Is he literary agent known in Argentina, although he does not live in the country and has been installed since the ’90s in Barcelona, capital of the book in Spanish. William Schavelzon today represents some of the most important national authors, from Claudia Pineiro to Cristian Alarcon; going through writers who are no longer here, like Osvalvo Bayer or Hector Tizón; or important names of Latin American literature such as Elena Poniatowska and Gioconda Belli.
On his professional history and behind the scenes of publishing unforgettable books, Schavelzon has just published a volume (“The enigma of the trade. Memoirs of a literary agent”, Ampersand) containing the account of the main moments of his career as an editor and agent. The tour begins in the ’70s, in the mythical publisher of Jorge Alvarez, continues with his exile in Mexico and concludes with high positions in the most important seals of the Hispanic world. With total honesty, in the text, Schavelzon recalls the most emotional moments of his career (Cortázar’s farewell, goodbye to Ricardo Piglia), their more complex relationships (the fights over money with Quino and his wife or the failed memories of Olga Guillot). He reveals secrets, such as the true story of Oskar Schindler as told by Emily, his wife. His peculiar intervention in Maradona’s memoirs and the disappointment of meeting the woman he inspired The magicianwith whom he tried unsuccessfully to finalize a book.
In dialogue via Zoom with NEWS, Schavelzon described the situation of the book today and his new occupation as an agent: the sale of rights to the film and series industry.
NEWS: What is a literary agent?
William Schavelzon: An agent’s goal is to get as many readers as possible for his client, with the best remuneration, within reason. And what is new in this market is to achieve the maximum possible use for the same content. That this text has the largest number of readers, users, listeners through the different forms of dissemination that exist today: the traditional paper book, the electronic book, the audiobook and adaptations for film and television. A literary agent represents a writer for his entire work, for the entire world and, if possible, throughout his entire career.
NEWS: Do authors come to your agency or do you go looking for them?
Schavelson: Both paths. My work is now more limited because the direction of the agency is run by my partner, Bárbara Graham. Right now, I deal with film and television. We have the idea of being a small agency that does a lot for each author.
NEWS: How has the book world changed since you started working in the ’70s?
Shavelson: There was a great acceleration and an absolute change. What we have experienced is the transition from publishing as a cultural and craft task to an industrial activity. Almost 70 percent of what is produced in our language is in the hands of two large groups whose objective of any company is to make money. So, the task of cultural contribution has been left in the hands of small independent publishers. In recent years, digitization has brought about many changes. First, the generation of new reading supports that did not exist: the electronic book, the different forms of streaming, the audiobook. This produced a great change in writing, in reading, in the production and trade of books. Digitization also produced “algorithms”. And the big companies replaced what we used to call the editor’s “smell” with algorithms. This true revolution for me is only comparable to the Industrial Revolution, which made people out of work. Today a publisher that publishes the same number of titles per year as it did 20 years ago has only 25% of the staff it had before. For many years, for every 10 books published by a publisher, one becomes a success and 9 fail. The strange thing is that in the digital world that proportion remains the same. Technology has not improved the ratio of successes and failures.
NEWS: Aren’t books also very expensive? Adding the cost of various streaming services does not come to the value of a volume.
Schavelzon: The price of the book has to do with the size of the market. It is linked to the circulation of the edition. If 2,000 copies are made of a book, it will cost $25, but if 20,000 are made, it will cost $16. Argentina is surprising because in any country in such a complex economic situation, books would not be sold. And yet, Argentina has readers. Having an educated public at that level of reading, the truth is that the country deserves a better economic situation. The publishing industry would have a great development and the books would cost less.
NEWS: Do you recommend an author you represent to publish with an independent publisher?
Schavelzon: Of course. Sometimes there are writers who believe that starting with a large publisher gives them many possibilities and I think it’s the other way around. In a large publisher, if you sold 1,500 copies of your book, it will be difficult for them to continue betting on it. Instead, in a small publishing house, they celebrate with the author the sale of those 1500 copies and they are going to publish their next book. There are also those writers who sell such a large number of copies that a small publisher cannot handle it for financial, logistical and commercial reasons.
NEWS: You bear witness to the last days of Julio Cortázar and Ricardo Piglia. The story is moving and reveals the very personal relationship he had with them.
Shavelson: That is the answer to your first question: what is a literary agent. What I tell in the book continues to be my daily work, through the television agreements that I have to make. This is a world that has broken into the reality of the writer in a brutal way. First for the speed. It is a phenomenon that has the years of Netflix. Second, the economic contribution that a contract for a series implies for a writer. And third, the brutal distortion that they are going to make of his book. The publishing industry has great difficulty understanding this phenomenon. The big companies reserve the audiovisual rights, but then they don’t exploit them and they cause tremendous damage to the author. On the other hand, the series have caused enormous damage to the publishing industry, because they have taken away the readers of bestsellers, who supported it financially. But there is something interesting to learn from television producers, their ways of working and organizing, which are 30 years ahead of the publishing industry. In the last 10 years the sale of books in the world fell by 40%. If it had happened in the automotive industry, there would have been a revolution. I don’t see the book industry looking into what’s going on.
NEWS: Are there a lack of strong authors, like Stephen King, who spread the enthusiasm for good stories?
Schavelzon: In Spanish, these authors are missing, but this is closely related to the buyers’ market. For example, in Spain, a fairly large group of highly successful writers has been generated in the last 30 years. His books can sell between one and three million copies. But that also has to do with the fact that there were between one and three million Spaniards with the possibility of buying those books. There are writers in Argentina who are very successful. If they were Spanish they would sell 30 times more copies.
NEWS: What is the most difficult aspect of working with authors?
Schavelzon: I couldn’t give a concrete answer. A writer who fails has a very different problem than one who is very successful. A very important issue is the great difficulty of Latin American writers in the relationship with money. It is a subject that is not talked about.
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