On Agenting--Professional Spotlight

I'm really pleased to welcome agent Stacia Decker. I've known Stacia a long time--as the saying goes, we grew up together in publishing together, starting out as Editorial Assistants way back when at prestigious Farrar Straus & Giroux, a place I like to think of as the last bastion of old guard publishing and what seems like publishing nostalgia now--receiving manuscripts in boxes in the actual mail, having publishing icon Roger Straus greet you in your office in the morning wearing a mega watt smile and a silk ascot and learning this trade at the side of editors who'd begun the careers of the likes of Tom Wolfe. I remember always feeling quite awestruck whenever I entered the building and I remember having conversations with Stacia about the future--when we were not the assistants or junior editors, but the editors and publishers and the people making the decisions that could create such a storied legacy. And all these years later, it's been remarkable to watch Stacia create her own storied legacy first as an editor and now as an agent. Her accomplishments are enviable and her publishing knowledge and savvy incredible. She is a stalwart advocate for her clients and bar-none one of the best agents working in the industry today. So without further ado...

So in my long-winded intro I did kind of answer this one for you, but for the record, how did you begin your publishing career?

I started as an unpaid intern at Farrar Straus & Giroux. My first paid job was as an editorial assistant at FSG.

So you didn't come into the industry thinking you'd become an agent. How has the transition been for you?

I started in editorial and really resisted the idea of becoming an agent—I didn’t see myself as a salesperson. But it turns out the skillset is much the same, and the transition has felt very natural.

How does your past Editorial career influence your work as an agent? Sometimes agents are asked whether or not they are an Editorial Agent. Would you consider yourself an Editorial Agent? What's the value in having an Editorial Agent? 

My past as an editor influences how I approach a manuscript and how I approach an editor with that manuscript. I bring the same editorial sensibility and work to the manuscript that I would as an editor, and I try to give the editor the materials and positioning she needs both to see the book on her list and to pitch it in-house to her editorial board. That past also influences, to some degree, my strategy as I manage a sale and the advice I give a client during the submission and publishing processes. So I’m very much an editorial agent, and I think that’s valuable both in terms of developing manuscripts and as another layer of experience I bring to the whole process.

What has surprised you about your list?

I initially expected to cast a much wider net and then very quickly decided to focus on fiction, and a relatively narrow range at that. I certainly did not expect to rep YA—and I now have seven clients (all originally signed for adult projects) writing YA. I also didn’t expect to rep sci fi fantasy—and I now have books under contract with Angry Robot, Gollancz, Titan, and Tor.

What has surprised you about the market and publishing in general?

The market is a perpetual mystery, explainable only in retrospect (she says, joking but not joking). I think I was initially surprised by how old-fashioned many aspects of publishing are, and how many decisions are made based on intuition and experience rather than hard numbers. But I tend to think those are often good things.

What are some books of yours we should look out for?

In 2014:

The mind-bending literary novel THE GUILD OF ST. COOPER by Shya Scanlon.

In thrillers: KILL FEE by Owen Laukkanen, the third in the critically acclaimed Stevens & Windermere series, and ROTTEN AT THE HEART, featuring Shakespeare as a reluctant shamus, written by Bartholomew Daniels.

For country noir fans: A SWOLLEN RED SUN by Matthew McBride, and THE GOOD LIFE by Frank Wheeler, Jr.

In SFF: the utterly crazy KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY by Kieran Shea; Chuck Wendig’s CORMORANT, the third in the Miriam Black series, and THE BLOODY BRIDE, the second in the Mookie Pearl series; THE BURNING DARK, a haunted space opera, and HANG WIRE, both by Adam Christopher; and THE INCORRUPTIBLES, the first in John Hornor Jacobs alternate-Roman-history-western-fantasy-demonpunk.

In YA: HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL by Owen Matthews; THE WIZARD'S PROMISE, the first in a new duology by Cassandra Rose Clarke; BLIGHTBORN, the second in Chuck Wendig's Heartland trilogy; INDEPENDENT STUDY and GRADUATION DAY, the second and third in Joelle Charbonneau’s bestselling The Testing trilogy, and THE SHIBBOLETH, the second in John Hornor Jacobs’s Twelve-Fingered Boy trilogy.

What haven't you tried your hand at yet, but want to?

Not much! I am already involved, to some degree or another, in agenting, editing, contracts, accounting, publicity, marketing, sales, social media, career planning, event planning, and so on. I speak on panels, do interviews, attend conferences, conventions, trade shows, and awards ceremonies, travel for client events, etc. I have a lot more to learn about all of it before I’ll be tempted to try something new.   

What are your publishing goals for 2014?

Sell some books. Then sell some more.

What's the best advice you can give writers? 

Just keep writing.

Stacia Decker joined the Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2009. A former editor at Harcourt and Otto Penzler Books, she began her career at Farrar, Straus & Giroux after earning an MFA in nonfiction writing at Columbia University. She represents noir, crime fiction, thrillers, literary fiction, literary suspense, and cross-genre fiction with speculative elements. Among her clients are Frank Bill, Joelle Charbonneau, Adam Christopher, Cassandra Rose Clarke, John Hornor Jacobs, Owen Laukkanen, Fiona Maazel, Matthew McBride, Jon McGoran, Dan O’Shea, Todd Robinson, Shya Scanlon, Kieran Shea, Jeff Shelby, Jay Stringer, Steve Weddle, Chuck Wendig, and Frank Wheeler, Jr.