I recently attended a Writers Guild seminar on international opportunties for writers. The basic message was that writers need to start thinking globally if they want to survive in this business. I have been thinking globally for a while now…especially after spending much of 2007 working abroad (writing and producing the action movie FAST TRACK, among other things). It also helps that I've been married to a French woman for nineteen years…France feels like my second home and I am pretty comfortable in Europe.
So with the global marketplace in mind, I have been looking around for an agent to represent me across the Atlantic. I am pleased to say that after a long search that I've just signed with Peter MacFarlane at MacFarlane Chard in London, one of the best agencies for actors, directors, producers and writers in the UK. I'm very excited about this new relationship and the great opportunties that this could lead to for me overseas.
Meanwhile, I will continue to be represented for film & TV in the U.S. by Mitchel Stein and in publishing worldwide by Gina Maccoby.
I am very loyal when it comes to agents. I have been with Mitch for fifteen years and Gina for seven. So if things work out with Peter, I'll probably still be represented by him when I'm eligible for social security…
Frankly Lee it’s always amazed me how much US writers, and US publishers sometimes, forget there is a world out there. My books are now in 20 languages or so (you stop counting after a while). A substantial part of my book revenues come from publications in languages I can’t understand.
For example in July I’m going to Thailand for the publication of the fourth Nic Costa in Thai – they’re so popular there my publisher Nanmee is bringing out two a year to catch up.
ITW has a private group on Ning that discusses this issue (from a US perspective so I’m not involved). Good luck with your new agent but remember that in foreign territories most agencies work through sub-agents and those are the guys on the ground who really count.
Peter will be representing me in TV & Film…I haven’t really explored foreign publication yet. I’ve been busy on the book front with the MONK novels and the foreign end of those is out of my hands. But I am working on a standalone crime novel now, so perhaps the foreign possibilities will be of interest to me soon (then again, there is my backlist…)
Lee
Nice Lee,
Congrats! When you signed did you suddenly feel expansive; like you could just step over the ocean in one big stride?
It’s good to see someone successful who stays with the people who helped him along the way.
Karen
Wow, great stuff. And a tip of the cap to David Hewson for sharing.
The knock against Americans in Canada is that they don’t seem to know anything about us and seem focussed only on their own country.
One U.S. comedian in Toronto joked: “Just when you think things can’t get any worse, we come through again!” (Big laughs.)
So when an American writer travels to other countries, it might be wise to read the wikipedia page on that country, and to demomstrate some real local knowledge as this would be working against the American stereotype, maybe. For instance: who is the political leader of Canada and what party does he or she belong to? Stuff like that.
(Answer: Stephen Harper, Conservatives)