Economics of publishing, part CXDVIII

First, the good news: "There are more agents than writers."

Now, the bad news: "And there are more writers than readers. I'm convinced of that."

That's from an interview with big-time New Yawk Litarerry Agent Lynn Nesbit, whose clients have included Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and Donald Barthelme, whose short story "The Big Broadcast of 1938" got him representation by newly-minted agent Nesbit and occasioned the above reflection on the economics of publishing.

She goes on:

I tell Tina [Bennett] and Eric [Simonoff], "You missed the good days." When I worked for Sterling Lord, I had a loft, a sort of duplex loft apartment on Barrow Street. And Michael Sissons, who's now the head of Fraser & Dunlop, and Peter Matson, who's also an agent, used to give these parties at my house. They would make these drinks of half brandy and half champagne, and people got so drunk. One night Rosalyn Drexler, the lady wrestler and the novelist, picked up Walter Minton and just threw him against the wall. I'll never forget that. There was just more of a sense of fun.... It's the corporate thing. People are too scared. It doesn't attract eccentrics anymore.

technorati: publishing, literary agents