“eHarmony® for Authors & Agents?” Jennifer S. Wilkov Offers Literary Agent Matchmaker Service

Feb. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Radio personality and host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio.com, Jennifer S. Wilkov announces a new service offered through her consulting practice called “Literary Agent Matchmaker.” This service has been developed to simplify the graduation of authors from writing and completing their books on their computers at home to properly approaching the agenting world and engaging the appropriate agents in their genre.

This service has humorously been referred to and is quickly becoming known as the “eHarmony® for authors and agents” because of its facilitation of getting these two professionals together in the right relationships.

Agents are hungry for great books and great authors to represent. Authors often don’t know how to approach agents or what to prepare prior to reaching out with their projects.

Agents receive on average 50 – 100 queries per day and spend approximately 3 seconds perusing each one. Every writer runs the risk of getting rejected. In fact, more than 90% of authors often get rejected repeatedly.

Rejections happen to authors whom you may not think would get rejected: Anne Frank’s diary was rejected 15 times, J.K. Rowling was rejected 12 times with "Harry Potter," and "Gone with the Wind" was rejected 38 times. Even Stephenie Meyer was initially rejected by 14 agents with "Twilight."

“Authors get rejected because they don't know who to submit their projects to so they submit them to the wrong agent(s) who don’t represent their book’s category or genre. They also don’t know how to properly prepare and present their projects with the expected industry standard documents & formats,” says Wilkov. “The first step for authors is to determine whether their book is ready to send to an agent before they start submitting queries for it. The second step is to recognize that this is a professional relationship that requires mutual respect and that authors need to approach it this way.”

Twitter messages and blog posts from agents and their staff consistently reinforce that an author needs to be ready and needs to properly prepare their project before they submit it. For example, in a tweet posted this week by a literary agent’s anonymous assistant tweeting under the username @agentgame, “New Year's resolution to get an agent doesn't mean you should send out your query before both it and your book are truly ready.”
   
An agent’s first focus is dedicated to the authors that they’ve already chosen to represent, following up on what they’ve submitted to editors and publishers, and moving these projects forward in the publishing process. Their next focus is spent sifting through new submissions and queries from new authors. Admittedly, agents don’t have time to spend with each individual author who is preparing to submit their work.

“Today writers need to be fully prepared BEFORE they enter the competitive literary marketplace. Providing developmental coaching for their projects and detailed attention to marketing their work, Jennifer S. Wilkov and her Your Book Is Your Hook services really maximize the chances for their success,” says Katharine Sands, a literary agent at Sarah Jane Freymann Agency and agent provocateur of the book, “Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye.”

The Literary Agent Matchmaker service from Your Book Is Your Hook has been designed to fill the gap between authors figuring out how to submit their work to agents and fulfilling the needs of agents who want to find great new projects that are really ready for the next steps to get published.

“Literary Matchmakers should not replace the author’s responsibility in the agent-author relationship. What a matchmaker does do is help the individual author to better understand his or her role in it and how to make sense of the plethora of information available about the process of getting an agent,” Wilkov says.

“With the wealth of guidance offered through free and low cost information such as books, blogs, social media posts, conference sessions and more, writers are left to themselves to figure out how to apply this to their individual projects and are often at a loss about whether they are applying it properly – if they can even make sense of how to apply it all.” Wilkov clarifies, “As a Literary Agent Matchmaker, I provide personalized attention as a consultant to the author who says, ‘I want to get an agent and get published but I don't know where to invest my time or how to figure it out on my own. Who can I turn to for individual help?’”

Wilkov continues with the distinction about not crossing the line with literary agents, “Literary Matchmaking does not supersede the role and responsibility of an agent who must decide which authors they want to work with and which projects appeal to them. Similar to any matchmaking or dating service for romantic relationships, the service provides education, guidance and direction for the author. The choice to get together to collaborate and to join forces remains in the hands of the individual agent and author. Literary Matchmaking should never interfere with this process; instead its role is to facilitate it.”

Ultimately, Literary Matchmaking supports and facilitates the productivity of the author and agent relationship when done well.

As a result, every facet of the industry benefits from more successfully published authors and happier agents and publishers. The ultimate winner really is the reader who gets to read more great books that may otherwise go undiscovered and remain unpublished.

After all, books have a unique way of changing all those whose lives they touch. With the right relationship, authors and agents can continue to make a difference for readers everywhere.

To schedule an interview with Ms. Wilkov, please contact Tom Martin at 203-297-2137 or Tom@TomMartinMedia.com.

For more information, go to www.LiteraryAgentMatchmaker.com and follow Ms. Wilkov on Twitter @litmatchmaker

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Jennifer S. Wilkov is a media personality, a best-selling award-winning author, an award-winning freelance writer, a speaker and trainer, a consultant and now a literary agent matchmaker who focuses on supporting writers with the essentials to become a bestseller: a great project, a strong platform and a well-polished pitch, presentation and hook for their book.

She is also a recognized media spokesperson for Project Night Night, a non-profit organization that delivers Night Night packages to homeless children in shelters across the nation which include a children's book, a stuffed animal and a blanket , and Heifer International's Read to Feed Program which helps children in schools to understand that they can make a difference for others by reading.

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Your Book Is Your Hook! is her full service consulting practice that serves authors, writers and wannabes as well as the entire book publishing industry with its endeavors. Best known for its popular weekly radio show, robust resource blog, trainings and advice including the new uniquely positioned service as a Literary Agent Matchmaker.

Through the popular radio show named after her practice, "Your Book Is Your Hook!", which can be heard every Tuesday morning at 9:00am on WomensRadio.com and the accompanying show blog at YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog, Jennifer S. Wilkov brings her experience and knowledge of the book business and the people in it as well as her understanding of the author’s experience from conceiving the idea to getting it published to her loyal listeners each week.

For more information, go to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com and www.LiteraryAgentMatchmaker.com.