::
spotlight on the craft::
:: An exclusive interview::
By Julie Farin
WordSmitten Correspondent
Gail Hochman, a literary agent best known for the all-star roster
of award-winning authors, represents Scott Turow, Michael Cunningham,
Julia Glass, Bob Shacochis, and Nancy Zafris, among many others.
She
graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with a degree in Psychobiology
and attended summer camps where she worked with autistic children.
She also studied Italian in Venice and Perugia. Her original
plan was to go to medical school to become a doctor, but she
hated all the lab classes she was required to take as an undergraduate.
Would
it then make any sense at all to take a smart right turn into
the world of publishing? Accidents, happy and serendipitous
ones, happen.
At
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc., and do note the
partner designation, Hochman’s unorthodox background is
living proof that one doesn’t have to follow the traditional
route in college -- major in English, Literature or Creative
Writing–-to be successful as a publishing executive.
One should be “a dilettante,” but must also have
“a lot of interests, be curious, be a generalist, and
love to read,” she rattles off in rapid-fire succession
during a recent phone interview from her office in midtown Manhattan.
“I
know I talk very fast,” she says apologetically.
Hochman
first landed an entry-level position in publishing at G.P. Putnam’s
Sons in 1975, when it was still a privately held company. As
a young editorial assistant, she worked in the magazines department
working closely with well-known authors to sell their short
stories and book excerpts to The New Yorker and The
Atlantic Monthly.
When Putnam was acquired by a large public media conglomerate
the
corporate culture changed.
It was inevitable that new managers would be hired and would
recruit industry cronies. Hochman, just two years on the job,
was concerned that “the kids,” like her, within
the company would be “passed over for promotions.”
It was time, she decided, to move on.
Hochman
contacted executives at Paul R. Reynolds, Inc., the oldest literary
agency in the United States. The Reynolds agency, founded in
1896, is now known as John Hawkins & Associates, Inc. and
her call to seek some career advice met with a positive response.
They were impressed with her unique talent in dealing with authors
and magazines. Unexpectedly, she was offered an opportunity
to replace an agent whom “they had just lost,” she
says.
During her six years at Reynolds, Hochman traveled to search
for and sign new writers from top venues such as the University
of Iowa’s MFA program. It was on one of these trips to
the Midwest that she met a short story writer named Bob Shacochis.
“I
signed up to meet all the agents and editors who come to Iowa
on shopping trips,” Shacochis
told Publisher’s Weekly. However, he was discouraged
to find that most of them didn’t think his short stories
had much commercial potential. “Come back after you’ve
written a novel,” they advised him. Except Gail Hochman.
She took him on as a client and initially sold one of his short
stories to Playboy magazine.
Meanwhile,
Hochman was introduced to Carl Brandt, whose small, family-run
literary agency, Brandt & Brandt, was founded in 1914. She
describes the firm where she’s worked since 1983 as a
“quiet, solid, serious – not flashy – agency”
known for literary fiction and memoir. At
Brandt & Brandt, Hochman went on to sell two collections
of Bob Shacochis’ short stories to Crown -- “Easy
in the Islands,” which won the American Book Award for
First Fiction in 1985, and “The Next New World”,
which won the Prix de Rome in 1989. His editor at Crown, Barbara
Grossman, planned on bringing him with her to Scribner. That
move incited a bidding war between Crown, Scribner, and Knopf.
Hochman capitalized on the demand for her client by boosting
the advance for his novel, “Swimming in the Volcano.”
Shacochis proclaimed to Publisher’s Weekly, “I
want Gail canonized.”
Around
that time, a former creative writing teacher at Stanford University,
who was also an assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago, contacted
her. He had begun writing a non-fiction book about his experiences
as a first-year law student at Harvard called “One L.”
She found him “nice and extremely intelligent,”
she says. His name was Scott Turow.
To
her surprise, he told her to stop reading “One L.”
Instead, he suggested she start reading a novel he was writing
involving “a courtroom, sex, and the police,” she
says. While reading the manuscript, Hochman told Turow that
she was taking copious notes to keep track of the numerous characters.
He told her to be patient and to “keep reading.”
She
took his advice and continued reading at home. The protagonist,
who is also the book’s narrator, is implicated in a murder.
As the story continued to heat up, she said she “literally
started to scream.” So much so that “my husband
thought we were being robbed,” she adds. The manuscript
contained the kind of high-quality storytelling using multiple
plot twists making it a page-turner that she couldn’t
put down. She knew she had a winner. It was called “Presumed
Innocent” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/1987).
When
entertainment companies came knocking to option the film rights
to the bestseller, Hochman continued to represent Turow. Although
she says she likes Alan J. Pakula’s 1990 film version
of “Presumed Innocent” very much (starring Harrison
Ford, Raul Julia, Brian Dennehy, Greta Scacchi, and Bonnie Bedelia),
she comments that nothing compares to the printed word.
Turow’s
novels “The Burden of Proof” (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux/1990) and “Reversible Errors” (Farrar, Straus
& Giroux/2002) also aired as made-for-television movies.
Hochman
represented another longtime client, Michael Cunningham, when
his Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner award-winning novel “The
Hours” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/1998) made the leap
to the big screen (starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and
Julianne Moore). She felt it was a book that wouldn’t
translate easily to film, but was ultimately amazed at the results
(the film garnered Academy Awards in 2002 for Best Director,
Stephen Daldry, and Best Actress, Nicole Kidman).
Cunningham
also wrote the screenplay for his novel “At Home at the
End of the World,” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/1990)
for the forthcoming film starring Colin Farrell.
When
Hochman sees the credits roll in a movie theater that read,
“based on the novel by” any one of her clients,
she “bursts into tears,” she says. It’s a
very emotional experience, she explains, “like having
my baby up there” on screen.
By
the early 1990s, she was promoted to partner at Brandt &
Brandt, but modestly left the official name of the firm unchanged
until years later for fear it would “increase the number
of query letters I receive by 300 percent,” she says.
In
addition to being a top literary agent, Hochman served a second
role as President of the Association of Authors’ Representatives
(AAR), one she takes very seriously. It’s not “glamorous
or exciting,” she explains, but its mission is important.
The
AAR’s committees discuss a variety of topics important
to agents and writers – business issues, educational issues
(i.e., choosing the appropriate panels/seminars to participate
in at BookExpo America), emerging legal issues (i.e., electronic
rights), authors’ guild issues, trends in editing, contracts,
and royalties, and ethical complaints. The AAR’s members
are agents who follow a strict canon of ethics. Hochman advises
new writers to be aware of the following “red flags”
when seeking representation:
1.
What are the agent’s charges? Besides the commission,
are there additional charges for phone calls, mailings, reading
fees, or other itemized expenses? Always question the charges
up front if they seem unusual.
2.
Did the agent send your check? Once an agent makes a deal with
a publisher on behalf of the client, the standard procedure
is for the publisher to send the check directly to the agent.
The agent, in turn, is to take his/her commission and immediately
forward the balance to the author. (The AAR specifies a deadline).
If the agent is holding back the money because he/she needs
to pay the rent or electric bill, something is wrong.
3.
Is the agent straightforward about deal-making? Does the agent
withhold information or lie about potential deals or meetings
with smaller publishers?
If
the agent is an AAR member and violates any of the above rules,
contact the AAR to file a grievance, Hochman suggests. If the
agent is not an AAR member, contact the Authors’ Guild
instead. Unfortunately, literary agents “are not licensed
like doctors or lawyers,” she says. Organizations that
advocate on behalf of authors’ rights are critical. Nevertheless,
she is optimistic that “most agents are ethical,”
and believes it is the few who taint the reputation of the industry.
The
agent’s role is to land the best possible deal for the
client while keeping the author’s larger, long-term goals
in mind, she reiterates. Publishing houses are concerned with
turning a profit and keeping its shareholders happy. As a respected
literary agent, Hochman outlines four main priorities for her
clients:
1.
Profits – Getting the best possible book advance for the
client is pivotal, but there are other concerns besides money
that the agent should keep in mind. (See below.)
2.
Publicity Potential – Does the publishing house have a
well-staffed in-house publicity department that is going to
support the author full-force?
3.
Attention – Will the publishing house give the author
the attention he/she deserves? For example, if the client is
a mystery writer, should the agent accept a deal with a larger
publisher (for more money) if it already has a stable of established
mystery writers where the client might get lost in the shuffle?
Or should the agent focus his/her strategy on a smaller publisher
(for less money) that is beginning a mystery division and is
in need of new mystery writers to promote?
4.
Short-Term vs. Long-Term Strategies -- Will the publishing house
take the time to nurture the career of a floundering writer?
Or will they drop the client if one or two books don’t
meet its sales expectations?
In a career spanning more than 30 years, Gail Hochman has come
a long way since editing her classmates’ college papers
and becoming an “accidental” agent. Brandt &
Hochman Literary Agents continues its legacy of representing
authors of quality literary fiction (non-genre), memoirs, children’s
books, and mysteries.
~*~
To
send a professional one-page
query letter to GAIL HOCHMAN, contact her at:
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
