Current Trends in Literary Agenting, the Roles of Literary Agents and the Hardships of Getting Published in Contemporary Romania
Current Trends in Literary Agenting, the Roles of Literary Agents and the Hardships of Getting Published in Contemporary Romania

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. In many Western European countries there is a vital and successful triangle in the book production process: authors, agents, and publishers cooperate in order to successfully reach the main target, that of selling cultural products. This paper looks into the origins of the profession, current roles and activities and the importance of literary agents in England and the USA in order to provide the background to the discussion of the crisis in Romanian literary agenting. Firstly, we provide the historical and cultural background to the problem in Romania and make some preliminary remarks concerning the transition from communist to post-communist aspects of cultural production. Secondly, we present the aims and scope of the study, as well as the methods and data used. Thirdly, we expound the origins of the literary agent profession, as well as its effects in the area of cultural production. Fourthly, we describe the roles of literary agents, the main aspects of the relationship author – agent – publisher, and the new trend of self-agenting. Then, we explore some features of literary agenting in the USA and England. Finally, we investigate the status of the profession in Romania, where the writer is sometimes an agent, editor, redactor, reviser, seller, and distributor of his own books. Possible solutions to the difficulties this investigation discusses are considered, as well as the incipient efforts of some literary agencies to publish Romanian authors abroad and thus boost the visibility of Romanian literature in foreign countries.

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