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Patrice Caldwell Profile picture
Patrice Caldwell
@whimsicallyours
Literary Agent. YA author: A PHOENIX FIRST MUST BURN (out now), ETERNALLY YOURS (fall '22) @penguinteen. WHERE SHADOWS REIGN (fall '22) @WednesdayBooks. she/her
Jul 17, 2022 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
speaking as as a literary agent whose list is entirely BIPOC and queer authors...

absolutely not.

i dont need comparative titles to sell your book and you dont need them to assert your work's place.

please focus on the quality of the book you're writing rather than the comps. are comparative titles used and useful? yes. we use them often in film/tv pitches. when i was an editor, when i wanted to acquire a book, it helped to have a sense of external and internal comparative titles...
Jun 6, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
A thread on advance payouts!

Say you have a $60k advance per book for 2 books ($120k total). You don’t receive all upfront. It’s broken into pieces, paid over years. So for this advance, let’s say it’s paid in thirds... #PublishingPaidMe Payout in thirds is:

- 1/3 on signing of contract (40k bc the contract is for both books)
- 1/3 on delivery and acceptance of revised manuscript #1, ie after edits w/editor. ($20k)
- 1/3 on publication of book #1 ($20k)
- 1/3 on d&a book #2 ($20k)
- 1/3 on pub book #2 ($20k)
Jun 5, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Right. Like @PublishersWkly remember that year I was a star watch honoree and I capitalized Black in an interview and you changed it and I cited CMS and you were hella rude and kept telling me, an editor, it had to be lowercase.

(I still have those emails, don’t worry) Or haha when you forgot to mention my name, one of the few black people honorees, at the party that was for us or how you snubbed @Sj_Fennell who literally created a major book festival for literacy in the Bronx while being a publicist and instead gave the award to white ppl
May 30, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
ppl really need to do deeper readings on MLK, he wasn't some calm peaceful protestor who hated violence... there's a reason why his more "radical" side isn't taught in school, they want it to be erased. nonviolent protesting is a tactic that only works in certain circumstances, if ppl are willing to kill you then im sorry you cant just expect those "oppressed" to just be like yeah imma march peacefully
Jan 24, 2020 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
someone wants to do this, contact us @PocPub. We're just here. Waiting for director-level professionals to care vs. just sending us their job listings in hope we find a poc, which we usually do bc there are SO MANY highly-qualified people of color wanting to work w book. @PocPub between us, @PocPub, @LatinxinPub, @diversebooks who has a FANTASTIC FUNDED internship program... we've got the people who want the jobs. put us together in a room and can come up with this program bc all of us are already doing so many mentorship programs (AS VOLUNTEERS)
Nov 19, 2019 • 27 tweets • 6 min read
So yesterday PW's Publishing Salary Survey went live, and about 84% of book publishing is white (barely a change). But also, re: racial/ethnics group, if you look the past years, most representation, by group, is actually decreasing or staying the same. Now, of course, this is data is based on those who actually take their survey but it's also important to note that about the same amount of people take it each year, so it's pretty stable, and having worked as an editor at two major publishers, seems about right to me.
Nov 12, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
My therapist: talk to me about how you reward yourself for your accomplishments?

Me: reward? *stares blankly* why would I do that? I’m not gonna celebrate for doing what I’m supposed to do

Her, takes off glasses: oh boy Me texting a friend: Apparently I have a problem with self praise or something

Friend: *silence*

Me: what

Friend: well...
Sep 16, 2019 • 20 tweets • 6 min read
So, I read this brilliant piece by @HDemetrios, and I want to echo what she says about asking questions. This is your career. If you don't understand your payment structure, you need to ask. You need to understand (upfront) when you're getting paid. medium.com/page-count/how… First and foremost, an advance is just that. It's upfront payment. In most cases, nothing but that money is guaranteed. You have to advocate for when you get an advance. If you don't understand, you've got to ask.
Oct 22, 2018 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
So, @stdennard has written some amazing posts recently for her newsletter (that her agent, @JoSVolpe, has joined in on) and I want to talk about them for a bit because every writer needs to read them 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 If you've followed me long enough you know I like to talk about how authors *really* need to understand their contracts and their ENTIRE deal (not just the advance). Advance is important, yes, but so are many other things.
Aug 29, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is a great thread. Such an important conversation to be having. I say this all the time even when it comes to breaking in as an editor. I had a lot of high-up mentors and a middle class family AND I worked somewhere else where I made more so while I took a big salary cut, I also had savings that helped in the first few months + moving to NYC.
May 4, 2018 • 34 tweets • 6 min read
Yeah... it’s kinda the worst to refer someone for a job only to get feedback that they, um, couldn’t name recent books + any the publisher has published 😭😩

Never give anyone an easy reason to say no! There are like some *really* basic things you should know going into an interview:

Who is interviewing you. Call or email and find out.
...You need to know who they are, their role within the company, and books they’ve edited, etc.