Reprinted with permission of Jan Burke Originally appeared in the Third Degree, the official newsletter of the Mystery Writers of America
May not be downloaded, photocopied, distributed or excerpted without permission of the author and/or publisher

Agent Deborah Schneider represents Jeffery Deaver, Carolyn Hart, Barbara D’Amato, Marilyn Wallace, and other highly regarded crime writers. Gelfman-Schneider, the agency she formed with partner Jane Gelfman, has represented a stellar client list both within and beyond the genre. Deborah Schneider is known for being a hardworking champion for her writers. She stays aware of the genre and you will often find her meeting with her clients at mystery conventions and other events. She is on the Board of Directors of AAR. She recently took time to answer questions for The 3rd Degree.

TTD: Please tell us a little about your background.

DS: I grew up in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago. Went to college in St. Louis and majored in philosophy, of all things, rendering me clueless about what to do with my life, but given my philosophical studies, I understood that I was clueless ontologically and epistemologically. I did the obligatory year in Europe, came back still clueless, but now in French as well as English. Some friends from college had, in the meanwhile, started a small press literary magazine in San Francisco and invited me to join them. It was fantastic fun. We got NEA grants, did all our own layout and paste-up, binding and collating and mailing, and I tended bar on Union Street to pay the rent. I also got bitten by the publishing bug and decided to move to New York and find a “real” job.

No one ever says “I want to be a literary agent when I grow up,” and frankly, I had never even heard of a literary agent before my first jobs in New York, which were in the story departments of movie studios, scouting New York publishing for books to make into movies. The studios soon thereafter discovered that buying books for movies was a cumbersome way to get movies made and began closing their New York offices.

Having had about six of these jobs in three years, I decided it was time to make a decision: I knew I didn’t want to work for a corporation, so that ruled out editorial. I’d talked to many agents during my time with the studios, and decided that, though it was chancier and less secure, I was young, childless and mortgageless, and could afford to do it. I found Jane Gelfman, who had just opened an office to sell American rights for the British agency, John Farquharson, and signed on to build an American client list. We did.

Twelve years ago, we bought the agency. We’ve been partners for 23 years.

Life outside of work? I have two children, almost fully grown, live in Westchester County, north of Manhattan with my son (my daughter is living in Santa Barbara) and two rescued greyhounds. My husband and I divorced, amicably, several years ago, after 22 years. I spend as much time as I can in Cape Cod, my favorite place on the planet.

TTD: What kinds of books do you represent? Any type of book you prefer not to work with?

DS: I represent mainstream, adult, hardcover fiction and nonfiction, commercial and literary. I have no particular specialty. The wonderful thing about this work is that you can take on anything you like just because you like it. I have to care about it to take it on and have learned that just because I can sell something does not mean I have to sell it if my heart’s not in it. I do not represent science fiction, romance, children’s books or YA.