why agents are creating content
and what we can learn from their example
You are the media now
Charlie Warzel, in his election post-mortem about the state of the media industry, wrote about the message “You are the media now,” first uttered by Elon Musk. As American trust in the media has plummeted to all-time lows, Warzel argues that “there is no longer a consensus reality informed by what audiences see and hear: Everyone chooses their own adventure.”
Love it or hate it, we are now in the creator economy. Americans trust individuals more than they trust institutions. Warzel writes:
Critics can debate whether this kind of content is capital-J Journalism until the heat death of the universe, but the undeniable truth is that people, glued to their devices, like to consume information when it’s informally presented via parasocial relationships with influencers. They enjoy frenetic, algorithmically curated short-form video, streaming and long-form audio, and the feeling that only a slight gap separates creator and consumer. Major media outlets are trying to respond to this shift: The Times’ online front page, for example, has started to feature reporters in what amounts to prestige TikToks.
He could be explaining the appeal of BookTok. We know that readers “like to consume [book recommendations] when [they’re] informally presented via parasocial relationships with influencers.” Younger readers could care less what the latest Reese book club pick is; they want to follow tastemakers they feel they know personally. (Reese is never going to answer your DM.)
The Times is trying to court the next generation of subscribers by posting vertical video on their app’s home screen, but to win a younger audience, they’ll have to make that audience feel like they’re personally connected to the journalists in those videos.
We don’t just want to follow stories. We want to follow stories from creators we know and trust. You may be reading my Substack because someone you trust told you that you could trust me.
I am the media now.
So are you.
Creating content is how I build my reputation and grow my audience, so I can sell books, classes, and services.
Even as many writers insist that creating content is not in their job description, some literary agents are ahead of the curve. After noticing more and more agents who were not only sharing their clients’ books on social media, but actually creating original content to grow their own audiences, I reached out to six of them this week, to ask what’s driving them to build their brands and platforms.
“Since I represent a lot of nonfiction, I need my authors to have platforms, so I also do social media to set an example and to make sure I understand what I'm asking of them,” Rachelle Gardner, of Gardner Literary, told me.
Once a content creator, always a content creator
In 2011, when
first became a literary agent, she set out to build a brand.“I was very cognizant that what was going to make me stand out in the marketplace of agents was who I was as a person, my philosophy, my education, and my thought process. And I wasn’t going to stand out until I could figure out how to communicate all of this,” she told me.
So she started a blog with advice for writers. Rachelle Gardner and Betsy Lerner, of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, have similar origin stories. Starting in 2007, Rachelle blogged four to five days a week. “It gave me the opportunity to be in constant conversation with writers and others in the publishing industry. I met other agents and some editors through my blog as well,” she said.
Betsy Lerner started her blog in 2008, to answer questions she was frequently asked at writers’ conferences. I found an entry from sixteen years ago that is too amusing not to share:
First, should you send a real letter or an email. While I still love a letter, I think most people are sending and most agents are accepting email query letters. If you are sending a letter on stationery, please do not have special stationery made with a “fun” font, a cute typewriter or quill pen logo, do not have the word, “writer,” after your name. Such as: Ernest Hemingway, Writer.
From the very beginning, Carly, Rachelle, and Betsy were asking themselves: Who is my audience? What is valuable to them?
If Carly had started a blog about triathlon training, it would not have helped her build her reputation as an agent. Think about what you want to be known for.
Thirteen years after starting her blog, Carly is a multi-platform content creator, on top of her day job as a literary agent at PS Literary. She is a podcaster (The Shit No One Tells You about Writing has almost three million downloads); a content creator on Instagram, where she’s amassed 22,000 followers; and a creator on Substack, where she publishes the newsletter companion to TSNOTYAW to over 18,000 subscribers.
Early adopters
As far as I can tell, Kate McKean was the first agent to get on Substack. I interviewed her in the spring of 2020; today she has 27,000 followers and a book of writing advice forthcoming from Atria.
Being an early adopter of a new platform or medium, like Kate on Substack, or Rachelle blogging in 2007, can help you find an audience (Substack, TikTok, and Threads all have algorithms driving discovery). All the agents I spoke with are following shifts in how we consume and create media and they’re willing to try new things. That’s brave!
Betsy started looking into BookTok in 2023 “because publishers were saying that it was the ‘only thing that moved the needle.’ I wanted to see for myself what was happening on the platform and why it was an effective way to sell books. It took some time to discover the creators and influencers who were trafficking in literary fiction and the few who handle non-fiction, but once I did, I wanted to become part of the community. It felt vibrant and fun and, well, a book community.”
Instead of giving writing advice, as she’d done on her blog, she started creating content that would reach readers for her debut coming-of-age novel Shred Sisters. On TikTok, in other words, Betsy wanted to reach a new audience.1
“That’s when I hit on the idea of reading from my diaries from my twenties. It struck a chord and I've kept up with posting. As a result, I was able to reach out to influencers about my first novel and some have posted about it.”
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Betsy now has over 20,000 followers on TikTok and was profiled this fall by the New York Times.
Rachelle loves mini-blogging on Threads and TikTok (which is where I first discovered her content).
Agents with platforms can be brand extensions for their authors
Carly told me she progressed pretty naturally from blogging to posting content on Instagram and Substack, where she can also highlight her clients’ books and celebrate their successes.
“I had a series on Instagram where once a week I would chat with a different client, because I want to also build my clients’ brands by extension through my brand. And if my clients’ brands are doing well, then that obviously helps me personally, professionally, and financially,” she said.
When she said this, I realized this is true for me, too, as a book coach. I’m also competing in a marketplace. My platform might make a difference for someone choosing between me and an equally experienced freelance editor who does not have a following online. When my client Erin Van Der Meer sold her debut novel to Grand Central last week, I could amplify the good news on my own account.
Agents with platforms can give their authors another media hit
“We can’t have every author that we want on the podcast,” Carly said. “We have limited time and space. But we do have opportunities to shout authors out on the newsletter the week of their pub date and give them an extra media hit that day.”
“It is funny to be called a content creator since I work with actual full time content creators,”
, at the Ekus Group, told me when I contacted her. “Substack is a means to market my clients’ work AND share my unique style of agenting, all while demystifying the world of book publishing. I love it!!”Agents are online to find new clients
, an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic2, started publishing a Substack because she missed Twitter.“I connected with a lot of my current clients that way, and querying writers mentioned finding me via my Twitter and liking what I wrote,” she said. “So when Twitter became X and writers left and it became far less useful in connecting with new writers, I wanted to shift to a text-based platform in the hopes of finding new clients and continuing to build my reputation and platform. Instagram and BookTok are great platforms for promoting books but I wasn’t finding new writers via those platforms.”
“Just today I signed a new client I found on TikTok,” Rachelle told me when I emailed her.
Publishing remains opaque and writers need trustworthy guides
Every agent I spoke with is passionate about sharing their expertise with writers, whether that’s through podcasting, or posting content on Instagram, Substack, TikTok, or Threads.
“I recognize that as an agent, I am a gatekeeper. It’s a responsibility that comes with the job, and I take it very seriously,” Sally Ekus said. She went on:
, who writes said she started her Substack “because lots of my clients had questions, challenges, and issues in common, and it occurred to me lots of other authors probably had them too. I wanted to offer them all a kind of doctor’s-office brochure rack of answers—because it’s more efficient for me, LOL, but also, because I think there’s no comfort like asking ‘is this normal’ and hearing this in reply: ‘dude, this is so normal that I wrote a piece about it 4 years ago.’”I have been very fortunate to be the recipient of hyper mentoring since the beginning of my career; literary PR and agenting has been a family business since before I was born. Shoutout to my mom, Lisa, who founded The Ekus Group in 1982! As a result, I have a lifetime of insider insight into the publishing industry, which is confusing, intimidating, and difficult to break into. I take great pride in the high-level knowledge and support I bring to my clients.
I was trained by a publicist, I think like a manager, and my job is a literary agent. I know people have personal brands whether we like it or not.
Chat Room
If you appreciate my perspective on the internet side of the publishing industry, you’ll love my Chat Room conversations, where I ask publishing professionals how they do their jobs. I interview them for 30 minutes and then open it up to your questions for 30 minutes.
On November 20th at 1pm EST, I’m hosting Aly Mostel, executive director of marketing at HarperOne, to talk all about marketing nonfiction titles, including memoirs and essay collections
On December 3rd at 1pm EST, I’m hosting Tara Singh Carlson, an executive editor at Putnam, who has edited bestselling women’s and historical fiction including Where the Crawdads Sing and Nora Goes Off Script
On December 10th at 1pm EST, I’m hosting Justina Batchelor, my first in-house book publicist! Justina works at Grove Atlantic.
ICYMI
Last week, I offered up my comments section as a place to take what you need and give what you can. There are over 250 comments! Click to Sort “by Newest” to see the latest comments.
Plot Curious
Applications are now open for the winter session of Plot Curious, a course for writers who want to rewatch the hot priest season of Fleabag for “homework.” You’ll learn the most common mistake literary novelists make, what bestselling novels all share, and how to inject more pleasure into your writing. If you’re worried that you’re wasting time by figuring out an 80,000-word story arc as you go, if you studied creative writing in graduate school but never learned plot structure, or if you feel like crying every time someone asks “what’s your book about?,” you may be plot curious.
Our special guests this winter will be Rufi Thorpe, the author of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, which is being adapted for Apple TV starring Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, and Rufi’s agent Michelle Brower, a founding partner at Trellis Literary.
Here are a couple nice things my fall students said about the course:
I have always struggled with plot in my writing, and with explaining what my projects are about. Leigh's class on plot structure helped me (finally) begin to crack the code and allowed me to apply a useful plot framework to my own novel in progress. I also started to understand how to talk about my book's premise and plot in a tight, compelling way. — Claire
This class taught me more about structure and narrative than the three years I spent getting my MFA in film. Leigh is an excellent instructor and this class is truly worth every penny and every minute. — Sarah
Applications are due December 8
Full disclosure, I was Betsy’s TikTok coach!
It’s also worth noting that Danielle has her own website as a literary agent.
Spot on as always, Leigh! The moment I started reading today's Substack, my head went right to Carly! We have seen and are going to continue to see a huge shift in where people not only get their content but how they're trusting those they follow and listen to. If you want to be a trusted source or leader, you have to be putting yourself out there and creating content.
Betsy Lerner was at a conference I attended years ago -- maybe in St. Pete, Fla.? "The Forest for the Trees" was my bible! Am so happy for her successes.