About Jody Rein
Jody Rein has been a literary agent since 1994, and is known throughout the industry for her savvy in spotting and selling commercial and narrative nonfiction as well as for her integrity and tenacity. Author Planet is her blog where she shares insights and advice for authors on writing and publishing. She hopes to offer some cool and useful products here as well.
She’s particularly interested in the intersection of self and traditional publishing, both as a long time supporter of the acquisition of self-published books by traditional houses, and a fervent believer as well in the need for high standards in mass-produced books.
Jody reluctantly acknowledges that she is, shall we say, an old-ish dog in publishing who is continually learning new tricks. On the other hand, there are a few things that remain pretty consistent for Jody.
- A deep admiration for true expertise
- A belief in the importance of integrity (with an acknowledgement of how very difficult it is to even know what the right thing to do may be in a culture that values notoriety over substance.)
- A commitment to maintaining the value of the responsibly written word, which means combating distribution and publishing monopolies, promoting independent bookstores and serious publishers, promoting the discover-ability of fabulous writing, paying authors, editors, reporters, designers and other publishing professionals reasonable salaries, and charging reasonable amounts for books.
- A belief that truth matters, as does good spelling
- The hope that someday all the money spent on political campaigns will be distributed instead to public schools, prison reform and other worthy causes.
- A tendency to be a little wordy
She has also obtained many six-figure advances for her authors of originals, and has represented numerous bestselling authors, including Mark Obmascik, whose book The Big Year became a major feature film starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin, Bruce Cameron, for whom she sold his nonfiction mega-hit book and TV series 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, and Dean H. King, whose Skeletons on the Zahara was an internationally sold and acclaimed bestseller.
Jody began her publishing career as an editorial assistant at Contemporary Books, in Chicago. Her first major acquisition was a self-published book she found lauded on the pages of the Wall Street Journal. The book was about The Three Stooges, and the authors weren’t much older than Jody; they didn’t know publishing used a different model so found success outside the norm. Jody continued to find books where the books were, not necessarily in standard places. She acquired bestsellers from agents, and found them on her own—such as the famous directory (self-published) Chase’s Annual Events and the perennial bestseller (picked up from a small press) Do What You Love, The Money will Follow by Marsha Sinetar.
Jody was hired away by to Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Company (now part of Random House) in New York, and rose quickly through the ranks to executive editor. She joined Morrow/Avon Books (now part of HarperCollins) as executive editor. She moved to Colorado, and there she started her literary agency Jody Rein Books, Inc.
Jody ghostwrote a book published by Viking Penguin. The book received a starred review in Library Journal.
Jody has spoken at writers’ and speakers’ conferences from Alaska to Hawaii. She was a guest lecturer for many years at the University of Colorado’s Introduction to Publishing Course, and was the featured agent for three years at the internationally-known Denver Publishing Institute. She was awarded the young editor’s Fellowship to the Jerusalem Book Fair, and has been invited several times to attend the Renaissance Weekend. She is a former member of Women in Publishing and a current member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives and The Authors Guild.
Jody loves working in traditional publishing, where she believes the high standards protect both writers and readers. But she doesn’t believe there’s one right path to publication.
@sharpcrayon
www.jodyreinbooks.com
Direct to blog: www.authorplanet.org
