All the best writers are in New York City, and some of them are residing in places like....Brooklyn. Some of the major publishing executives reside outside of Manhattan. My, but how things are changing.
The agents believe that e-books are on the rise, which means their commissions are on the down swing. Not as much money to be made in the future with paper-free publishing, and considering the rents it just makes fiscal sense to do business elsewhere.
No one's saying anything about moving to Columbus, Ohio, are they?
The authors are in New York City, especially in places like....Brooklyn, because it's more affordable. Tunica, Mississippi has Brooklyn beat on the affordability scale, but there's no mention of the top writers re-locating to the Deep South.
But there is yet hope for all those other places outside of the five boroughs.
Having moved away from Manhattan, some literary agents have come to see that their clients don't all live within shouting distance. There are computers these days, with web cameras and Skype. There are mobile phones that keep us all in constant contact.
Shocking to discover that the location of the office doesn't matter much any more.
While it's sad to see that literary agents are still so focused on their own back yard that they're missing a great deal of the rest of the world, it's heartening to watch their blinders slip.
For now, if you're serious about writing, you'd want to be living in Prospect Park or an equally trendy, up and coming area. Within another few years, who could say? Manhattan may devolve as the absolute center of the publishing industry. And maybe then, there will be fewer novels published that are set in New York City and feature protagonists in the writing, editing or publishing trades.
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