Klinger discusses literary industry

Alumnus Harvey Klinger spoke about his career as a literary agent on Tuesday at an event sponsored by on-campus magaine Thoroughfare and the Hopkins chapter of Her Campus and co-sponsored by on-campus magainzes J.Magazine and The Black and Blue Jay. Klinger received his M.A. from the Writing Seminars Department at Hopkins.

Kate Dwyer, editor-in-chief of the Hopkins chapter of Her Campus, invited Klinger for the groups’ alumni interview series.

Klinger began his career at publishing company Doubleday but left to work for a literary agent before becoming an agent himself. He created his own independent agency, Harvey Klinger, Inc. in New York City.

Klinger shared advice about how to break into the publishing industry.

“First [and] foremost, it’s talent, and I can’t create that,” Klinger said. “That’s got to come from you. Then, you have [to have] patience, perseverance and more than anything, passion, because if you’re not passionate about what you’re writing, nobody is going to want to read it. If you get that together, if you get together a manuscript, I think the odds of getting somewhere are pretty good, but just don’t ask me when.”

He also discussed the mechanisms of the publishing industry. Because of the overwhelming amount of manuscripts that the industry receives, Klinger said that companies expect to receive products that are nearly perfect.

He also explained that the books that get sold are typically ones that women can relate to,  because women comprise the vast majority of fiction readers.

“In terms of general fiction, every editor and publisher that I know is out there looking for what’s going to be the next women’s novel. [Publishing companies] love sympathetic characters,” Klinger said.

According to a new analysis of U.S. ISBN data, there were more than 458,564 self-published titles in 2013, which demonstrates a 17 percent increase from 2012.

Although Klinger admitted that there have been increases in self-published books and e-books, he said that very few of these types of books have become widely popular.

“If you self-publish a book, there will be no marketing; there will be no publicity; there will be none of the tools that publishers utilize to get your book out there.”

Many students enjoyed the seminar and found Klinger’s advice valuable.

“I thought it was really useful. I want to be an author so it was a lot of good information about publishing, which I appreciate,” junior Lydia Youngman said.

Junior Ruthie Portes, editor-in-chief of Thoroughfare, also said that Klinger’s talk was interesting and pertinent.

“I thought it was very informative, especially since I’m trying to get into that world,” Portes said.