For this LitMag interview, we conversed with Katherine “Kitty” Cowles, publisher and literary agent at large. Cowles began her career on the East Coast working at publishing houses Doubleday and Simon and Schuster. Notably, she rose to become Associate Publisher and Vice President at Simon and Schuster. She now resides in San Francisco, running her literary agency The Cowles-Ryan Agency, which primarily represents non-fiction authors. In this edition of the LitMag bimonthly, Cowles shares her experience and passion for the publishing industry, providing us with an insight into the role a literary agent plays in the proposal and publication process of a book.
How did you first get involved with publishing?
I graduated and from college and immediately moved to New York City, which is what everyone should do, and I got any job I could, and it just happened to be in book publishing. I was someone’s assistant, I was going to night school at NYU, and I basically just sussed it out and thought: ‘I have to get an office because if I don’t get an office I’m going to go crazy.’ So I was highly motivated to get out of cubicles and into an office. So I worked really really hard and I got a job as assistant manager in the contracts department and then from there I just got more and more engrossed with it. I started going to all the acquisition meeting and started seeing this side of publishing that was really cool. Books were presented by the editors at a meeting, and this is still the case today, in a big meeting with the sales and marketing people and other editors and it happens usually once a week and all the books are considered and it is decided whether to buy a book or not. So I would sit in those meetings because I was a contract person and I started seeing all this fun stuff and all these possibilities. I saw that the agents were actually having the most fun and making the most money and doing the more creative side; so eventually I stopped working at a publishing house and started my own company.
In all of your many years working in publishing, what are the most prominent changes you’ve seen that have come with the internet and online media taking such a prominent role in how people read and access content?
Well the internet has changed the business most obviously because of Amazon. That’s the biggest thing. Books are primarily sold through Amazon nowadays. It has made an entire collection of books available for people 24/7. It’s incredible. So that’s changed the business entirely. The landscape of bookstores has changed entirely which is great, but also I would say two other big factors are: social media and ways in which the books are promoted prior to and at publication. Social media is a huge force in publicity for a book whether it’s Instagram, websites, the online New York Times, or online newsletters. So the online side of things is now a much bigger factor in promotion, and the third thing is technology. Technology has really changed the illustrated book world entirely. It used to be really really expensive to have photographs and full-color art in books, now all of that is much more affordable so you see books as more beautiful objects these days.
What drew you to nonfiction publishing rather than fiction?
Well, I’ve always been responsible for nonfiction, my division at Simon and Schuster was all nonfiction. So I know the category. The category of nonfiction is humongous, it’s always such a broad category and there’s plenty for me to do. Like I say I really know the category, so I have everything from two memoirs coming out in 2017, to a book on the creative process, the new Tartine cookbook, I have a book on food politics. I have so many projects and they’re all across the board but it is all stuff I really love.
Which books and projects are you proudest to have been responsible for publishing?
It’s hard to say. I love them all. I literally love every project I work on. Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t hard times or negative situations; that happens all the time, every single day. But when a book comes out, I’m so happy to see it, and I want to do everything I can to make it a big success.
Questions asked by Audrey Kalman, article composed by Liv Jenks.
