Literary Agents’ Centre

This is the most intense place at the Book Fair. There are about 500 agents from all over the world and the demand (for their services) is way greater than the supply (of willing agents). Luckily, much of it dating back to my Random House days, I have some wonderful agents. But with Japan, for example, I’ve had very little luck in even getting a meeting with agents. They’re already overbooked.

Access to this room is guarded. It helps to walk past the Monitors of the Gateway as if you belong. Agents have meetings every half hour, so you need to move along smartly. It’s a very exciting place.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

5 Responses to Literary Agents’ Centre

  1. with the advent of self publishing and e-books, do you think that this will be a fading trend? Have you seen it get smaller over the years?
    Craig.

  2. I wonder about that, too. In many countries, schools and public media libraries are giving e-books and iPads which replace thousands of paper-books. The motto seems to be : ''get rid of the stocks''. And e-publishing houses are on war footing. One of them (in Quebec) offers literary bloggers to borrow an e-book with touch screen, free for 15 days (also valid in France, Belgium and Swiss). In exchange, the bloggers must write two posts and forward the e-book to another blogger. Very shrewd way to find prescribers and prepare the public for buying e-books like any consumer goods, don't you think ?

  3. The LitAg has grown ever-bigger. I think 500 or so agents this year. eBooks are not going to replace real books, any more than TV replaced radio. LitAg is the shining star of the Fair.

  4. Well that is good news Lloyd! I for one can't stand e-books and will hold out and keep reading REAL books as long as I can.

    Funny story on my last plane flight, a guy beside me had an ipad and was reading a book, the stewardess told him he had to turn it off during takeoff and landing and he raised such a ruckus. I sat quietly reading my book trying not to seem to smug with a big smile on my face.

    Craig.

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