Interview with Peter Miller

Interview by Jenna Glatzer

Known as "The Literary Lion," Peter Miller has been an extraordinarily active literary and film manager for more than thirty years. He is president of PMA Literary and Film Management, Inc. and Millennium Lion, Inc.; he and his company have successfully managed more than 1,000 books worldwide, as well as dozens of motion picture and television properties. These works include eleven New York Times best-sellers, and eleven produced films that Miller has managed or executive produced. Three of those films have been nominated for Emmy Awards: Goodbye, Miss Fourth of July (The Disney Channel, with four nominations); A Gift of Love (Showtime, two nominations); and Helter Skelter (CBS, one nomination). In addition, Miller has a number of film and television projects currently in active development, with some nearing production, in association with Warner Bros. Features, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Television, DreamWorks, and many other producers and production companies.

Peter Miller spends most of his time in New York or Los Angeles, but he also frequently tours the country to speak at writers' conferences and workshops. He regularly attends publishing gatherings such the BookExpo America Convention and the Frankfurt Book Fair, as well as various film festivals including those at Cannes, East Hampton, and Sundance.

How did you figure out that you wanted to be a literary agent?

I was a speech and theatre major in college. I came to New York, where I was producing an off-off-Broadway musical, and in it there's a song, "No One Loves an Agent (but his mother)." I didn't take the advice of that musical. I met another man and we founded a big agency. In a little less than two years, we sold 60 books. Then I went off on my own. He said to me when we split up, thirtysomething years ago, "You've got to move to Hollywood." I never moved out of New York, but I have been to Hollywood about 300 times. I have 22 films in development now, and I'm producing one this summer, so maybe he was right.

You seem to be with one foot in New York and one foot in California, straddling the publishing and film worlds.

That's true. There's this little independent movie I'm making this summer called Stash. Your readers can go to www.stashmovie.com to see our beginning website. We start production July 21 in Chicago.

You've sold more than a thousand books. How is it even possible to read that quickly?

I've been doing it for over 30 years, number one, and number two, a lot of the books I sell are based on proposals. Unfortunately, I have not read every book I've sold, particularly if I've sold it off the proposal. Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's first novel, Mitigating Circumstances, which got her a three million dollar advance, of course, I read-- and all the other novels that I managed involving her. Most of the nonfiction that I manage is sold based on a proposal, sometimes a one-page proposal if it's a proven talent, so I've been spared reading 400-page manuscripts in many instances.

What percentage of fiction to nonfiction do you represent?

It's leaning more heavily now to nonfiction, because fiction has gotten tougher and tougher to sell. Publishers are finding more often than not that it's not a good investment. Therefore, it's easier to sell nonfiction, although we're not going to give up on novels. There are several new novels we're involved with now that we love. I will keep pursuing it.

What do you think makes you so successful at what you do?

I'm just a hard-working guy who believes in what I'm doing. I like to get behind talented authors.

I read the foreword for your Author! Screenwriter! book, where the producer said you're always selling. You're constantly thinking and networking and talking to people… seems like you're very actively pitching all the time.

There's a little joke that I'm the pitcher and they're the catchers. I'm a salesman. I don't know how else to explain it; that's what I do. Some people are not salesmen and can't sell. I not only know how to sell, but I love to sell. That's why I keep doing it. It's who I am. I'm an intellectual property developer. I'm always reading three or eight books, and talking on the phone, developing relationships. Not only do I develop relationships, but I keep relationships. That's also something you learn how to do. Right now I'm trying to figure out how not to get involved in the wrong relationships.

What do you mean?

If you get involved with the wrong author, you wind up wasting time and energy and sometimes money. I'm getting older and wiser, and I want to be more careful.

You mean you want to avoid authors who would walk away from you?

Every machination of making the wrong decision. I've figured out a formula for how I can measure whether or not I will be successful with people. I'll give you the quintessence of what I'm going to use to make a decision as to whether or not I want represent somebody. It boils down to three sections, with three parts in each section.

First part is the book. Part A of section one is, is the basic idea big enough, fresh enough, special enough, unique enough, worthy enough to be a book? Part B is does a book (or books) have the architecture of an entire book-- a beginning, middle, and end, with a dénouement and climax; or is it a short story or novella or a magazine article? Oftentimes people come to us with book ideas that aren't book ideas. They're magazine articles or short stories, and I'll say, "This is not a book." Then Part C: The most significant reason we reject writing is the difference between an amateur writer and a skilled writer, and what that boils down to is the voice. The difference between having a voice and no voice is reported writing versus writing that can show you the story showing rather than telling it. One good acid test for showing the writing is to ask yourself, "Does the author activate the senses in every paragraph?" Can you smell it, touch it, taste it, see it, hear it? If you can, then that's a sign of a good writer.

Are you talking mostly about fiction?

Or narrative nonfiction. So there are the three parts of the number one thing going on in my brain before I can represent somebody. Usually people have good ideas, and they usually have the ability to tell the entire story, but what they don't have is the voice. More often than not, the reason we reject writing is because there is no voice.

So then we have what I call the marketing equation. Part A of the second section is, "Is this a project for this particular author or are they a client?" We as a company are looking for potential clients. In other words, if you came to me seeking representation, I would perceive you as a potential client because you've written 16 books-- so you either live to write, write to live or both. It's kind of in your genes that you're going to continue to write.

You're not as interested in people who have only one book in them?

Not unless there's a lot of money involved. If Angelina Jolie came to me with her autobiography and never wanted to write another thing, even if it was awful, I'd take it on. There's the exception to every rule. Of course, Angelina Jolie has a lot of other things going on-- she's one of the most beautiful women in the world and very successful and there are people who would die to read her story, and I could get her a five million dollar advance with my eyes closed, my hands tied behind my back, and tape over my mouth.

We're looking for clients, and the one ruling factor about whether they're clients versus projects is money. Part B in this section is that there is some mediagenic quality to the author. Not just beauty, but intelligence or wit or some kind of professionalism about them, some special angle that can be marketed. Stephen Hawking is not a very attractive person physically, but he's probably one of the smartest people in the world, and his book, A Brief History of Time, sold over 12 million copies. Part C: Does the author have a platform? The platform involves many ingredients, including an e-zine, a website, 400-500 magazine articles, newspaper columns, radio show, television show, some kind of celebrity, the ability to get quotes from 20 people…  Platform is very much an issue in the world of nonfiction.

Section three is how the human brain works. You can use what I'm about to tell you in any relationship that you get yourself involved with, from your dry cleaner to your husband, but here's how it works in a business relationship.

There are three parts to human brain. There's the limbic brain, which is the middle brain, also known as the mammalian brain; the cortex brain; and the reptilian brain. The most important thing in any relationship is the friendship. Do you want to have a relationship that feels friendly with that person? And if you don't, it's kind of hard. I had a client say to me once, "Peter, we don't have to be friends to make money together," and I dropped the guy as a client, because I like to be friendly. It's just a waste of my time otherwise. I have to have a friendship.

The second part in making the decision is whether or not you can have a partnership, and that's the cortex brain-- the "big brain." What that means is, do you trust the person? Can you rely on them? Are they going to deliver? I hate it when a writer signs a contract, and then a week before the book is due, they say they need another three months. We should have known about this a long time ago. I'm not going to eat it with a publisher because the writer mismanaged their life. You would not believe how many writers have complete attitudes about being late.

I know there are some writers who think the world revolves on their time schedule.

They're completely wrong. Publishers have a schedule, and some authors have a really bad attitude going into it, that they'll let a publisher burn, and that's not the way it's supposed to be. I like to have a partnership with people; I'd like to believe I can trust them the same way they can trust me.

The third part is the reptilian brain. In a sexual relationship, that's the desire, the passion to want to be lovers with somebody, that animalistic instinct. In a relationship with a literary manager, it's "Do I want to represent these people?" Do I have the passion to go out and be their professional manager because I believe in them? Money has a lot to do with it. Money and passion in a business relationship are synonymous for me.

I'm not going to work my ass off for a $2,000 advance for somebody. I don't even like to pick up the phone unless I know I can get a get at least a $25,000 advance. I'm too skilled at what I do; if I get involved in a bunch a little projects, quite frankly, it makes me look bad, and at this stage in my career, I'm not willing to do it.

I like to analyze my relationships in those nine parts, and that's what I do with everybody I talk to. If they flunk on four or five of those issues quickly, obviously, they're not for me. I was on the phone with a new novelist yesterday-- very exciting premise, professional guy, successful-- and as far as I'm concerned, he hit all nine. So with the volume of material I'm dealing with, the number of people who want us to represent them versus the number of people we actually choose, I take this very seriously. I'm spending my life reading unknown writers' works, and I'll be damned if I'm going to get involved with somebody if don't think I can hit a home run.

So someone could have a very nicely written work, but if you don't think there's a big market for it, you probably won't represent them.

Correct. I just don't have the time. There are a lot of other people out there who I can spend time with and make lots of money with. So that's what goes on in my brain in terms of making decisions about whether or not to represent people. It's not a quick decision, because I'm giving everybody this test. If they pass, then I figure out whether or not we can make money.

I got the brain stuff because I have a client's book out now called The Culture Code, which is about how the human brain works in terms of making decisions to purchase things, and I manage Dr. Paul Dobransky, who has written a relationship book that will be out in May 2007.

What qualities make a book right for film?

That's not an easy question. There are many things that go into a film. If it's fiction, it has to have some kind of riveting, unique circumstances surrounding it that make someone want to invest millions of dollars. Remember, the difference between a movie and a book is that books cost thousands of dollars to make and the average movie costs about $50 million, and then another $10 million to open. So the criteria for choosing whether or not to make a movie is much more complicated than whether or not to spend $50,000 to $80,000 to start someone's publishing career. We look for relationships with writers who write books with motion picture and television potential. Someday, I want open a publishing company that will exclusively publish books that have motion picture and television potential.

There's a growing tendency for writers to publish with vanity prices like iUniverse, PublishAmerica, and AuthorHouse. When you see that in a query letter, do you count it as a credit? Is it a good thing or a bad thing to you?

I sold a number of books that were initially self-published or published through vanity presses. They were first-time authors and we moved them on to bigger publishers like Simon & Schuster or Kensington. This is something that was very popular in the African-American community. When African-American fiction became popular, seven or so years ago, a lot of black writers started self-publishing their books, and then moving on. We were responsible for selling several books that way.

But I think it's probably a trend that's waned. I am not an advocate of PublishAmerica or any of that, but a lot of people go that route because they just want to see their book in print. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to move the book to a higher level and help them find another publisher. The fact is, usually self-published books look awful and haven't been properly edited, and then they want to come to me with these pre-existing books and expect to move to a big publisher. Quite frankly, I'm a little old-fashioned. I'd rather just go out with a manuscript.

However, many famous authors self-published their books and moved on. James Redfield with The Celestine Prophecy, Richard Paul Evans with The Christmas Box-- these were enormously successful, and they were initially self-published. There's the exception to every rule, but that doesn't mean it's something I want to be involved with.

How did you get your nickname The Literary Lion?

I'm in my office today on a Saturday-- it's an eclectic office-- and I collect lions. I have an enormous collection of lion sculptures here in the office.

Are you a Leo?

Yes, I am.

What are some of the mistakes you see new writers make in their submissions to you?

They're not ready, particularly with novels. They're going out with a weak novel. They're just not ready to seek representation and they're wasting their own time and mine. That's the biggest mistake. They haven't done their research. Oftentimes, people go out with books that there are no markets for, and they're basically not even good typists, and they're sending stuff out.

How should they figure out if they're ready?

They need to do their research. Without trying to sound rude, I have a limited amount of time to read new clients. On an average day, 50 to 100 people will contact me, and I can't spend too much time on them. If I spend five minutes with 50 people, that's 250 minutes-- that's over four hours a day just dealing with new people. I can't do it. That's why I wrote the book, that's why I have a website, and a reputation. And that's why I don't like it when people ask a bunch of questions before I've even expressed an interest. When you contact me, you should already know a lot about who I am and what I've done. I want people to have read my book before approaching me. Most of the time when people ask too many questions, I just want to say "no" so I can move on.

You've mentioned that there are writers who get upset that you've rejected their work. The Internet has made it easy for them to lash out and write lousy things on their blogs and message boards. How do you deal with that?

Because of the Internet, people have a much easier way to vent and do things they would normally not be able to do. It's malicious, and they can really undermine other people's success incorrectly just because of their own insecurity. They may just be bad writers, and that's unfortunate. I don't want to be used in the games of people who have a grudge against the industry. That's not why I come to work. And what they do is wrong, because just because we reject somebody doesn't mean that they can't find representation someplace else. It may mean that they presented themselves wrong to us, or we didn't like the way they presented themselves according to the formula I gave you.

I'm teaching my readers the same philosophy, so when we're looking at a potential client with four or five bells going off that dictate we don't want to work with him or her, we've got to get that person out of our lives in a millisecond so we can concentrate on working with someone we do want to work with. It's not personal. It's professional.

Do you have a favorite story about agenting?

I love the woman who called me once and said she had sex with aliens 50 times. I have another guy who told me he has a medium contact with Dwight Eisenhower, and we won the Second World War because of alien intervention. I get bemused by this stuff, but they expect me to believe it and to represent them. Over the years, I've collected a lot of stuff like that.

Any success stories you're really proud of?

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg was a slush pile submission, and I got her a $3 million first advance on the first book she wrote. It was a four-book deal. And I got her a $5 million advance on the next deal, and her career catapulted to the New York Times best-seller list. She had a very good run of it. I write about her in a chapter called "Wonderful Circumstances." She's my greatest success story, but I made a lot of people in excess of a million dollars. I'm getting more involved in the movie business because I need to make more money in my own career.

It's much tougher to place a screenplay than a book, but when you do, it can be extremely financially rewarding.

We've had 11 movies made that we've been involved with, and 22 projects in development, all listed on our website, predominately with studios or production companies with financiers. I've invested in 40 or 50 other movies.

How has the publishing world changed in the 30 years that you've been in the business?

It's changing a lot. With the fast-moving society of the world, people are trying to read shorter books. Every now and then a big book will come along. I really think the Internet is changing the industry. There's so much stuff available to everybody-- a couple hundred television cable channels, more magazines than ever, millions of websites… People's attention spans are shorter. Everybody has a PDA, or Treo, Blackberry, cell phone that takes pictures and video. People may be reading less.

You think that's part of what makes it more difficult for new novelists to break in, that people have so much to read for free?

Yes. I think it's more difficult, unless the writer has something extraordinary, like The Nanny Diaries, The Lovely Bones, The Red Tent… where it has some special quality.

Anything else you wanted to add?

It's not just writing the book anymore, it's promoting the heaven into it. I used to say "promote the hell out of it," but like I wrote in my book, ever since I represented a book called The Travel Guide to Heaven, I say I promote the heaven into it. It sounds nicer.

CLICK HERE to check out Peter's book, Author! Screenwriter! How to Succeed as a Writer in New York and Hollywood.

Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of AbsoluteWrite.com and the author of 16 books. Her latest book for writers is The Street-Smart Writer: Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World.

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