Evening star., 1923-07-08
BY SARAH MacDOUGALL.

~ ENG a literary agent is an
x ideal calling for one who likes
reading and writer's and enjoys
performing a useful mediate
rial function between two sets OF
interdependent toilers. Some position
in a publishing house is the usual
preparation. Women and men do the
work equally well, providing they
have an even share of that psyche
logical insight that enables them to
know more about a writer than he
knows himself. Other qualifications
are salesmanship, patience and an ac-
quaintance with the legal technicali-
ties of contracts. There is a super
stition that one should have a psychic
sense that tells which editor will buy
certain kind of story. But when an
agent admits having sent some
famous piece of fiction to sixteen or
sixty editors before it was given an
opportunity to become literary SEN
sation and finally sold it to an editor
who had rejected 1t before, 1t would
seem that persistence and postage
stamps are entitled to some credit.
X X X
MISS ANN WATKINS, authors rep
AZ resentative, is one of those so
seldom-met natives of New York.
her own agency from a secretaryship
for the editor of a magazine. When
she was a girl of twenty a steady
stream of manuscripts was passing
through her hands to the editor $
desk. She studied the standards by
which he judged them, learned why
they were good, mediocre or bad. In
many of the manuscripts that had to
be returned to the authors she de-
tected the making of worthwhile fic-
tion and often wished she could be
given the job of reconstructing them
Her yearning for that kind of work
matcrialized into her agency in an
old house in the Murray Hill section
The former secretary, who hated to
see good material going to waste. is
having everything her own way She
does not write original fiction, but she
matches her ideas with those of au-
thors who need them. 1t would seem
that behind her blue eyes are process
sions of solitary thoughts waiting for
their mates. An idea or perhaps the
skeleton of plot comes popping up
from a page. These ideas merge with
other ideas which Miss Watkins sends
out to meet them, and presently a
story form has been brought to COM
pletion. Miss Watkins calls this work
collaborating plus salesmanship. She
is not interested in criticizing manu-
e. ;- ;,
life in them to warrant their being
worked into acceptable fiction. Much
of her work consists in looking after
the business of famous and highly
paid men and women writers who de-
pend on her to sell their product and
guard their interests while they may
keep their tempers sweet and pre-
serve all their strong language for
their stories.
AN interesting part of an agents
work is the personal relation with au-
thors and editors" Miss Watkins said
"One must know when to criticize a
writer, when to stimulate, when to
pat on the back. Sometimes I feel
like a prospector hunting for gold
1t pays to take writer's who have not
entirely found themselves. develop
them, spur them on to big things.
There is a thrill in that. ] consider
myself a sort of clearing house, an
information bureau between the
writer's and the editors. Long ago ]
learned to follow my own lunches
If think a story is good 1t must be
good, even though it be rejected
many times"
X X II
WHAT she considers her best piece
w of salesmanship has to do with a
famous New York editor. Over the
telephone he wanted to know whether
she had any material in which hs