Lynn Johnston Literary

Here's another good sale for her, and Googling "Lynn Johnston Literary" turns up several others.

Not a lot of info out there--no website, no PM page--but what there is looks encouraging.

If she offers representation, you can ask for a list of recent sales.

- Victoria

I am also checking out this agent. When agents put books on Amazon.com does that mean this is a self publish? I was thinking Penguin was a publisher. I am confused about her.

Emerita said:

I am also checking out this agent. When agents put books on Amazon.com does that mean this is a self publish? I was thinking Penguin was a publisher. I am confused about her.

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I believe she sent the OP to the Amazon page for the book she sold to Penguin. Yes, Penguin is one of the "Big Six" NY houses; that means she made a legitimate sale to a house which requires an agent.

Is that what you meant? Your post confused me a bit; why would the agent sending a link to one of her clients' Amazon listings make you think of self-publishing?

Yes, that is what I meant, thanks. I am going to querie her, but I wasn't sure what the Amazon connection meant. I thought that only self published authors put their own books on Amazon to sell them.

Emerita said:

Yes, that is what I meant, thanks. I am going to querie her, but I wasn't sure what the Amazon connection meant. I thought that only self published authors put their own books on Amazon to sell them.

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Nobody's put their own books on Amazon in this case, though. This is what happened:

1. Johnston sold her client's book to Penguin.

2. Penguin released the book. Part of that release was putting the book on Amazon, as all legitimate publishers do with their entire catalogues.

3. Johnston sent OP the link to her client's book on Amazon. She did not list the book herself. Her client did not list the book him- or herself. The publisher did.

Johnston sent the OP the link, simply to say "This is one of my clients' books, here it is on Amazon, see? The publisher is listed; you can see from this listing that I do have a legitimate sale."

It's exactly the same as, say, me sending you the link to my book's Amazon page. Just because I'm showing you the link doesn't mean I put it up there myself.

The agent in question did not put the book on Amazon herself; there is absolutely nothing in the original post to indicate she did so. She was just showing the OP the link, same as if she'd had lunch with him and handed him a copy. Just because she had a copy in her purse doesn't mean she printed it herself; just because she linked to the book's Amazon page doesn't mean she listed it herself. It's just a link to a page. That's all.

There is absolutely nothing shady or odd about it and there is absolutely no reason to suspect self-publishing has anything at all to do with it, especially since the post which started this says very clearly:

...she sent me a link to a memoir (my genre) that she... sold to Penguin that's on Amazon...

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This has nothing to do with self-publishing at all. We're talking about a book published by Penguin.

I don't know anything about the agent in question; I'm just trying to clarify this for you.