67. Lauren Keller Galit, Literary Agent

Show Notes:

Lauren Galit began her career as a magazine editor for about a decade before transitioning into editing and agency work. She started with Gentleman's Quarterly, she worked for advertisers, and later worked for Mode magazine, a plus size women's magazine. She eventually landed her last job at Good Housekeeping.

Lauren was a deputy editor at a magazine, where she was responsible for managing the entire content and was in charge of every word that went into the magazine. She worked with a team of writers, editors, and editors and was able to bring her ideas to life. However,  Her passion for connecting authors to audiences and helping them craft their voices led her to switch from magazines to books. She realized that going longer form was a better way to nurture these relationships and nurture the writers’ voices. She went to an agency where she  took a major pay and title cut and became an assistant. 

Working as a Literary Agent

Lauren’s journey from magazines to books has been a journey of connecting authors to audiences and helping them craft their voices. She has learned to adapt her approach to different publications and agencies, focusing on building relationships and fostering a supportive environment for authors.

Agency work involves generating book ideas, seeking out authors, and working with them to shape their proposals and sell the books to publishers. The agent works with the author to execute the book, executing contracts, shepherding covers, production schedules, and timelines. Lauren started working for John Boswell Associates, a company known for creating 365 Ways to Cook Chicken, and later worked on other projects such as What Not to Wear. The success of this book led her to start her own agency in 2006 and has since worked on various projects in categories such as parenting, diet, exercise, and fitness.

What a Literary Agency Does

As an agent, Lauren used to work with authors to shape and create their proposals, ensuring that they were well-researched and well-written. I also helped them navigate the publication process, including negotiating deals and addressing issues with the editor. The role of the editor in publishing houses, particularly for nonfiction books, is crucial, as the author may have a vision of what the book should be, and the editor may have a different version of what will appeal to the market.

The agency provides services based on the category and interventionist approach. For nonfiction, the agency shapes a proposal, which includes a table of contents, advice, tips, and anecdotes. The proposal, along with marketing and publicity sections, goes to the publisher to entice the publisher to buy the book. In fiction, the book is sold on a full manuscript, while in nonfiction, the book is sold on a proposal.

Lauren explains the business side of the agreement between agent and author, the services provided, percentage of the deal, and what the publishing house covers. 

The Role of the Editor and Relationship with the Author

Lauren explains that the agent, editor and author often have a phone call to discuss the concept, and if there are conflicts, the editor expects the author to deliver a different version of the book. There are various options for rewrites, and if they cannot come to terms, the contract can be dissolved.

Lauren has represented the authors of many books around exercise, diet, and fitness, including books about eating fruits and vegetables, exercising, and getting fit. She has shifted her focus to children's literature and middle grade literature for the last decade. She explains the importance of developing a hook and offers a few examples to illustrate how the hook works. 

Lauren discusses her experiences in the middle grade and YA fiction space, focusing on magical realism and contemporary books with hints of magic. She highlights the importance of casting a lens on children's emotional lives and making them more consequential. 

Exploring What Editors Want

Lauren also discusses approaching publishers and the Rolodex process, which involves researching what editors are looking for and aligning interests appropriately. She suggests that there is a need for more middle grade fiction, as dystopian fiction is being burned out. Lauren also discusses the gender imbalance in middle grade, with boys reading children's books up until a certain age. They often switch to genre fiction, mysteries, adventure novels, and fantasy, but not YA books. She explains why editors don't want to invest too heavily in YA books with male protagonists.

Lauren's advice for other authors in the middle grade and YA fiction space is to focus on matching interests and aligning interests appropriately, and to be patient with the process.

The Landscape of the Book Industry

Lauren explains how the book industry works and how it has been broken down into imprints, with each house having different rules. Lauren touches on the decline of children's imprints, such as Razorbill, which was decommissioned and merged into a single imprint. This has led to a significant downturn in the children's market, with the famous imprint Ink Yard at HarperCollins being discontinued. As a result, the number of outlets and opportunities for book deals decreases.

The shift in the book industry is driven by specialization, specialization, and the need for a diverse range of genres and formats. The book industry is a complex and evolving landscape, with authors often being upset about their intellectual property being trained by AI. This can lead to a lack of understanding of what people know or think about book publishing.

Lauren talks about the role of publishing houses in the future, the importance of an agent, and offers insight on advances for writers. For both fiction and nonfiction, there may be apps that can help authors create books for themselves, such as AI tools that can write books for specific topics or provide personalized advice. However, Lauren states that AI is flawed in its current state, as it is repetitive, clunky, and  introduces falsehoods. 

Influential Courses or Professors at Harvard

Lauren mentions Marjorie Garber as an influential professor.

Timestamps:

04:13 Bringing out an author's own voice

09:39 How Lauren started her own publishing company

16:03 The role of the editor at the publishing house

22:17 How Lauren got into parenting books

27:34 How to approach publishers for manuscripts

32:56 Boys and girls and YA? 

37:08 Selling books with fewer and fewer big buyers. 

41:23 The importance of having an editor who loves your book

45:47 Advice for aspiring writers

Links:

Website: LKGAgency 

CONTACT:

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