention the title, lend a sense of genre, and contain one-three competitive/comparative titles that were bestsellers or award-winners, published within the last few years. If the author has pre-publication blurbs, those can appear before those first two sentences. Next is a couple of body paragraphs detailing some of the plot details without too many spoilers and in that space the literary merits of the manuscript can be mentioned. The last paragraph is usually reserved for a short author bio, mentioning relevant writing experience/credentials, and a link to an author site or social media page(s) can be included there.

In addition to what I mentioned above in terms of what attracts a literary agent to an author, once an author has gone as far as they can go with the writing / editing of the manuscript and honed in on a knock-out query letter / hook, then it is time to begin the process of querying a literary agent.

The Trident Media Group literary agency prefers to be queried by authors via our website at http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
Our query letter instructions are there.

8.  Do you have any specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you?


There are many mistakes that I’ve seen in query letters, but I will name just a few that would absolutely deter me from requesting the manuscript from an author.
-Submitting queries for novellas, short story collections, poetry or textbooks will usually turn a literary agent off, as most literary agents do not represent such things. Publishers tend not to buy from literary agents in those areas in the first place.
-Word count is also very important. Traditional book length is 80-120K, and commercial fiction tends to be in the 80-90K-word range. Going outside of normal book-length will not produce good results for an author querying a literary agent for a shot at going into major trade publishing.
-Writing within struggling genres such as cozy mysteries, erotica, or urban fantasy is also another way to turn a literary agent off in the querying process. We tend to be weary of that at Trident Media Group.

Response Time:

9. What’s your response time to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript?


Literary agents differ in their response time to a manuscript. This will also depend on the length of the manuscript, how full the literary agent’s plate is already, etc. I think a reasonable response time is within a month’s time, though. Of course this is a hurry-up-and-wait sort of business, so it could take longer as it takes time to read. In my case I prefer to read within the first few days or week of receiving a manuscript from an author in order to express my level of enthusiasm, rather than just sitting on my hands.

Self-Published and Small Press Authors:

10.  Are you open to representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent to represent them?


The self-publishing/indie sphere has become something of what the farm league is to major league baseball, but the odds of that success can be lower than were an author to try and approach a literary agent as an author attempting to make their major debut in trade publishing. The bar is quite high in terms of self-publishing to attract an agent or publisher. An author usually needs to have sold at least 50,000 copies at a decent price.

If an author is involved in the writing community at a grassroots level with conferences, workshops and has published in esteemed literary magazines, then that can help. As far as an insider tip goes, it’s great to see an author that comes to us with pre-publication blurbs from bestselling and award-winning authors. So it certainly doesn't hurt to reach out to well-known authors and ask them to review your work, if they're interested and if they indicate they do like it, see if they'll provide a short blurb.

Also Listing a few competitive / comparative titles that were bestsellers and / or award-winners, published within the last few years, is also key for a literary agent’s consideration.

At the end of the day, though, the manuscript must be an amazing read.

11. With all the changes in publishing—self-publishing, hybrid authors, more small publishers—do you see the role of agents changing at all? Why?

Yes, it is all too easy for an author to feel discouraged and turn to self-publishing or small indie publishing. However, many successful self-published authors eventually go into traditional publishing in order to take advantage of having a team of professionals who help them take their work to the next level.

A literary agency with industry knowledge and expertise can bring a huge value add to the table for an author, evidenced by many of the success stories we’ve created for our clients, the bulk of which are award-winning and bestselling authors. We’ve actually built a lot of self-published success stories into mega-bestsellers, giving authors a Godzilla-like footprint in the industry.

Trident Media Group is a full-service literary agency for authors, handling accounting, legal review, management, foreign rights (books in translation), book-to-film/TV, audio books, etc. We’re also a literary agency with tremendous clout in the industry, so we can get many things for authors from publishers and film / TV buyers that an author otherwise would not be able to get on their own.

I’d like to think that a literary agency would save an author a lot of headaches in order to help the author focus in on their own writing, thereby allowing the author to become more prolific. Meanwhile, the literary agent would work in concert with their subsidiary rights people and departments within the literary agency. In looking at a literary agent and considering paying them a commission on a deal, an author should be asking what they stand to gain in having a literary agent.

The digital landscape has seen our literary agency evolve. Thanks to the tremendous resources available to our company and our Digital Media and Publishing department, Trident Media Group often helps our clients in their marketing/publicity efforts. We also try to put the publisher on the hot seat in encouraging them to perform marketing/publicity tasks for the author, by sharing ideas and having in-depth meetings with publishers.

Trident will also make recommendations to our clients on how they can think about improving their social media presence and look to online efforts to market / promote their books. Otherwise, book publishers normally devote their marketing dollars and other resources toward authors that are huge successes or are making a major debut.

We at Trident might even recommend a private book publicity firm to a client, but that doesn’t come cheap. An author should still know that their role in marketing and promoting the book is integral to the process since, at the end of the day, readers / fans will want to hear from the author.

Clients:

12. Who are some of the authors you represent?

The Trident Media Group literary agency’s client list is viewable here: http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/

Interviews and Guest Posts:

13. Please share the links to any interviews and guest posts you think would be helpful to writers interested in querying you.

Mark Gottlieb | Literary Agents in NYC | Trident Media Group

www.tridentmediagroup.com/agents/mark-gottlieb

Publishers Marketplace: Mark Gottlieb

www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/gottliebm/

Literary Agent Spotlight: Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media Group ...

www.writersdigest.com/...literary-agents/literary-agent-spotlight-mark-...

Michelle4Laughs- It's In The Details: Query Questions with Mark Gottlieb

www.michelle4laughs.com/2014/10/query-questions-with-mark-gottlieb.html

The Grim Tidings Podcast » Talking Literary Agents with Mark Gottlieb

thegrimtidingspodcast.podbean.com/e/talking-literary-agents-with-mark-gottlieb/

Unicorn Bell: Agent Interviews

unicornbell.blogspot.com/2016/03/agent-interviews.html

Interview with literary agent Mark Gottlieb. | Amy M. Newman

https://theliterarymom.wordpress.com/.../interview-with-literary-agent-mark-gottlieb/

Links and Contact Info:

14. Please share how writers should contact you to submit a query and your links on the Web.


The Trident Media Group literary agency prefers to be queried by authors via our website at http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
Our query letter instructions are there.

Additional Advice:

15. Is there any other advice you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t covered?


The most important advice I can give to writers just starting out is to learn and grow from constructive criticism and rejection, rather than being discouraged by that feedback. It is not an editor or literary agent saying the author’s writing is not good—we’re saying the writing is not good enough, at least not yet. So, hang in there…

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Mark.

­Mark is generously offering a query critique to one lucky winner. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follower button if you're not a follower) and leave a comment through 1/28/2017.  If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest. If you do not want to enter the contest, that's okay. Just let me know in the comments.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is an international giveaway.

Last Updated: 5/5/20.
Agent Contacted for Review? Yes
Last Reviewed By Agent? 5/5/20

Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or e-mail me at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com.

Note: These agent profiles and interviews presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found here is subject to change.






90 comments:

mshatch said...

Thanks for the interview, Natalie and Mark :)

abnormalalien said...

Thanks for such a thorough discussion; I love getting peeks into the other side of things!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

He works for a quality place! I totally agree about that query letter. A poor query likely means the manuscript is in a similar shape.

Unknown said...

Great article, would love to win a critique. Thanks! AudrasPicks@gmail.com

Carl Hackman said...

Great interview. Mark is just the sort of literary agent I would want in my corner. I love the idea that he is hands on editorially. He represents a friend of mine and he has always said how great Mark is. If you are looking for an agent, which I am, the query critique is manna from heaven. Even though I have a publishing contract I would still be nervous of querying Mark just because I'd be afraid to screw up the chance for representation by him LOL

Bish Denham said...

Lots of information. No need to add me for a critique. I'm not anywhere near that point!

Ask4Cyndi said...

Excellent info for someone just starting. Thank you!

Christine Rains said...

Wonderful interview. And that is great advice for writers who are just starting. Even for writers who have been around a while!

Jennifer Hawes said...

What a fantastic interview. Thanks for sharing such invaluable information with us!

Jenn Locke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kristin Lenz said...

Great to see the return of agent interviews. Thanks for your hard work, Natalie.

Suzanne Warr said...

It's great to see you doing these agent interviews, Natalie! Bravo on knocking the first one out of the park. I'll throw my hat into the query critique ring. I think my email is available, but just to be safe, that's spartan underscore writer at yahoo dot com.

Happy MMGM!

S.P. Bowers said...

Once again, fabulous agent interview. (don't put me in for the query critique)Thanks for everything you do.

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, hope you enjoyed it!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Glad to hear it was helpful to you and thanks!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

That's absolutely right!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, glad you liked the article! Looking forward to hopefully reviewing your query letter...

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks very much for the kind words and please don't be shy! Just like Bob Ross says, “We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” Looking forward to most any query letter.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, glad you felt like there was good info there! When you're feeling up to it one day, please do feel free to query me!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

The Empire Strikes Back! Just kidding, literary agents aren't all that evil... Glad you like to see variety on the blog.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

Carl Hackman said...

Thanks, Mark. I'll run some of my work through Andrew to see what might be a fit and at the standard you require to offer representation.

Best regards, Carl

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, glad this will be helpful to you as you one day flourish from a writer into a published author!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

So glad to hear that! I'm pleased to help new authors, but even more pleased to know that this would also help some non-rookie authors.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks for reading and enjoying! Maybe I can one day come back to the blog, too!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Glad to hear you liked it, thanks!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks and I hope they have me back on the blog for more info from the world of a literary agent. Looking forward to reviewing your query letter if the competition allows.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

Karen Lange said...

Mark, thanks so much for this info. Appreciate your insight and willingness to share here. I need to bookmark this post.

Natalie, thank you for being the ever lovely host here. Have a great week!

Karen Lange said...

P.S. I'll pass on the giveaway this time around.

cleemckenzie said...

Ranking #1 might have a lot to do with reliability and consistency! Hurray for Trident. Thanks for the great interview.

Jemi Fraser said...

Learning from critiques is the best advice!! :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Mark for the interview! I am in Greece, I stay sleepless after 12 hours teaching, almost every night in order to catch up with the writing community and learn more on ameliorating my writing.Your advice and suggestions are much appreciated! Thank you!

K. said...

Thank you for the great article! Appreciate your insight, Mark. :) I'd love to win a query critique!
kbarina113@yahoo.com

Jocelyn Rish said...

Thanks for the great interview, Natalie and Mark!

Michael Devine said...

Very informative interview - thanks for taking the time. I am definitely interested in winning a critique! devinemichael.md@gmail.com

Joanne R. Fritz said...

What a fascinating interview. Thank you, Natalie and Mark.

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks very much for the kind words and glad this post is useful to you!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, I'm glad you agree that the proof is in the pudding!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Yes, absolutely!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, I am glad to hear you found the interview to be interesting!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Glad you likes this interview, thanks and I hope you win the chance for a critique!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks for stopping by to enjoy the interview!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Good luck to you in winning the chance for a query critique and thanks for checking out the interview!

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Wow, all the way from Greece, hello! It's very good of you to keep up your writing like that, too. I appreciate that you liked the interview.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

Kara Reynolds said...

That was incredibly in-depth! I like that Trident manages all of those subsidiary rights in-house. I'm curious as to what word counts Mark considers to be appropriate for middle grade and young adult novels. Is there more or less flexibility there than in the adult market?

I'd love to be entered to win the query letter critique!

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks, glad you found the interview to be helpful. It is particularly unique to our agency that we sell foreign and audio rights directly to independent publishers in those spaces.

Middle grade is from 20,000 – 55,000 words, depending on whether it is upper or lower MG.

For YA, 55,000 – 79,999 is a good range.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

Rebecca E. Bailey said...

It's really impressive that Mark replies individually to comments! I'd love to pitch a complete YA with an important social message and commercial elements. I also have extensive writing and editorial credentials, so I'd be grateful for a chance to win the query critique. I also mentioned this on Facebook. Whether I win or not, thanks for entering me, and have a great day!

Shelly Steig said...

In every interview with Mark, he comes across as polished, professional and knowledgeable. Even his photo protrays that image. I love it! It makes me confident in what he says. Thanks Mark for your time and for being so generous!

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks for the very kind words! Is there any other way to be? Glad to have provided a helpful interview.

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

MOGottlieb said...

Thanks and hope you win the chance for a query critique. Of course most anyone here can send me their query letter for my consideration via our website, but there's no promise I'd then critique the letter...

All the best,


Mark

Mark Gottlieb
Literary Agent
Trident Media Group, LLC
41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
New York, NY 10010
(212) 333-1506
tridentmediagroup.com

Unknown said...

I don't need a query critique-my stuff's made out of spare Ferrari parts and is barely legal for the street-but it's nice to see a rep who's actually present in real time and tries to stay connected with the actual moving world. The sheer bottleneck mathematics of this business means that only about 10% or less of queries get read by the agent they're aimed to, (assistants of various levels of ability auto reply the rest) and so it's always been a bit like fly-fishing at midnight in the Horsehead Nebula. But that's part of the fun, wouldn't you agree?

ST Sterlings said...

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview! It was informative and helped put a few things in perspective for me.

Unknown said...

Thanks for a great interview! I especially like your advice about using constructive criticism to grow and not to be discouraged by rejection. Thanks for the opportunity to win a query critique. monicachess26@gmail.com

Julie Abe said...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mark. I hope to have the chance to have a query critique from you.

Angie Dickinson said...

I appreciate the thoroughness of these answers! Thank you for spending the time to give detailed responses, this was an awesome interview. I'd love the opportunity to receive a query critique from you.

Unknown said...

Thank you both for going so deep with the interview! I love learning from our editor partners point of view. This provides a wealth of knowledge. Thanks again!

Patchi said...

Thanks for such a thorough interview!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mark, once more.I wasn't sure about writing my email address, so here it is:
agatharodi@hotmail.com

Liz Gilbert Bedia said...

Thank you for the thorough and insightful interview, Mark. I know many agents are actively seeking MG and YA authors. I am curious whether you are open to authors that primarily write picture books, both fiction and nonfiction? Thank you again for your time!

Megan Cason said...

I always enjoy these agent interviews. Thank you Mark for sharing.

JOHN T. SHEA said...

Thanks to Mark Gottlieb, Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre for this treasure trove of information, guidance and links. I came to it as a writer and left as a reader, adding Christopher Brown's TROPIC OF KANSAS to my ever-expanding To Be Read list.

Julie Abe said...

Out of curiosity, why do you consider urban fantasy to be an struggling genre?

Sue Bradford Edwards said...

Mark is in my "shortlist." Thank you for this informative interviewa! I've also tweeted about it.

Tara Tyler said...

fantastic and thorough interview!!
i appreciate the advice, but seems to be a vicious cycle. if you are already small press, you need big sales to get an agent and if you don't have an agent you might try small press ...
I guess the key combination is great writing, great story and clicking with an agent!

I would love some help with my querying, taratylertalks@gmail

and I wanted to thank you Natalie, for stopping by my cradle rock release party post at Diane's place ! happy new year!

Lori McElrath Eslick said...

And you quote Bob Ross, love it!! Thanks for the smile too.

Lori
McElrath
Eslick
www.EslickART.com

Michael G-G said...

That was one of the best and most thorough literary agent interviews I've read for a long time. Mr. Gottlieb's description of what a query letter needs is spot-on and I'll try to revisit it whenever I am querying. (Please enter me in the query critique giveaway, Natalie.)

Rachna Chhabria said...

Hi Mark, loved reading your interview, you gave us such a detailed description of how a literary agency works and what it can do to a writer's career. Your suggestions on nailing that query letter are spot on, infact I've written down all the points as I'm currently tweaking my query letter.
Now I'll hop over to the Trident website to check whether you represent MG fiction (the age group I write for.)
Would love to win the query critique.
Thankyou for taking the time to give us such a detailed view of the publishing world.

Peter Taylor said...

Congratulations, Mark, on all your sales, envied reputation and the success of your clients’ books in the UK. Do you only sell UK rights to books originally published in the US, or do you sometimes approach British publishers first if the subject matter has a British flavour/flavour, or work with co-agents resident there? I’ve had non-fiction titles released in the US, UK and Australia (where I currently live) by HarperCollins, Hinkler Books, GMC Publications and Allen and Unwin, a picture book published in Australia and many of my new works will hopefully have universal appeal, but a small number of stories for children and adults are set in England where I was born and where I lived until I was 30. I’m wondering if I need to attempt to partner with an agent in each country.

Any advice you can give will be much appreciated. Many thanks for your detailed answers to Natalie’s questions, your replies to our comments and for the chance to win a critique.

With all best wishes to you both,

Peter Taylor

Unknown said...

Thank you very much. I just realized that in my query I put the short synopsis before the pitch...
Of course, I would love to get a query critique. elyre.ray @ gmail

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DMS said...

Interesting post! I can imagine going to college knowing you are going into a the publishing world would make things more focused. Sounds like it helped a lot! Thanks for sharing, Mark. :)
~Jess

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

This was such a thorough interview, and Mark's answers were so extensive and informative. Unfortunately, I do not write what he is looking for it, but I found his advice helpful, just the same.

MVB said...

Thank you very much Mark and Natalie for such an in-depth and informative interview. I'd love to win a query critique from Mark too!

Theresa Milstein said...

Wow, what a thorough interview. Thanks, Mark and Natalie. I was especially interested to learn that small agencies farm out some things.

An American in Florence said...

Thank you Mark for providing such thorough and insightful information. Thanks to Natalie as well for arranging it. It's always nice to get an insiders look.

Jenny Baranick said...

I just learned a ton. Thank you both!

thebloggingbadger2032.blogspot.com said...

Terrific article, but then again, they always are, that why I always check here for the agent interviews before I submit to an agent. Mentioned this on twitter: @thebadgrproject

L Suresh said...

As always, Literary Rambles is a treasure trove of information. Natalie, thanks for the interview with Mark Gottlieb. Mark, thanks for your detailed answers to each question. And thanks to the two of you for the query critique giveaway.
I've tweeted about the contest. (@sureshl_india)
My mail id is sureshl.india@gmail.com
Looking forward to a fruitful interaction on my query.

Big Taste, Small Bank Account said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Taste, Small Bank Account said...

Excellent article. As someone in the middle of querying, it's nice to be reminded that agents are humans too (super busy ones, though!).

My email is lgraefe1@gmail.com and I'd love to be chosen for the query critique! Adult speculative fiction (or sci-fi, if you prefer), should that factor in.

Thanks!

Debbie Moeller said...

Mark and Natalie, what a great interview!
Mark sounds like a wonderful agent to work with.
Thanks!
Debbie Moeller

My email is: moellerbooks@gmail.com

MeganC said...

Thanks for a great interview! There was a lot of good information about query letters that I had not taken into account, and I was so impressed with the comments Mark left for hopeful authors. I would love to win a query critique with such a stand-up agent. Thanks!

MeganC said...

Thanks for a great interview! There was a lot of good information about query letters that I had not taken into account, and I was so impressed with the comments Mark left for hopeful authors. I would love to win a query critique with such a stand-up agent. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the advice and will always accept a solid critique. Thanks much. lge26@drexel.edu

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your time and insight, Mark. It's reassurring to hear that books with an important social message are important. There are so many books to read out there, and it's hard to know which ones will resonate with us before we start reading. I can certainly relate to the huge TBR list you've mentioned in the past. They never seem to shrink, do they? This may be a good thing!

I'm very keen to see more boy-centric YA fiction on our bookshelves. I feel that this is something that has been sadly lacking over recent years. I'd love to connect with an agent who wants to remedy this :)

Unknown said...

Mark, thanks for sharing your query tips and improving our chances for representation.
You're a fan of The Empire Strikes Back? May the force be with you!
W.R. Miller
justicedragon1@gmail.com

matthew said...

Great interview. I'm actually surprised I didn't hear about Trident Media Group before with how great they seem to be. I'll definitely be checking them out. Mentioned this on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewMartinz/status/823920801204371462
Thanks a lot for entering me!

mary said...

Thanks for all the information you shared. I was particularly interested in learning that Trident is a family owned agency. That does give me a sense of security. Your appreciation of stories that provide an important social message or moral standards goes along with my own desires.

zellarelli said...

Thank you Mark and Natalie for such an insightful, honest and thorough interview. These agent interviews are invaluable. As are critiques.

Elizabeth
Zellarelli@yahoo.com

matthew said...

Oh, my email is zchingz@hotmail.com

dale m said...

Mr. Gottlieb. Of all the interviews I'e seen, yours was the most impressive and highly professional. I have only recently heard of your infighting with the AAR and now it has spilled out onto the Net. I have not heard from your side. You and Trident are pretty high on most peoples' list. Successful people are usually pretty aggressive. Mistakes are made. You should get out there and defend your position rather than be tarred and feathered by somebody else's editorial board. Can we expect a rebuttal to your accusers ? It's really important to know both sides. You seem like a descent guy. You come across quite well.
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