I'll be keeping my eye on DeFiore and Company in the upcoming months. Now, if I was living in New York and feeling bold, I might go after the position myself and become my first client. Who hasn't thought of it? Be honest now.
Here's the listing as it appears in Publishers Marketplace:
Small, high-profile literary agency seeks assistant/associate. At least one year prior related experience in book publishing essential. The position requires a brilliance for mutli-tasking: you will be responsible for routine office work (filing, phones, typing, mailings), financial work (keeping track of office bills and author statements and royalties) and reading and writing reports on submissions from potential clients. All the while keeping our clients and their publishers dazzled with your grasp of things… The right person will have a mix of qualities not often found in one person: an ability to track multiple details, an ease with a calculator and computer, and a creative spirit and discerning editorial eye. You will learn everything about the literary agent business, get to know editors and authors, and will be encouraged, in time, to develop your own clients. Please send a resume and letter describing why you think you'd be right for this job to: resumes@defioreandco.com
The lack of a mention about the salary is worrying, considering the fact that the job description sounds a bit like one step above slavery. There's some long hours in there, and then there's the slush pile that your superiors are likely to send your way. Still and all, if you're hell bent on becoming a literary agent, there's no better way to learn the business.
A couple of months, and the new employee will either be long gone or desperate to develop some of those personal clients and hand off the office chores to some other gullible individual. In the meantime, I'll go back to the long list of agents not yet queried on Manuscript 5 and keep plugging away on the aul' work in progress.
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