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Although conservative agents mutter in their tweeds about such practices, many have learned the game. Yet Meredith remains the master auctioneer. For Mystery Writer Evan Hunter, he got a $550,000 advance on two novels and nine "Ed McBain" thrillers; for Irving Shulman (Valentino), $100,000 apiece for his next two books; for Science Fictioneer Arthur C. Clarke, $160,000 for one book; for Whodunit Author Richard Prather (The Kubla Khan Caper), $1.1 million for 20 paperbacks.
Anything Goes. Between the Donadios and the Merediths, the thriving agency business is rich with specialists who represent, in varying degrees, some combination or permutation of the two. Irving Lazar is a Hollywood agent who concentrates almost exclusively on sales to film companies. Attorney Paul Gitlin represents Harold Robbins, among others, as both lawyer and agent.
Robert Lantz's clients include such writers as James Baldwin, such occasional writers as Leonard Bernstein and non-writers as Mike Nichols. Lantz is particularly adept at movie roles. "You have to know the territory," he explains. "You must know the real dope —who is hot, who are the bankable elements of a deal, who has the ear of an important star or director. Everything is interrelated. Every work of art can be commercially exploited, can go into anything, become anything."
However they handle their job, though, most agents are happy enough to participate in the publishing bonanza. But there are many who also fear that the payoff is getting too big for comfort. Says Jim Brown of James Brown Associates: "A man like Scott Meredith has hurt the industry by pressing for unrealistic advances in terms of what he is offering." Echoes Agent Robert Lescher: "I'm in the business of handling creative careers. I don't want a publisher turning sour on a writer because I negotiated too big an advance."
But so long as publishers keep hungering for bestsellers, it is not likely that the more aggressive agents will change their tactics. Says Sterling Lord, who runs a successful medium-sized agency: "The money is there. The great crime, if you control rights, is not to exploit them." So far, the authors are not complaining about exploitation.