WHAT IF THERE WERE BOOK CONCIERGES?

One of my most useful life “tools” is the simple reversal.  If someone seems unreasonable, I ask myself if I might be the one who is unreasonable.  If something won’t fit into the hole, I wonder whether I have the right end of the thing and turn it around.  If my story won’t work, I start with the ending.  Like that.

So I was thinking about writer’s agents.  An agent is supposed to be a scout and guide, who knows which publishing houses would like one’s work and how to present it to them in order to get the maximum money, with the reward of a percentage of that amount.  I don’t know much about the history of literary agents -- it would make a fascinating book.  I do know a bit about the sort of entrepreneurs who used to come by Scriver Studio with art in the trunks of their cars.  Somehow they had come to have a great deal of knowledge about the territory and had developed a pretty good eye, so they went around buying low and selling high, working their network.

Nowadays, they would simply summon one of the art auction websites to see what things are going for.  Since the art is only pictured, they would be dependent on name more than the actual quality of the canvas, state of the paint surface, deftness of the brush strokes and so on.  Something parallel seems to be happening in the context of books.  One goes by the the “platform” (which is sort of a cross between the genre and the reputation of the author) and the sales category:  young adults, mommies, political wonks, and so on.  (Vampires are still pretty big, but it’s unclear whether that’s the platform or the publishers.)  Memoirs are big, too, but if they’re not some new ethnic category, they tend to be indistinguishable.  What hard lives we all have!  Especially writers!!

It used to be that publishers had in-house editors, some of them designated to “acquire.”  The one who “acquired” my book about Bob Scriver,  “Bronze Inside and Out,” had a contract with the press to scout out a certain number of prospective manuscripts in a specific category:  important people in Alberta.  “Legacy” people.   It was an uneasy fit, but Bob did have quite a bit to do with Alberta, especially Calgary.

But these days publishers have books thrust upon them from all sides.  Since they have dismissed most of their editors, no one has time to “develop” manuscripts, so it has fallen upon the agents to continue to do their same editing jobs, except this time for a percentage of the author’s money instead of for a steady salary and a provided office.

A second chain of events has afflicted the book buyer.  The bookstores, esp. the Indies, are collapsing.  No more the pleasant experience of dropping by the bookstore while waiting for the kids’ ballet lesson or soccer practice to be over.  No more the clerk who has grown to know what you like to read, who will occasionally put a book aside so you’re the first one to see it, who will prompt you to consider something that only you would really appreciate.  Yet there are still people out there who like an array of books on their nightstands, even collections on shelves, maybe the works of a favorite author or an assortment on a particular subject.  The days of the Book-of-the-Month are over.  And dependable reviewers seem to be thin on the ground.

So here’s my reversal idea:  what about an agent for readers?  In fact, there ARE people who make a living by looking for paintings on behalf of clients.  They might take a finder’s fee, but that would be more appropriate if their client were the gallery, like the handling fee at an auction.  (It was only fifty years ago that the auction price was actually the price -- flat.)  What if one subscribed to what we might call a “readers’ concierge,” someone who would locate books you would like and then notify you, not necessarily buy the book for you unless you asked them to find and order something specific.  It’s pretty easy to find a book and buy it online.  One might be phobic about the process of using a computer.  It takes a little time, not to buy but to find.

A good book concierge might be one who nimbly moved among conventional publishing, ePublishing, self-publishing, print on demand (which could include books out of print), used books, local books (the ones that don’t even have an ISBN), unpublished manuscripts, audible books, and so on.  A person who did free lance writing might really appreciate some scouting for research in the more arcane and inaccessible places.  Research librarians used to do this but some technical fields are now pretty tough to negotiate.  Like everything else they are migrating from print journals to online discussions.

If a person were in a high density population, like a big city or a university town, it might be possible to drop by clients for tea and discussion.  Otherwise, contact would have to be a function of the “virtual city” online with the advantage of fitting the clients’ schedule, maybe at 3AM.

One might call this “guided distribution.”  It has been my experience that a great many readers are passive: they are sessile, waiting for good things to come in on the tide.  Others, of course, are nimble and seeking, and a few are like octopi, into everything, always prying at possibilities, maybe something forbidden.

My next question is how a book concierge would guide my books, esp. those written with Tim, into the hands of readers.  What readers are looking for the sorts of books we write?  We don’t confine ourselves to one sort of reader -- the very fact that we are so different from each other makes that clear.  But then, wouldn’t the sort of reader who would respond to our writing be people like us?  Doesn’t it take an octopus to enjoy reading about other octopi and maybe the occasional squid?  Maybe our dilemma is that we are rare and therefore it takes someone special to appreciate us.  I think I won’t reverse that idea right now.

In the meantime, this person is ALREADY a “book concierge!”  http://www.shelfari.com/o1516844670