One of the Planet’s Top Literary Agents (Yfat Reiss Gendell of Foundry Media) Shares How to Start a Business During a Nuclear Winter

What does a Literary Agent do?

1. The connector between someone who has something to say with someone who needs to hear that information.
2. My job is to help connect you to a professional who can help you get your book out.
3. There are plenty of people who don’t participate with traditional trade publishing who are successful and have a successful following.
4. We help new authors get through the confusing hoops that might get in the way of being productive.
5. My job is to stay ahead of the new ideas and be able to bring them to my clients.

Yfat when did you first figure out what you wanted to do professionally?

1. You never really have to choose. We do a gut check with yourself in the moment to figure out if we are putting our efforts in the right place.
2. We have to check to make sure we are contributing to the best place possible.

Yfat, how did you first get started in the book writing business? 

1. I began as a lawyer.
2. I started a small press that focused on Fiction.
3. That press had success in the beginning.
4. We were feathering a nest in the beginning. We educated ourselfs as to what our best possible home would be for the business.
5. We created the physical plans that we knew we needed.

How would you describe your office?

1. We have fun things like the Millennial Falcon around
2. The office is designed to be a canvas

Yfat, was the first book that you worked on that REALLY gained traction?

1. We started the business in 2007 and that was really the start of the most recent nuclear winter in publishing.
2. We could have looked at this as a negative but we looked at it as a positive. We were starting from scratch whereas all of our competitors were already established.
3. We had to Hustle. That nuclear winter provided us opportunities. We were able to pick up new clients because a lot of our competitors went out of business.

How do you get paid and how do authors get paid?

1. This is for the Trade Published Books
   1. Those books have a “List Price” on the cover (Gross)
   2. The author gets 15% of that Gross Price
   3. They get 7.5% on a paper back
   4. I get paid how the author gets paid.
      1. I get paid 15% of what the author gets paid with domestic deals
      2. I get 20% of what I get with foreign deals
      3. I get paid when I deliver money to you.
   5. I am lucky that I have a wonderful controller and a great finance team here.
   6. We are independent so our sole purpose is working with authors.
   7. We are focused on making money for you.

Yfat, what mentor has made the biggest impact on your career thus far?

1. I believe that you can really learn from anyone.
2. There may be an unsuccessful person, in their own life, that can teach you something.
3. My parents were business and life mentors to me.
4. My commercial landlord from our building has been an invaluable resource to me.
   1. He taught me that, in transactions, if you want it and they do as well, you can find a way to work out the details to make it happen.

Yfat, what is the story behind the name of the agency?

1. Foundry is a place where steel is forged.
2. We didn’t want our names on the door
3. We wanted a place where our clients ideas would be turned into enduring products.

What has been your competitive edge?

1. We try to create a home where our authors can bring their ideas and we help them understand which part of their idea works in commercial trade publishing.
2. We encourage our clients to 
   1. Go to the next level of their idea. We want to start at crazy. What if crazy is possible?
   2. Find their highest and best use of time.

 

Yfat Reiss Gendell, for our listeners out there who are aspiring authors, I would love for you to share how the book industry fits together. Let’s start with the literary agent, what is their typical role in the book writing process?

1. They are someone who bridges the gap between you and the General Trade Publishing.
2. My job is to remind you of the path that will keep you consistent with your everyday life.
3. My job is to be an advisor.

 

Yfat, what role do book publishers play?

1. Publishers provide a professional editing job. They lend their name to your book. They pay to produce your inventory and pay to feed their distribution system.
2. The publisher doesn’t perform your core competencies.
3. A general trade publisher hires people who are experts in editing all categories of books. There is a tastemaker to the job of the publisher.
4. The names you see on the book spines represent a large publisher with an imprint that is specializing in a specific category of book.

 

Yfat Reiss Gendell, what has been the biggest adversity that you’ve had to fight through during your career?

1. Compromise in relationships with those around you is mandatory but not compromising with yourself is also mandatory.
2. I represent the late great Stan Lee. I was approached by Stan and his Co-Authors of his first adult long form novel.
3. Despite being a tremendous lover of literature, he had never written an adult long form novel.
4. I was charged to make sure he had a great relationship with a publisher.
5. This was very hard. I had to do something non-traditional. I went to Stan and his co-authors and suggested to first introduce, to comic book fans who already love Stan, an audio original that would bridge the gap between comic book fans and fiction book fans.
6. I did that first deal and after that… Nothing. 
7. It was still on my to-do list to sell the book.
8. I knew I had to help the world hear Stan Lee’s long form book.

 

Yfat, you come across as a very proactive person…so how do you typically organize the first four hours of your and what time do you typically wake up?

1. I wake up at 6:00 AM
2. I have to be downstairs at 7:00 AM
3. My best days begin when I can start earlier than when I am expected to show up for my family or the office.
4. I like to think ahead to “What do I want to achieve with my day?”
5. I think about what I want to give and get out of every hour and every meeting.
6. When I do this, my whole day is better.

 

Yfat Reiss Gendell are a few of your daily habits that you believe have allowed you to achieve success?

1. If you are going to treat yourself as a machine that you expect to get 100% out of, you have to keep up with it.
2. You have to fuel yourself with the things that will keep you at 100%

 

Yfat Reiss Gendell, we find that most successful entrepreneurs tend to have idiosyncrasies that are actually their super powers…what idiosyncrasy do you have?

1. The inability to listen to something without thinking “What If?”
2. There is the kid inside of me who is asking “What if?”
3. That is a trouble making squeaky wheel that likes to see the alternative road. That trouble maker continues to be my best asset.

 

What message or principle that you wish you could teach everyone?

1. One of my favorite things to do is to ask anyone what their advice is. It is up to me to determine if it is good advice or not.
2. You already know. Most of us fail to listen and fail to honor the “knowing” inside of each of us.
3. I realize that I had the answer all along.