2021 - 01/2021 Meeting

Page Created: 11/22/20. Last Updated: 02/20/21.

EVA SCALZO

Eva Scalzo Website: https://www.evascalzo.com/

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/efernandezscalzo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evascalzo_sla/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/evascalzo

Spielburg Literary Agency Website: https://www.speilburgliterary.com/agents

Meeting Date: January 9, 2021.

Meeting Site: Zoom Video Conference.

Attendance: 60.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Paranormal Romance Author.

Newsletter Account:

The monthly General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held via Zoom Video Conference at 7:30 PM on Saturday, January 9, 2021. Literary agent Eva Scalzo spoke and answered questions.

Ms Scalzo has been at the Speilburg Literary agency <https://www.speilburgliterary.com/> for seven years. She had stints at Houghton Mifflin, Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, and Cornell University before joining Speilburg. Our guest holds a MFA in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. She was bron in New Jersey and lived in Boston, Houston, Puerto Rico, and Buenos Aires before returning to the northeast. Ms Scalzo's areas of scpecialization are Science Fiction / Fantasy, Young Adult, and Romance. Her website is <https://www.evascalzo.com/>. She is currently closed to new submissions and will reopen when she catches up on her existing workload.

The corona virus pandemic, the increasing reach of Amazon, and other structural changes in the economy have made this a very challenging time for authors and literary agents. Here are some current hot topics.

Authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman sued Wizards of the Coast for breach of contract regarding a Dragonlance Trilogy they commissioned. The suit was settled out of court ad Wizards will be publishing the trilogy. (This was resolved after our speaker's talk.)

The Walt Disney Company is refusing to pay write Alan Dean Foster for royalties for Star Wars books written and contracted before Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise. Disney is holding fast on this. The Science Fiction Writers of America are contesting this decision. Ms Scalzo will not be submitting any material to them until this is resolved.

Amazon's Audible division, the largest audiobook publisher in the world, is offering it users terms of sale which effectively makes audiobook sales a free rental service wherein Audible collects a fee and the author (and others involved such as voice actors) receives nothing. Amazon Audible has since changed some of the details by shortening the length of their free returns policy, but writers' organizations object that it does not settle the problem.

The Big Five publishers will become the Big Four if the purchase of Simon and Schuster by Penguin Random House is approved by regulators. Writers' organizations and others have complained that this will result in fewer markets, smaller advances, and more aggressive subsidiary rights (foreign, audio, etc.) claims by the remaining publishers.

Some areas of publishing have been hurt more severely than others. Educational publishing, which is Ms Scalzo's primary background, has been hit very hard. Frontlist titles (blockbuster titles and authors) have been hurt because bookstore signings and other traditional promotion venues have been scaled back or discontinued. This also hits new authors very hard. Our guest was surprised at the scale of the layoffs at Tor Books, as well as the specific people who were let go.

The writers who have fared best have been backlist authors who have already established a fan base who will seek out their work without any additional effort by the retrenching publishers. People want to read even when times are rough.

Additional information will appear at 2021 - 01/2021 Meeting on the club website. Our thanks to Carol Gyzander, Kathy Cannarozzi, and all who helped out.

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Additional Information:

Our speaker was working in publishing when one of her best work friends started agenting. Eva did some part-time moonlighting at the agency and eventually made the career switch. She is not Furstrated Intern, the author of the Query Tips section of the Agency's website, but does think that the articles are very good.

Eva Scalzi loves character-driven romances.

The agent's core role is to be an advocate for their authors. They should be safeguarding the author's rights and not giving away Intellectual Property rights.

When asked about a typical day in the life of an agent, our speaker responded, "It's a day on the computer."

Covid has moved everything online. While this has some benefits, it also makes some things take longer.

Our speaker does any editing after hours at night.

Cocktail hour is not the time to pitch your book.

Has signed clients from pitch sessions.

Editors and agents are actively searching for diverse authors.

Should you use different names when writing in different genres? It depends. Every situation is different.

Middle Grade had been a growing market segment before the pandemic, but school, school library, and public library shut downs has really hurt sales.