Meet Agent, Pattie Steele-Perkins
Pattie Steele-Perkins has spent her entire professional career guiding and nurturing creative talent initially as the Creative Director of a major television production house and for the past fifteen years as a Literary Agent.
As a Creative Director she honed her negotiating skills with New York talent agents and became familiar enough with the SAG contract to quote it verbatim.
As Literary Agent she feels that negotiating equitable contracts for her clients is only part of her responsibility to them. Equally important is developing a career path that meets the individual creative needs and style of the author.
In order for the Steele-Perkins Literary Agency to keep pace in today's dynamic publishing world Pattie works with a consortium of other independent agents to keep abreast of current trends. She also attends classes on current publishing law.
Pattie has been a member of RWA since beginning her career as an agent and is also a member AAR.
Q) How did you make the leap from television production to fiction and publishing?
This question always makes me smile. I quit my very high paying job as Creative Director because I wanted to write a book.
Exactly what I would not advise anyone to do!
The first thing on my to do list was to get an agent. So I went to the local agent’s office.
Exactly what I would not advise anyone to do!
In short order she made it clear that if the book was written…which it wasn’t…it would take as much as two years to see it in print. OOPS there was the little matter of the car and boat payments. She saw I was well read in the field of romance and offered me a commission on any books I sold from her slush pile.
And thus my career as an agent began. She introduced me to all the eager young editors at the major houses. Those editors for the most part are all Directors and Vice Presidents of those or other houses now.
What I love best about being an agent is dealing with all the smart creative people and finding ways for them to reach their full potential and goals.
Q) What are your submission guidelines? Do you accept email queries?
I take email queries but prefer snail mail of a synopsis three chapters and SASE. I really can’t tell from a query what the author’s voice is like or if in the plot works.
Q) What do you NOT want to see, and what you really feel the market is lacking?
I never say never because you just never know. If I love a project but there isn’t a market for it I ask the author to store it under their bed. Kristi Goldberg wrote a wonderful story in 1998 about an “older” (40s) divorced couple who come together again after the hero has a stroke. When Harlequin announced their new Everlasting line I called Paula Eykelhof and pitched it to her. It’s one of the launch books for Everylasting in February 07
Steele-Perkins Literary Agency
26 Island Lane
Canandaigua, NY 14424
585-396-9290
As a Creative Director she honed her negotiating skills with New York talent agents and became familiar enough with the SAG contract to quote it verbatim.
As Literary Agent she feels that negotiating equitable contracts for her clients is only part of her responsibility to them. Equally important is developing a career path that meets the individual creative needs and style of the author.
In order for the Steele-Perkins Literary Agency to keep pace in today's dynamic publishing world Pattie works with a consortium of other independent agents to keep abreast of current trends. She also attends classes on current publishing law.
Pattie has been a member of RWA since beginning her career as an agent and is also a member AAR.
Q) How did you make the leap from television production to fiction and publishing?
This question always makes me smile. I quit my very high paying job as Creative Director because I wanted to write a book.
Exactly what I would not advise anyone to do!
The first thing on my to do list was to get an agent. So I went to the local agent’s office.
Exactly what I would not advise anyone to do!
In short order she made it clear that if the book was written…which it wasn’t…it would take as much as two years to see it in print. OOPS there was the little matter of the car and boat payments. She saw I was well read in the field of romance and offered me a commission on any books I sold from her slush pile.
And thus my career as an agent began. She introduced me to all the eager young editors at the major houses. Those editors for the most part are all Directors and Vice Presidents of those or other houses now.
What I love best about being an agent is dealing with all the smart creative people and finding ways for them to reach their full potential and goals.
Q) What are your submission guidelines? Do you accept email queries?
I take email queries but prefer snail mail of a synopsis three chapters and SASE. I really can’t tell from a query what the author’s voice is like or if in the plot works.
Q) What do you NOT want to see, and what you really feel the market is lacking?
I never say never because you just never know. If I love a project but there isn’t a market for it I ask the author to store it under their bed. Kristi Goldberg wrote a wonderful story in 1998 about an “older” (40s) divorced couple who come together again after the hero has a stroke. When Harlequin announced their new Everlasting line I called Paula Eykelhof and pitched it to her. It’s one of the launch books for Everylasting in February 07
Steele-Perkins Literary Agency
26 Island Lane
Canandaigua, NY 14424
585-396-9290
posted by Plot Queens @ 4:39 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:02 PM,
Laura said…
Hi Pattie. Thank you so much for joining us this week!
Quick question, do you ever regret that you went from wanting to write a book to helping others sell their works?
At 11:34 AM,
Pattie said…
At 8:23 AM, Pattie said…
Oh this is a great question. I had a slap me side the head moment a few years ago...I realized that all my professional life I had been preparing to do exactly what I am doing now.
And I was good at it. Writing the book wasn't for me as important as guiding, nurturing and helping the creative talent of others to grow and reach their ultimate potential.
Pulling together a crew who I knew could work together effectively is not very different than choosing the right editor for a particular project. Getting the crew the money they needed for the project is the same as getting the author the contract. Getting the crew to agree and work together on a similar creative vision is not dissimilar to what I do when and editor or copy editor and author disagree.
So I am right where I should be.
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