Indie Agents

Why do literary agents go off on their own?

Is it the prestige? The money? The challenge? The control?

Emily Sylvan Kim was toiling away at Writers House for a time, a short time, and then she opened up her own shop at the Prospect Agency. Was she not happy at Writers House? Was she troubled by the distribution of commissions? Or did she simply not get along with her fellow agents?

Kirsten Manges was at Curtis Brown prior to her departure. She has her own agency these days, but in a carry-over from her Curtis Brown days, she does not have a website. Elyse Cheney was once employed by the Sanford J. Greenburger agency, as was Julie Barer, and they opened up their own private shops so that they could cater to their own personal clients in their own unique way. Was the money better, or was the climate better?

Now there's word that Elisabeth Weed, formerly at Kneerim & Williams and later at Trident Media, has hung her shingle somewhere, current whereabouts unknown. Was she so successful at Trident that she decided she could do better without the excess baggage? Was there a row in the board room, the partners refusing to grant her partner status and so she stormed out?

Now that has all the makings of a fine bit of chick lit. The New York City setting, the exciting world of publishing, a hard-working gal trying to make it in a tough industry, tackling the job on her own when her bosses failed to see her potential. It only takes someone to write it, and then submit it....to the Weed Literary Agency, one might suppose.