"Why haven't scholars cared about agents? Why are writers so obsessed? And what is that mismatch telling us about what's going on in this industry?"

I had the best time chatting with author and academic Laura B. McGrath, whose new nonfiction book, Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction, is on shelves now. We nerded out on:

* When agents burst onto the scene (and why publishers loathed them at first)

* Where the title comes from and why her book cover is giving midcentury glam

* Why agents are so secretive about their day-to-day

* The surprising reason her book research—and access to pros—took a big turn midway through her project

* Why the introduction of paperbacks upended agents’ role

* The questions you should ask an agent before signing—and the convo you must have with your agent after working together for a while

* How she sees agenting changing in 5-10 years

* Why you should pick up the book for “a whole lot of quantitative data about what contemporary literature is and what it’s turned into thanks to the agents’ influence.”

…and more! Be sure to sign up for Laura’s newsletter, textCrunch, where she shares fascinating, data-driven research about books, publishing, and culture—and order her book for more.

During the Live, we discussed agent calls, and I promised to share the link to this helpful post from Sally Ekus:

Here’s another great one from author Leah Rowan:

Finally, here’s my compendium of successful query letters, with additional resources at the end:

Thank you Sally Ekus, Shana Clarke, Shanyn, MJ Soni Author, Ariees Roman, and many others for tuning into my live video with Laura B. McGrath! You can check out my past Substack Lives here and listen to any of them in your favorite podcast app.

My next one will be on Wednesday, 5/8 at noon ET, when I’ll be discussing Activism 101: How to Hold Big AI Accountable with Saul Austerlitz (author of How to Assemble an Activist) and Aurelio Aguirre (software developer and cofounder of Users Union). Here’s that link. See you there!

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