Search This Blog

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Card Carrying?

This past Monday I read on Lori Perkins’ Agent In The Middle blog she is a liberal democrat, and a card carrying feminist. I must confess to some ignorance, possibly due to my advanced age, about this feminist realm. I didn’t know they carried cards. What happens if you don’t have your card, and secondly, who checks them? :) Ms. Perkins blog is very informative; and her admission, echoed by Jenny Rappaport from the same agency, about not handling anything Republican-ish (whatever that is) confirms a suspicion I’ve had about the dearth of conservative leaning pulp fiction. I have women customers living in nearby Berkeley, who get their vehicles fixed at my shop. Some of them have been coming in for over two decades. They know I’m a conservative, because they’ve heard Rush Limbaugh on my radio when they drive in (I always turn it down before their heads explode); and I know from their myriad bumper stickers, which way they lean politically. They don’t go in my office to wait for their vehicles and burn my VFW magazines, and I don’t use a razor blade on their Global Warming Gore bumper stickers. When I finish, they pay for services rendered, and I thank them for their business. They (feminist liberals) trust me to fix their vehicles, because I’ve earned their trust with ability and honesty. I take their checks or credit cards, because they’ve never stiffed me. The publishing business seems to be a bit different than regular commerce. :)

Although I understand how odorous it would be for a card carrying feminist to read and represent a fiction manuscript which might have conservative leanings, wouldn’t the possible money gain make up for having to wear a mask while selling it? Murphy and Sapir are my favorite example of authors espousing some right wing political satire with fantasy adventure. They’ve been doing the incredibly popular Destroyer series since the seventies and have sold multi-millions of them to a mostly male audience. Each new book in their series is scooped up by a loyal fan base, including me. The agent representing them, if they even bother with one, could probably live on just their percentage from the Destroyer series alone. I do know it still takes good writing; but perhaps a couple of us Republican-ish fiction writers could make a few liberal agents some money, if they can look past their political indoctrination. :)

4 comments:

Jordan Summers said...

I left a really long comment and blogger ate it. :(

The summary was that not all agents are liberal. They are as varied as the writers who submit work. You just have to find the one who is interested in your type of story. :)

BernardL said...

Actually, I was just having a little fun with the term 'card carrying' feminist and the word Republican-ism. :) In reply to your point, I will retract my axiom if you can name one agent or one publishing house with conservative leanings. I found one called Emperor's New Clothes, and one other that publishes conservative non-fiction. Ms. Perkins is the first agent to actually be nice enough to state the obvious. Her employee and co-worker Jenny confirmed her own bias later. I wish the rest of the agents out there would list their political bias along with the genre preferences they have as Ms. Perkins, and Ms. Rappaport did. It was refreshing. :) I hope you at least got a laugh out my bit, Jordan. Thanks for commenting. It's always appreciated.

Jordan Summers said...

I would consider my old agent fairly conservative, but we never talked politics. He's also a very good agent. :)

BernardL said...

As compelling as I find your evidence, Jordan, I remain unconvinced. :)