They have dreams of bringing great books to the public, but as publishers they didn't feel they were getting all those great books. Stories worth telling weren't being told, because literary agents weren't querying the book that would be Caldecott worthy..
So they became agents, working directly with the writers who had those stories and wanted to tell them.
Then the newly minted literary agent discovered that their former colleagues in publishing didn't agree with them as to what constituted a manuscript worth buying. What the agent fell in love with didn't meet the acquisitions editor's desires.
Writers House is saying good-bye to Kenneth Wright, who used to be in publishing and is going back.
He represented children's books as an agent, and he's going to be a vice president at Viking Children's division.
When he was a literary agent, did he try to sell a manuscript that he was sure was the next Ludwig Bemelmans or Robert McCloskey, only to have the manuscript rejected?
Is he returning to publishing because he has an idea of how to do things better than what's being done now?
Mr. Wright will start in at the end of August, searching through manuscripts delivered by literary agents who hope he'll fall in love with a story the way they did.
With several years of agenting under his belt, he'll have a very good understanding of what that love is like.
Unfortunately, if you were thinking of sending him a query letter, it's too late. He's going back to the other side and the only way he'll consider your manuscript is if a literary agent queries him. Perhaps Tracey Adams would be interested?
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