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Martin Literary Management (Sharlene Martin)

jajik

Hi Folks:

Any background or news on the Martin Literary Management group? P&E has a $ sign, and she is a member of AAR.

Like to know if anyone on this board has had experience with her or knows anything about her agency?

Thanks.
 

Lauri B

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She has made sales to Champion, Rodale, Crown, Hay House, and a bunch of others, according to Publisher's Marketplace.
 

kimmer

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I signed with Sharlene Martin a few weeks ago. Prior to doing so, I called three of her authors (that I randomly picked from her website) and all three raved about her. Seriously. Every interaction has been professional and prompt. I'm guessing she checks email every 20 out of 24 hours. I'll keep you posted. Kim

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Provrb1810meggy

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Maybe that was just an honest mistake? Mistakes like that probably happen a lot (I've read about receiving wrong rejections and stuff like that on AW before), and I don't think that it would merit a BEWARE.
 

tedcohen

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trust me. i have 30 years' experience as a newspaper reporter.
 

Soccer Mom

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Ted, Dave is asking about any documentation for what went wrong with MLM. :D We don't doubt your journalistic credentials.
 

Julie Worth

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now, all i ask is for honesty. if gramazio was rejecting my ms, he should have simply told me that.


Once an agent has requested material, esp. with an exclusive, you'd think they'd be professional enough to respond. But no, often they don't. At least your exclusive was only 72 hours, which is nothing.
 

Birol

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That's a good question right now.
When you say he's "Nowhere to be found," what do you mean? Has he abandoned the office, turned off the phone, canceled the e-mail account, etc.? Or is he simply not responding to your most recent e-mails?

Seventy-two hours seems awfully short for an exclusive. That would have been a very fast read of a full manuscript.
 

DaveKuzminski

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If your discussion took place through email, then what I'd like to see are copies of the emails. Those are documentation. Phone calls are hearsay unless they're recorded.
 

tedcohen

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In the final analysis, Martin Literary Management acquitted itself as a professional agency.
MLM’s new guy on the right coast, Ronnie Gramazio, acknowledged that with the crush of opening up MLM’s new east coast office, he may have been a bit overburdened with work to honor his self-imposed, three-day deadline to reply to my manuscript submission.
But once he got to it he gave it an honest read and fair and impartial analysis, despite a bit of a misunderstanding we – he and I – had had over his plans to respond to me after his requesting a 72-hour exclusive.
Gramazio clearly knows his business and MLM is lucky to have him.
 

Soccer Mom

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Glad to hear that things worked out. I guess it's a good reminder that agents are only human. Thanks for updating the information.
 

Abbey

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I have a read out with Ronnie too. He's well beyond the 72 hour period, but I always thought that claim was a bit too ambitious for fiction anyway. Non-fiction, I can understand
 
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tedcohen

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Yes, Ronnie has as much as said that the 72-hour stipulation may be too slim for fiction.
 

honeycomb

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For those of you waiting on a response from Ronnie Gramazio, what were the final outcomes? I believe this guy is working himself into a heart attack with the 72 hour deadlines.

Thx
 

Peter U

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When this thread first started, Jajik reported that Sharene Martin of Martin Literary Management was a member of the AAR. This is not true--at least her name isn't in their database. Maybe she's a secrete agent :). Anyway, I was on their site the other day and noticed they now have on their staff a ghost writer. So I'd like to ask Victoria or Dave if this is ethical? I mean I don't see much wrong with it myself, but I've seen agents taken apart here for getting cuts from professional editors. What about having one as part as the agency? I have no proof of this. but my understanding is that they get a percentage of her of business through some sort of representation deal--or something. Is this kosher?
 

tedcohen

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Hard to say unless we know more.

For instance, if a ghost writer- so-called, is used by an agent to help prepare an MS for publishing, that to me would be OK and at first blush responsible.

But it's all about the author. If you, the author, feel comfortable with a certain arrangement with an agent, then that is what's most important. Only you can judge that.

If you feel uncomfortable with Martin having a ghost writer, as you seem to, then tread cautiously.
 

Peter U

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I should have said Ghost Witers as there are a number of them posted on Literary Management's site. My question would be the relationship, if there is any, between these people and Martin Literary. If they're getting a cut of each ghost writer's take, a referral fee so to speak, wouldn't that be conflict of interest? I don't think the AAR would stand for that and that's maybe the reason for them not being members.

Something else that bother me is that if an agency is a NAMED agency, things tend to be overlooked. I'm sure writers have had problems with large NAMED agencies as well as the smaller ones, but all one ever hears about is how rotten some small agencies are and how they tend toward scamming writers. It just rings false to me that if an agency has made it, so to speak, they can get away with things (or discretions are over looked) that smaller agencies would be taken to task for. Any comments on this?
 
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tedcohen

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The more you ask questions, the more I gather you are uncomfortable with MLM.

If you are that uncomfortable, then move on.

If not, give them a look-see.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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I should have said Ghost Witers as there are a number of them posted on Literary Management's site. My question would be the relationship, if there is any, between these people and Martin Literary.

I don't think any of us can comment on that--you'd have to ask them.

I see your point here: it seems that Martin Literary Management indicates that it performs more than one function simultaneously. Having a team of ghost writers and editors is more ordinarily a function of a book packager than of a literary agency.

However, I don't know whether or not that would be considered a violation of AAR standards.
 

Peter U

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I might be misinterpreting the Cannon so I won't quote it here, but from what I read it seems that she's in violation of items 6 thru 8. A copy of the Cannon can be seen at aar-online.org. Read and see what you think.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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I might be misinterpreting the Cannon so I won't quote it here, but from what I read it seems that she's in violation of items 6 thru 8. A copy of the Cannon can be seen at aar-online.org. Read and see what you think.

Unless you have more information than I do, I don't see how any of that is in violation of the AAR Canon. It would be in violation if the relationship between the agent and the ghostwriters and editors were not disclosed, but clearly that's not the case, seeing as they're on the website and all.

And it would be in violation if authors were not privy to the financial compensation terms for the ghostwriters and editors. But we don't know if this is the case or not.

If the agency suggests matches between authors and ghostwriters or editors, and the latter are compensated with a flat work-for-hire fee by the publisher as part of the book contract (which is the most usual procedure with ghostwriting), then I don't see how it would be in violation of the Canon.