Mr. Jacobson was kind enough to promptly reply back to my question about his agency. He said it was okay to share my response with others here on the board, so here it is.
I read through the message board and was fascinated to read M.R.J. LeBlanc’s post: “Their site is pretty clear. The man who started the agency has a 'publishing career', which I'm guessing means he's had books published. Fine, great. But that's no qualifying experience to be an agent.” If he had read our website or done a bit of research, he would have seen that I was actually the owner and publisher of Multnomah Publishers for fourteen years and helped authors like Dobson, Blackaby, Alcorn, Piper, Feldhahn, Gunn, Kingsbury, and Rivers produce bestselling, life-changing books. After selling Multnomah to Random House in 2006, I started this agency, focusing on deep relationships with very few authors with whom my colleagues and I have a high capacity for friendship and shared vision. We invest a significant amount of time in our contracted authors and of course do not charge them for any of our services, just the standard 15% commission.
Our Consulting Services were born out of a demand from unrepresented authors for publishing coaching. We receive several submissions and queries each day, and have done our best to share helpful tips with authors we can’t represent, instead of just sending a typical nondescript “pass” email. But, what we’ve found the past two years is that every time we respond to someone with a few insights, they come back with more questions, wanting more advice on how to improve their proposals and book concepts. Unfortunately, we can’t invest the time into an in-depth response to every one of the hundreds of submissions we receive, as our foremost responsibility is servicing our represented authors. We began offering Consulting Services this spring out of a desire to help unrepresented authors whose book ideas legitimately have potential but aren’t at the level we would represent or is likely to be picked up by another reputable agent or publisher. Our team spends several hours providing in-depth feedback and suggestions and charges a rate that’s fair for the level of service we provide.
There is no conflict of interest because we don’t charge any fees from the authors we represent and if we consult with an author who we end up signing down the road, their consulting fees would be fully refunded. Our heart is to continue working closely with a few represented authors and to also lend our experience and insights to consulting clients we think will most benefit from our services.
I hope this response helps clarify our intention. Please feel free to share this info with your associates on the AW site and encourage them to become more familiar with our site if they’re interested in learning about us.
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