| What’s
New ...
December,
2005
Happy
Holidays from the DSM Agency!
THE
WHY CAFE soars around the world!
International sales
so far:
1) Campus (Brazil)
2) Gimm Young (Korea)
3) TA-KE SHOBO (Japan)
4) China Times (Taiwan)
5) DTV (Germany)
6) Dekolte (Turkey)
7) Beta (Czech Republic)
8) Piatkus (UK)
9) Ankh-Hermes (Holland)
THE WHY CAFE will
be published by Persues Books in June 2006 as a lead title. Below
see the text from the two-page spread now available in the
Spring 2006 catalog.
================================================================
A parable about personal
purpose- a Jonathan Livingston Seagull for the new millennium
John Strelecky
The Why Café
In a small diner
at a location so remote that it stands in the middle of
the middle of nowhere, John -- a man in a hurry -- is at
a literal and figurative crossroads. Intent only on refueling
before moving along on his road trip, John finds sustenance
of an entirely different kind: in addition to the specials
of the day, the menu lists three questions that all diners
are encouraged to consider:
Why are you here?
Do you fear death?
Are you fulfilled?
With the guidance
of three people he meets at the café, John embarks on a
quest for answers that symbolically takes him from the executive
suites of the advertising world to the surf of Hawaii's
coastline. Along the way, he discovers a new way to look
at his life and relationships... and just how much you can
learn from a green sea turtle. The Why Café will get readers
young and free and older and entrenched to rethink their
personal yardstick for success.
Charming, simple
and inspiring, it will change lives.
John Strelecky
conducts seminars and workshops dedicated to helping people
create and live their ideal lives. He has consulted for
Fortune 500 companies as well as lectured at the university
level. He lives in Orlando, Florida.
==================================================================
Featured
in The New York Times December 5, 2005
RE: Author Joe
Ellis and his book AHEAD OF THE CURVE
What's Ahead:
Blue Skies, or More Forecasts of Them?
By David Leonhardt
The nation's economic forecasters are all but unanimous
in predicting that the coming year will not bring a recession.
It isn't so clear, however, whether that forecast has any
meaning.
Wall Street economists are notorious
for insisting that all is fine even when a downturn is just
around the corner. The few pessimists who regularly prophesize
doom are only occasionally right.
Even the actual start of a recession
does not always help. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the
Federal Reserve, spent much of early 2001 saying that a
recession was avoidable. In fact, one had already begun.
Trying to predict recessions - an
effort that drives much of forecasting - turns out to have
little practical use. The more relevant question might be
whether growth is likely to speed up or slow down in the
coming year, and most of the signs, like still-high energy
costs and a cooling housing market, are pointing to a slowdown.
Slowing economies matter because they
often set the stage for recessions, and they usually drag
down stock prices in any event. By the time a recession
begins and job losses are mounting, stocks are frequently
rising again.
"The recession obsession is a
terrible mistake," said Joseph H. Ellis, a former partner
at Goldman Sachs who was ranked the country's top retail
analyst for 18 straight years by Institutional Investor
magazine. "We need to find a way to talk about slowing
rates of growth. We need new language."
In a new book, "Ahead of the
Curve" (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), Mr. Ellis
argues that the economy's direction is easier to divine
than many people think. Cast aside the recession obsession,
look beyond the torrent of confusing data each week, he
says, and you can often tell what the economy's next move
will be. You still won't know when the next recession is
coming, but neither do Mr. Greenspan or Wall Street's prophets.
In 2006, Mr. Ellis says, the economy
will probably slow more than most forecasters predict, for
the same important reason it has typically slowed at other
points in the last 40 years: weak wage growth.
The forecasters polled in a regular
survey by the Philadelphia Fed say they think that the economy
will expand 3.4 percent next year, down from 3.6 this year.
To Mr. Ellis - who is also the founder of Blue Tulip, a
chain of gift and paper stores in the Northeast - 2 percent
growth might be more likely.
"We're probably past the peak,"
he said.
The key to his system is paying attention
to people's paychecks and comparing them with inflation.
These checks receive less attention than the unemployment
rate or job growth, but they are far more important to the
economy.
Only a fraction of workers lose their
job in a given year. But all workers get paid, and the changes
in their pay help determine consumer spending. Consumer
spending, in turn, makes up about two-thirds of the $12
trillion American economy. Where it goes, industrial production,
capital spending and hiring eventually follow.
For most of the last two years, wages
of rank-and-file workers - about 80 percent of the work
force - have been growing more slowly than inflation. Upper-income
households have done better, but surging energy costs this
year have dented their buying power as well.
In the 12 months ending in November,
the weekly pay of rank-and-file workers fell about 0.5 percent,
after taking inflation into account, according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. (Annual rates of change like this are
another of Mr. Ellis's fixations; the month-to-month changes
that are often reported by the news media are much too noisy
to be useful, he says.)
Just about every other time that inflation-adjusted
pay growth has slowed in recent decades, consumer spending
eventually took a hit, too. The big exceptions came after
tax cuts, such as the ones proposed by President Reagan
in the early 1980's and by President Bush during his first
term. But the current federal budget deficit makes another
tax cut unlikely next year.
Wage growth has not been a perfect
economic predictor, of course. Nothing is. Corporate investment
and international trade also matter.
And forms of income other than regular
wages, like bonuses and stock options, are bigger than they
were in past decades. They helped keep the economy growing
at a surprisingly healthy pace in 2004 and 2005 despite
high energy costs and lagging wages.
The figures that Mr. Ellis tracks
"are only part of the story," said James O'Sullivan,
an economist at UBS. "You've had a pretty clear pattern
where total wage-and-salary income has been consistently
stronger."
It is also possible that the recent
tax cuts and real-estate boom have carried the economy through
its danger zone. Nominal wage growth - that is, before accounting
for inflation - picked up this year as the job market improved.
Oil prices have recently fallen, which suggests that Mr.
Ellis's favorite indicator - inflation-adjusted wages -
might be on the verge of turning around.
Still, the economy has rarely escaped
pain after years of slowing real wages, even if there is
sometimes a lag. Mr. Ellis began to use his system at Goldman
Sachs in the early 1970's, and it played a big role in his
success as a retail analyst.
It also earned him needling when he
strayed from Wall Street's usual sunny forecasts. Slowing
wage growth started worrying him in late 1998, for instance,
but friends told him that the wealth that had been created
by the long bull market would keep the economy booming.
They did, but only temporarily. Rising
house values might well have played a similar role in the
last couple years. "These things can postpone a decline"
in spending growth, he said, "but they can't prevent
it."
If Mr. Ellis is wrong, he will have
picked a bad time to commit his ideas to paper. If he is
right, Wall Street's forecasts next December will revolve
around the question of whether the slowdown of 2006 will
become the recession of 2007. You can guess what their answer
will be.
November,
2005
Featured in Publisher's
Marketplace
Foreign
Rights: UK Non-Fiction
UK rights to Jeffrey
Fox's latest book, SECRETS OF GREAT RAINMAKERS, to Vermillion,
in a nice deal, by Abner Stein of Abner Stein Literary Agency,
on behalf of DSM Agency.
Foreign
Rights: Fiction
UK rights to John
Strelecky's THE WHY CAFÉ, a fable designed to get readers
thinking about their personal reason for being - to Piatkus,
in a nice deal, by Arabella Stein of Abner Stein Literary
Agency, and Dutch rights to Emy ten Seldam of Ankh-Hermes,
in a nice deal, by Marijke Lijnkamp of Lijnkamp Literary
Agents, both on behalf of DSM Agency.
October,
2005
Featured in Publisher's
Marketplace:
Non-fiction:
Business/ Investing/ Finance
Humorist Dan Seidman's
SALES AUTOPSY, offering contrarian thinking on the selling
life, featuring stories and postmortems of blunders and
sales gone wrong, to Karen Murphy at Kaplan Publishing,
by Doris S. Michaels at the DSM Agency (world).
Rights: agnes_banks@kaplan.com
DSM
Agency’s
Frankfurt
Hot List 2005
Top
books with international rights available
(
www.dsmagency.com )
John
Strelecky
THE
WHY ARE YOU HERE CAFE
Perseus
Books ( North America – Spring 2006)
Campus
( Brazil ); Gimm Young ( Korea
); TA-KE SHOBO ( Japan ); China
Times ( Taiwan ); DTV ( Germany
); Dekolte ( Turkey )
Self-help
parable asking, “Why are you here? Do you fear death? Are
you fulfilled?”
Jeffrey
Fox
SECRETS
OF GREAT RAINMAKERS: Keys to Success and Wealth
Book
# 7 with Hyperion ( North America – March
2006)
Alpina
( Russia ); Vocatio ( Poland
)
Getting
tips, tricks and potent stories from famous and soon-to-be
discovered rainmakers.
Peter
Roy and James Autry
THE
BOOK OF HARD CHOICES: Putting Your Integrity to Work
Random
House ( North America – Fall 2006)
Practical
examples of the positive and negative consequences of difficult
business decisions that leave your integrity on the line.
Stuart
Lucas
WEALTH:
Grow It, Protect It, Share It, and Pass It On
Prentice
Hall (World English – February 2006 )
Advice
for consumers and providers of wealth management consultation
services based on stories from clients and friends.
Joseph
H. Ellis
AHEAD
OF THE CURVE: A Commonsense Guide to Forecasting Business
and Market Cycles
Harvard
Business School
Press (World English – September 2005)
How
to predict the stock market and economic cycles, offering
an easy, hands-on, insider’s approach.
Nance
Guilmartin
HEALING
CONVERSATIONS: What to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say
Jossey-Bass
(World English - 2002)
Ankh-Hermes
(Netherlands); Sogides (France); Goldmann (Germany); Bertrand-Brasil
(Brazil); Svenska (Sweden); Cite (Complex Chinese); NLN
s.r.o. (Czech Republic); Haneon (Korea)
A
collection of poignant stories and proven advice to help
friends, family, and colleagues support one another during
times of crisis and change.
August,
2005
Featured
in Publisher's Marketplace:
Foreign
Rights Deals
Italian rights
to Hamilton Beazley's NO REGRETS: A Ten-Step Program for
Living in the Present and Leaving the Past Behind, to Red
Edizioni/Boroli Editore, in a nice deal, by Piergiorgio
Nicolazzini at Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency,
on behalf of Doris S. Michaels Agency.
Rights to John
Strelecky's THE WHY ARE YOU HERE CAFE, to Gimm Young in
Korea, by Sue Yang at Eric Yang Agency, and Campus in Brazil,
by Raquel de la Concha, on behalf of Doris S. Michaels at
DSM Agency.
Japanese translation
rights to John Strelecky's THE WHY ARE YOU HERE CAFE, to
Ms. Ogawa at TA-KE SHOBO, by Miko Yamanouchi at Japan Uni,
on behalf of Doris Michaels at DSM Agency.
July,
2005
Featured
in Publisher's Marketplace:
Deals
John Strelecky's
THE WHY ARE YOU HERE CAFÉ, a fable designed to get readers
thinking about their personal reason for being, to Marnie
Cochran at Da Capo Lifelong, for publication in Spring 2006,
by Doris Michaels (NA).
Also recently
sold:
Barbara Stoker's
POSITIVE RISK, four simple strategies for taking the
right risks in the smartest way possible, addressing women's
personal & professional mountains to Jossey-Bass of
John Wiley and Sons and A WOMAN WITH A MINUTE, an illustrated
look at how women—who
can get more done in a minute than any other group out there—tend
to not give themselves the credit they deserve, to Andrews
McMeel Publishing.
May,
2005
Literary Agent
Ben Salmon Featured in the WNBA May Newsletter:
Meet
A Member: Ben Salmon
Many
outside the WNBA think our organization is made up solely
of women. Not so! This month, we speak with WNBA member
and Literary Agent Ben Salmon , who tells us about his work,
his interests, and why he’s a proud member of the Women’s
National Book Association.
Tell
us how, and when, you joined the New York chapter.
I’ve
been a member since October 2004. I work with WNBA member
Doris Michaels and she strongly recommended that I check
out the WNBA. Doris forwarded me the emails about the panels
and I looked at the newsletter when it came into the office.
I was so intrigued, I couldn’t help but join. And I’m incredibly
glad I did.
How
has membership benefited you?
I
work for a small company. I was craving more human interaction.
The WNBA is perfect because I can quench my intellectual
thirsts via the panels and workshops, while I can feed my
social needs via the networking meals and events. I’ve already
met dozens of wonderful and fascinating people I may not
have connected with otherwise.
What’s
it like being a male member of an organization that has
‘women’ in the title?
I
am proud to be a member. I studied the mission statement
and the rich history of the WNBA closely (everyone should
read them on the website if they aren’t familiar). The WNBA
was created because women booksellers were excluded from
the all-male Bookseller’s League. How wonderful is it that
the WNBA’s membership goal is one of inclusion? We should
not be judged on our gender, but on our contributions, performance
and the value of our work.
You
are a graduate of the NYU Summer Publishing Institute. How
did the program aid your entry into publishing?
I
got my job because of it! The NYU program is like publishing
boot camp, with students’ time split between book and magazine
publishing. You have great access to industry professionals
because they bring in dozens of publishing executives each
year for lectures and panels. While I was there, Doris,
who is a graduate of the program, happened to call the coordinator
looking for an assistant. I heard this and got in touch,
and she hired me.
Tell
us about your work.
I
was recently promoted to Literary Agent at the DSM Agency,
where previously I was an Assistant Literary Agent. The
new position was created for me and we are filling my old
position so I can focus on working with authors and representing
projects. I love agenting. I find it’s the perfect fusion
of my skills and interests. My blend of business sense and
literary sense merge well in this career. My desire to continually
learn is met with each new project I represent. I adore
meeting new people and building long-term relationships
with people, which serves me well. This is, I suppose you
could say, my soul-mate career.
What
kind of projects do you look for?
I’m
an eclectic generalist, willing
to take a look at anything of the highest quality. I adore
quirky fiction (literary, commercial or somewhere in between)
and enjoy the occasional fun mystery. The key ingredients
I look for in any project are an original voice, strong
writing, wit, an interesting or odd perspective, and an
ability to not take oneself
too seriously. In non-fiction, topics that interest me include
lifestyle, self-help, pop culture, health, current affairs,
narrative, memoir and biography, social sciences, gender
and humor. I have a devout interest in trends and read the
marketplace for what’s going to be the next hot topic.
What
do you like to read? Any favorite books?
Oh,
gosh, that’s like asking me to choose my favorite parent.
My favorite books and authors are ever evolving and changing.
Right now, I’m reading a lot of quirky first fiction. I’m
finding that there’s something fresh and unadulterated in
good first fiction; you can really feel the energy and passion
rushing out of it. I particularly like Myla Goldberg’s Bee
Season , Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of
the Dog in the Night-Time and Marc Acito’s How
I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship &
Musical Theater.
Where
do you live? Where are you from?
I
currently live in Hoboken , New Jersey with my wife, Emily
and two dachshunds, Olive and Rosa. My wife is a teacher
who works in the resource room of an elementary school in
Summit , New Jersey . Most of my life, I grew up in Amsterdam
, New York . I was born in Washington , D.C.
If
members want to get in touch, how can they reach you?
Members
can reach me via email at bensalmon@dsmagency.com. Also,
to find out more about the DSM Agency or me, they should
go to www.dsmagency.com.
May,
2005
Featured in Publisher's
Marketplace:
Personnel
News
At
the DSM Agency, Ben Salmon has been promoted
to agent and charged with growing the agency's list. Delia
Berrigan, formerly at Wiley, has joined the agency
as an assistant.
March,
2005
DSM
Agency’s
London
Hot List 2005
Top
books with international rights available
www.dsmagency.com
Peter
Roy & James Autry
THE
BOOK OF HARD CHOICES: Putting Your Integrity to Work
-
A new approach to the subject of integrity. Through examples
and commentary, many lessons will be taught about making
the right decisions in specific scenarios that business
people are currently dealing with or could one day arise.
Consequences of such decisions are also demonstrated via
this example-driven concept. The readable and easy-to-follow
manner and tone will be of interest to employees and managers
at all levels.
- Peter
Roy is the Former president of Whole Foods Market and
founding president of the Natural Food Network trade association.
Jim Autry is an author of several business books, a motivational
speaker and the former president of the magazine group
for Meredith Corporation.
- To
be published in 2006
- Bought
by Morgan Road , Random House; Audio
rights retained by publisher
- Proposal
available by request as online attachment
Stuart
Lucas
STRATEGIC
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
- Wealth
manager (and member of a wealthy family) Stuart Lucas
presents tips learned from both sides of the coin, allowing
readers a glimpse into a multi-generation, private family
of self-made wealth due in large part to all-American
household brands such as Carnation, Friskies and Coffee-Mate.
- To
be published in 2006
- Bought
by Prentice-Hall; World English and audio rights
retained by publisher
- Proposal
available by request as online attachment
Jeffrey
J. Fox
SECRETS
OF THE GREAT RAINMAKERS
- What’s
better than getting business advice from Jeffrey J. Fox,
a proven rainmaker and bestselling author? Getting tips,
tricks and potent stories from famous and soon-to-be discovered
rainmakers from around the world with proven track-records
and new ideas in selling, customer service, innovation
and business strategy.
- Jeffrey
J. Fox’s books are published in over 80 different language
versions, with close to one million copies in print.
- To
be published March, 2006
- Bought
by Hyperion in a major six figure deal
- Author’s
seventh book with the publisher. Please inquire about
the rights availability for his other Hyperion books and
his Wiley book that delves into the dollarization theory
behind the bestselling HOW TO BECOME A RAINMAKER.
Liza
Featherstone
SELLING
WOMEN SHORT: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at
Wal-Mart
- The
groundbreaking exposé of how one of the world’s largest
companies systematically deprives its female workers of
promotions, pay, and job assignments—and how the women
themselves are about to change history.
- Liza
Featherstone is a contributing editor at The Nation
, and a freelance journalist whose work has been
featured in The New York Times , Newsday
, Rolling Stone , and The Washington
Post , among others.
- Published,
book available upon request
- Published
by Basic Books ( North America )
Nance
Guilmartin
HEALING
CONVERSATIONS: What to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say
- A collection
of poignant stories and proven advice to help friends,
family, and colleagues support one another during times
of crisis and change.
- Nationally
recognized executive coach Nance Guilmartin has spent
a lifetime bringing people together and helping others
to breakthrough and help themselves.
- Published,
book available upon request
- Published
by Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons; World English
rights retained by publisher
- HEALING
CONVERSATIONS is doing phenomenally well internationally
with contracts already negotiated for rights in Dutch,
French, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Czech, Korean and
Chinese (complex), most having already out-earned their
advances.
Please see the Our Books
page for a complete list of our titles
February,
2005
The
DSM Agency is pleased to share a select listing of some
of our authors' most recent new book deals, as reported
by publishersmarketplace.com:
Non-fiction:
Business/ Investing/ Finance
Author
of books such as HOW TO BECOME A RAINMAKER Jeffrey Fox's
SECRETS OF GREAT RAINMAKERS, again to Mary Ellen O'Neill
at Hyperion (his seventh book with the house), in a significant
deal, by Doris Michaels at the DSM Agency.
Non-fiction:
Business/ Investing/ Finance
Wealth
manager (and member of a wealthy family) Stuart Lucas' STRATEGIC
WEALTH MANAGEMENT, presenting tips learned from both sides
of the coin, allowing readers a glimpse into a multi-generation,
private family of self-made wealth due in large part to
all-American household brands such as Carnation, Friskies
and Coffee-Mate, to Jim Boyd at Prentice-Hall in a nice
deal, by Doris Michaels at the DSM Agency.
Non-fiction:
Business/ Investing/ Finance
Former
president of Whole Foods Market and founding president of
the Natural Food Network trade association Peter Roy and
business book author James Autry's THE BOOK OF HARD CHOICES:
Putting Your Integrity to Work, to Amy Hertz at Morgan Road,
in a very nice deal, by Doris Michaels at the DSM Agency.
|
