This matters, btw, because trade non-fiction is really the centerline of an educated public, in my view. The people who want to go beyond the takes and the feeds, yet who are not going to read full on academic research. It’s a big deal.

Still in the middle of it but y'all, McGrath's Middlemen is so good! It's a history of literary agents but it also has tons of data and interesting stories about book publishing and I've already told 5 colleagues to read it so now I'm telling you! bookshop.org/p/books/midd...

I had a wonderful time talking about MIDDLEMEN with Ed Nawotka at Publishers Weekly!

BONUS EPISODE: Laura B. McGrath discussed all things literary agents and her debut book, MIDDLEMEN, over on the podcast feed. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m... Or here: open.spotify.com/episode/3svi...

Assorted book arrivals

Did a big book haul today. One of the books I'm most excited about is Middlemen by Laura B. McGrath! Once I finish Edge of Space-Time, I'm getting right into it. Also jazzed about On Writing Well and One of Us from Elizabeth Day. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I would like a personal apology from every man who called the station or emailed me personally to gripe about my voice during my time on public radio but never did the same to Ira Glass.

I talked with Rosa Lyster about literary agents for THE PARIS REVIEW.

"A professor of English literature who has never worked in publishing, McGrath describes the mechanisms and eccentricities of the industry with a clarity and curiosity that insiders don’t necessarily have." A great interview on the making of MIDDLEMEN in @parisreview.bsky.social!

I talked with Rosa Lyster about literary agents for THE PARIS REVIEW.

"A piece of this book [The Edge of Space-Time] is me saying there is value in banding with the poets, and fighting for the value of being curious and trying to articulate the world with whatever tools are available to us." -- @chanda.blacksky.app via @nytimes.com

Hello from the (admittedly very privileged) trenches, we assistant profs are panicking!!

I’m the only assistant prof in my department, and for (fingers crossed) just a few more months.

I have saved some of my sassiest moments for footnotes, they are highly underrated as a way of saying 1) "bitch I have receipts" and 2) "oh this unreliable source *thought* they were going to get the last word?? lolol"

Now that I've signed the contract, excited to share my first book "Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change" is forthcoming with @openbookpublish.bsky.social! Much more info about it on the publisher site here. www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

Catch me on the Debutiful pod, talking (what else?) debut novels with Adam Vitcavage. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

What a great time to purchase a little pink book, called "fresh" and "well-researched" and "thorough" and "entertaining" and "diverting" and "invaluable" and "enlightening" and "even definitive." press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

If you're interested in the publishing industry at all (if so, listen to Print Run!), you will absolutely love MIDDLEMEN. really fascinating book about what an agent is and does, and how the job took its current form. Go get it, truly bookshop.org/p/books/midd...

I had so much FUN talking with literary agents @erikhane.bsky.social and @lzats.bsky.social of the @printrunpodcast.bsky.social! It was a delight to hear from agents about the book- what I got right, what I got wrong, and the work still TK.

New episode of @printrunpodcast.bsky.social that I'm really excited about. We interviewed @lbmcgrath.bsky.social about her excellent new book MIDDLEMEN, about how agents shape the fiction landscape. The book is great and this conversation was really fun. soundcloud.com/printrunpodc...

This is definitely one of our favorite episodes ever. We're so grateful for @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's time and expertise; we learned a ton from her book and the conversation was a plast. You guys will love this

NEW EPISODE We interviewed @lbmcgrath.bsky.social about her incredible new book MIDDLEMEN, the most comprehensive and engaging survey of the field of literary agenting we've ever read. We talk about the patterns she's found in how agents work and think, and much more. soundcloud.com/printrunpodc...

Everyone wants to read about literary grifters.

Totoro is basically my family’s sacred text. It was all my daughter would watch for maybe a year, and now my son is obsessed, and I’m not mad about it.

Holy smokes

Tomorrow, May 5th at 7:30 pm EDT, head down to Inkwood Books to hear @lbmcgrath.bsky.social discuss her new book, Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction! The talk will be followed by a book signing. Learn more about this free, in-person event: buff.ly/Ea59EA9

Help me name my signature cocktail for my Tuesday night book party! We’ve got gin, aperol, elderflower, lemon. I’m thinking The Best Bid.

I was THRILLED to join the Planet Money team for their fab book publishing series to talk about Bestsellers! How the NYT makes the list, how writers can make the list, how to hack the list. All while mere feet from book rainmaker Terry Gross’s studio! Give a listen!

I was THRILLED to join the Planet Money team for their fab book publishing series to talk about Bestsellers! How the NYT makes the list, how writers can make the list, how to hack the list. All while mere feet from book rainmaker Terry Gross’s studio! Give a listen!

In Middlemen, Laura B. McGrath asks: when it comes to the business of buying and selling books, who holds the keys to the kingdom? Publishers, or the people who represent writers? www.publicbooks.org/what-literat... @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

For instance: "Since 2004, debut novels have comprised between 15 and 25 percent of the fiction marketplace every year... conservatively, one in five novels is written by a first-timer." "Whatever their advance, approximately 60 percent of debut novelists do not publish a second book."

I'm about a third of the way through @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's MIDDLEMEN, about the history of literary agents, and really enjoying it so far. If nothing else, there's plenty of stuff to text your writer friends in horror/fascination/anger/hope!

Childcare (and general household management) Data has become *obsession*

Ten years ago I flew to Austin to attend my first academic conference. Today I'm headed back to Austin, this time to accept the MELUS Book Award. A wonderful echo—and a time to reflect, with gratitude, on the opportunity to do this work alongside so many brilliant scholars, students, and friends!

NYC folks! I hope you’ll join me and Gerry Howard tonight at 7 pm to celebrate my book launch at McNally Jackson Seaport! RSVP: www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/laura-...

congrats on the book @lbmcgrath.bsky.social! Harvard Book Store is serving them up!

@bookriotpod.bsky.social Thx to you+ @lbmcgrath.bsky.social for superb "Zero to Well-read" ep on "Interpreter of Maladies." JhumpaLahiri is extraordinary; hearing about her, this collectn, +short stories was a feast.(Note:Chiang's Stories of Your Life + Mieville's 3 Moments of an Explosion) #BookSky

“If we are to truly come to grips with contemporary fiction, literary agents & their logic of fit are essential parts of the story. While Middlemen may concentrate on the powerful few who do it best, McGrath offers a new & important way to orient our understanding of the novel today.” More at LARB!

“The agent’s unique position between writer and publisher embodies the strategic alliances between art and commerce, form and finance, imagination and industry that has defined literary production.” Laura B. McGrath on literary agents: www.publicbooks.org/what-literat... @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

That’s a wrap on pub day!

For 3 days in 2022, literary agents took the stand in federal court. What their testimony revealed about how books actually get made is fascinating—and a little unsettling. New at PB: Laura B. McGrath examines the world literary agents built. @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

One of my very favorite stories that (sadly) didn't make it into the book beyond a brief mention is the (apocryphal?) story of the (alleged) first book auction, conducted in 1952 (or maybe 1964?) by Scott Meredith. The kind folks at @literaryhub.bsky.social let me tell it!

"Middlemen delineates the science behind the art: gathering data...to show how a host of unique situations—lived out by independent people with individual personalities & distinct tastes—might add up to something like a strategy, a trend, a marketplace, a field & a literature. Maybe even a canon."

Hello Bluesky #BookSky! The Public Scholar is out today from @hopkinspress.bsky.social. You can buy it everywhere books are sold. Bookshop: tinyurl.com/2uj47sa7 Order from @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social and I'll sign it - moonpalacebooks.com/item/I12x_a-... You can read an excerpt here. (1)

THIS IS MY BOOKDAY TWIN AND I COULDNT BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT!!! This is SO VERY INTERESTING to me, a publishing nerd sicko.

You will hear more from us very soon on this book but: MIDDLEMEN by Laura McGrath is terrific, the book on the publishing industry you've been waiting for. Go get it. Truly.

MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION is out today! Today marks the culmination of a decade's worth of work on this project: I conducted my first interview in fall of 2016. I'm so thrilled to share it with you.

A revealing account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to today. @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's Middlemen is now available (23 June UK pub)! Order yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

For today's newsletter I wrote about two new excellent novels by Jordan Harper and Patrick Cottrell. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

Embracing the cringe, because this was ✨a moment✨