Dancing withe the agent what brung yiz

Is it just me and my disconnected life here in Ioway or has a lot of the talk about changing agents sort of drifted away?.

There was a time, a year ago say, when a number of writers were talking about dumping agents and moving on to new magic ones. Believe me, I've had a few bum agents myself so I sympathised. But then I always try to keep in mind that I've been a bum client for a few agents (maybe more than a few) as well. Two way street.

But not so much talk about the agent leap-frogging now. Maybe it's because most if not many agents don't had the clout they had even a few years ago. Just as Hwood has tightened star budgets, so have, in some (and I stress SOME) imprints at SOME publishing houses. They still wildly overpay for certain books but not as much as before and not as often.

A lot of take and or leave it today. Agents seem to go through a little pro form dance knowing full well that they'll generally have to settle or lose the deal. Ask any mid-lister if this isn't the case.

I've never been privvy to the inner workings of the mega-agencies but I suspect that even they aren't quite as successful across the board as they once were.

All this is as intractable, alas, as Iraq.

I'll end on a happy note. A prominent editor said today that mass market sales are up sigificantly over the last two years.

This is something that writers, agents and publishers alike should celebrate.