Andrew Wylie seems comfortable with the nickname he earned in publishing where it is known as “The Jackal”. Is that with the ferocity of the predator when hungry does manage rights of nearly 1,000 authors, many of them the most widely read and sold. Know how to stand against the largest distributors in the world to achieve their goals. The literary agent is a role often fought. It is the intermediary between the companies that publish and authors. And business issues intermediaries are often seen as pests to be controlled.
Founded 30 years ago, which is now the largest literary agency, The Wylie Agency, with offices in London and New York, and representing authors Hobel Mo Yan as Philip Roth Orhan Pamuk Prize for literature, and authors like Susan Sontag, VS Naipaul, John Berger and Martin Amis. It also handles the rights of classics like Witold Gombrowicz or William Burroughs.
In 2010, with the change of rules posed Amazon, launched Odyssey Editions, a digital project that became the star of a controversy that threatened your business with publishing giant Random House who warned that if he continued with the idea of publishing without going through them, I would not do business with Wylie.
The man is seen in elegant suit and relaxed in the pretty room Protocol Book Fair of Buenos Aires, where it is first. It is a book of interviews for the media timed to the second. Worthy of a rock star. Ironic and joker says that digital technology will make people die young and refers to digital reading devices as “that fucking things.”
Argentina says, simply Borges. In Chile, only Bolaño. “I have only one Argentine author probably because I do not read or speak Spanish, but I hope that after my visit can think more authors increased the portfolio,” he explains.
He is allowed to refer to joke that he sees in the panorama the near future for the book industry and is optimistic about the permanence of paper, as opposed to the digital book. “This summer we went with my wife we take a vacation on the beach in Jamaica. She had scolded me not occupy much place on my book Americanah of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Came time to read, I in my chaise whirled pages with my index finger under the sun and she desperately trying to find the book (says in his “fucking kindle”) between files that for some reason was deleted or was not. despreocupara I told him, when I had just read my book about three days it would provide, “says funny.
– How is the conflict between publishers and distributors of digital content is shaping
I think Amazon decided to destroy the publishing industry, in the same way that Apple destroyed the music industry? ; what you want to do is end the press, do everything digital, bring it all to your business, from the huge price difference between paper and digital format. I think many people have a great book if you prefer to hoard it, do not want in digital format but in the library to return to it. Much of the literature that is sold in ebook pasatista, entertainment, books that are not home to save
-.? How to resist publishing this new map
To resist the threat of Amazon must have a strong publishing industry to say “no”. Amazon has to listen because for example Penguin Random House represents 35% of the book market in English. This concentration is something that is going to pour the rest of the publishing industry benefits because it will strengthen the rest of the industry as a whole
-.? What does the literary agent in this scenario
The authors did not have enough strength to negotiate for themselves. Agencies give them strength. We represent several writers as we have better bargaining power with publishers that if you are a writer just to stop and ask for better rates. Our added value is information. We have about 1000 authors who each write 12 books on average. There are about 12 thousand books in 40 languages, this means many contracts. So for example, a young writer comes and tells me. “I want to write for the New Yorker” Well, we have about 200 contracts with the New Yorker and we know how much you pay each. The writer does not know, we do. It is an advantage for the author, he can help us. We advise on what to offer and what to ask. If we call a publisher and say that a writer really worth publishers to read. We
You do not like the digital readout.
First, digital technology gives cancer (laughs). I think people should throw away their kindles. I think as people learn more and more digital books will die young. Read books on paper makes you live longer then digital sales will begin to fall because readers are going to die. Seriously, I think the digital reading is mainly for those disposable readings. For example, to read newspapers online. Although I still read printed newspapers. I have a device to read digital but always run out of battery. I also believe that texts are like pictures ebook leaf paper books. I do not like
-, see. Literary production in emerging countries such as literature
O-No, do not think so?. I could never say that, for example, in Argentina, a literature that is given to a peripheral Borges. An author who is like Shakespeare in England. I repeat, probably not more authors write in Spanish because I do not speak it, do not read. But I can say that soon we will have more authors. That’s what I hope. The Book Fair of Buenos Aires has surprised me a lot, you have a shocking amount of readers. The amount of people coming, everyone listens, pays attention, it’s fantastic. “
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