agent interview: matthew carnicelli…

my agent is the only one who can tell me to take a valium, for chrissake, and deal with it, and i’ll listen. he’s helped me climb down from some serious ledges, and his careful, astute eye shaped my proposal and sample manuscript pages from its most nascent form to something which attracted top editors’ interest. he attends my readings and supports all my literary endeavors. translation: i couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful, dedicated and smart agent. so i was tickled to see that RKB (a supportive rock star in her own right) interviewed him for mediabistro.

Carnicelli has some words of wisdom for authors submitting to him, so that their emails don’t get deleted right off the bat. “It’s very important that authors present themselves in a formal and professional way. Frankly, I hate sloppy, overdressed materials and when people write ‘Dear Matthew’ without even knowing me,” Carnicelli elaborates. Sticking to a single, focused idea and presenting your credentials in your brief query will get you a response; mass emails sent to every agent under the sun won’t.

click here to read more.

unrelated: humilating moment of the day: my landlord (who’s a known journalist) receives piles of fantastic books/day. imagine my glee as i see boxes of his castoffs in our front lawn. this is 7:30am and i’m in a dress and heels, sifting through boxes, pulling out Amy Hempel! David Mitchell! O’Henry! Kozol! Carolyn See! and more. My landlord comes out, kids in tow, and I wave (and drop six of the 22 books i’ve snatched) as I run upstairs with my newfound treasures.

unrelated, yet again: just when you thought it was safe to swipe that debit card, jasmin smartly posts about the ills that plague urban outfitters and anthropologie and the rat fink owner who supports a close-minded bigot. you vote with your dollar and i couldn’t agree more. also, via jasmin, i discovered girlcott.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 10:18 am and is filed under the writing life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.