Just over a year ago, I signed with a literary agent in New York and we have worked together to craft a book that I am very proud of – I could not have done it without his help. Before we ever signed our agreement, I told him about my online activism and blog, which did not particularly bother him, at the time. I felt it would be very unethical of me to simply blindside him with that information after the fact, so I was truthful from the beginning. He has always known about Janet Bloomfield and JudgyBitch. Sadly, something has happened (I don’t know what) and my agent has decided to drop me as a client and forego any and all income the book might potentially generate. He does not wish to be named or acknowledged in any way.
I do not know how common a practice this is in publishing but my guess would be that few agents invest a year in a book and then decide it wasn’t worth the effort. I could be wrong, but who knows. Maybe I wrote a shitty book that no one in a million years will buy. It’s possible.
But something tells me that is not what is going on here.
I am now left with a professionally edited manuscript, and a friend of mine has created beautiful cover art, and I am free to self-publish the book, which is what I plan to do. Ironically, the book has absolutely nothing to do with feminism or men’s rights and is simply a story about family, courage and survival. It’s a work of fiction inspired by many true stories.
Nothing to do with men’s rights, and then again, everything to do with men’s rights. I believe that I have crafted characters who are fully human – characters that do not follow stereotypical gender roles, but who at the same time do not deny the central identity of gender and who exist in a time period where those identities could be confining and oppressive, for both men and women. Without men’s rights, and all the ways I have come to understand how humans are nuanced, I do not think I could have written the male characters without descending into stereotypes and pantomimes of real people. I’m not especially proud of the fact that my original orientation towards men was to see them as caricatures, but I have made the effort and done the work to unpack those stereotypes and learn a new way of looking at the world. In that sense, this book has everything to do with men’s rights.
Ultimately I have no idea what spooked my agent, but I do not question his decision at all. No one should have to sacrifice their career and livelihood. I have always known resisting the tyranny of feminism would come with a price, but this is my battle and I do not require civilians to go down with me.
Now I must learn the fine art of self-publishing and see what I can do with it. I am profoundly disappointed, but it takes more than disappointment to knock me out.
Stay tuned and I will let you know what is happening.
Lots of love,
JB
judgybitch 
Speaking of which, has anyone seen this yet?
http://jezebel.com/missouri-republican-men-should-have-to-grant-permissio-1672187070?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
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self publishing is better you’d be shocked how much demand that most agents demand hell one editor showed interest in my stories but I had to add more liberal values to the story. I guess a lesbian could having a male friend be a father figure to their son is bigoted.
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Oh sweet Jesus. Don’t read the comments on that Jezebel link.
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Don’t sweat it, Janet. I’ve done books with agents and books without, and while I still have one or two, self-publishing really is the way to go. The only thing a traditional publishing house can do for you is give you an advance. That’s to support you while you finish the work. Now that the work is finished, you don’t need them. Publish on Kindle, publicize it, and you’ll make more selling 2000 copies there than you would selling 20,000 copies with a traditional publisher.
Don’t let the bastards get you down. This wouldn’t be happening if we were losing.
Happy Yule!
Ian
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Not to nit-pick, but did your former agent say anything that led you to belive the title of this post describes what he did? Maybe he wants to quit the book business and do something else.
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Thank you for that comment, Ian! That makes me feel so much better.
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Over the course of a year, he was incredibly enthusiastic about the book, he forwarded me a lovely pass from a big publisher that described the writing as confident, bold, assertive, but just on the cusp of greatness. She ended by saying “thank you for getting so close to what I love”
Then out of nowhere – it was done. He was declining all future submissions, wants no part of royalties, and does not wish to be mentioned in connection with the book at all.
What do I make of that?
What do you make of that?
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Not for nothing, anything connected to a controversial ideology is often social poison, hence his backing out. Make your status as an MRA known, a title which has been poisoned by perceived misogyny (the PUA community and Return of Kings, especially), and any willing assosciation is basically over. Hopefully it won’t ruin any future ventures of yours
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Hi JB, well done on finishing your book. I’m on the nth draft (lost count) of mine, and it’s a great experience.
I’d guess your agent has seen the twitter campaign against you and decided he’d rather not get a taste of that vitriol. Can’t blame him really, why should he throw his career away?
The good news for you is that with a bit of skill you could get those twitter morons to promote your book. No such thing as bad publicity…
The publishing industry here in Australia is dominated by women and feminized men, with a few exceptions. What boils the feminists blood is that the few exceptions sell so well.
When I go to writing courses and literary events it all wall to wall women, with the occasional man attending. I went to an event where there were 70 women present, and the other man came and introduced himself to me. Despite the female domination, there are still prizes and programs specifically to encourage women writers, of course, there are none for the privileged sex.
Good luck, either get a new agent or self publish, if your book is good enough it will do well.
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aww fuck Janet. you are so damn brave. so damn glad some of us get to live honest and true. too many scurry like feminist roaches.
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Judgy bitch…I would not worry about this publisher at all…if he is prejudiced against you, than he will pay the Karmic price for that!!
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“No one should have to sacrifice their career and livelihood”
…for resisting the tyranny of feminism??
No spineless coward, perhaps. Any decent human being with a backbone and an ounce of self-respect, well that’s a different matter.
Looking for an honest literary agent in the feminist age is like looking for oats in horse manure. You don’t usually find much, and there are better ways to get your oats.
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If what you’ve done is truly on the edge of greatness, ignore what seems like a setback and move ahead accordingly.
However, never forget that this person has burned a bridge and deserves not to be included in anything you do, including successes with this particular work. It appears that the agent couldn’t be honest about disclosing the sudden change, so you should not reward this dishonesty by providing further opportunities.
Act as if the agent has taken the “long walk” and that the agent is not to be welcomed back into the tribe.
Do not return E-mails or phone calls. Do not mention that you’ve ever worked with this agent.
Also, if you know the particulars of the publisher who was effusive with praise early on, figure out if they’re the source of the sudden change.
It’s not unheard of for a publisher to screw up a done deal — usually it happens because new people get involved, and the new people have different agendas, among which cowardice is also not unheard of.
Similarly, if you can find out who they are, don’t reward them either.
People say you shouldn’t hold a grudge …
I don’t hold a grudge — I hold an axe instead.
Any opportunity I have to cut them loose in the future, I will not hesitate in the slightest.
This is not about revenge — this is about survival.
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you are do misunderstood and ahead of your time. cough… wonder what a young emma watson would think of your blogs..
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“I do not know how common a practice this is in publishing but my guess would be that few agents invest a year in a book and then decide it wasn’t worth the effort. I could be wrong, but who knows. Maybe I wrote a shitty book that no one in a million years will buy. It’s possible.”
JB, it’s not common, and I don’t believe your agent would string you along for a year if he thought your book sucked. Who knows for certain what really happened, but it doesn’t matter, what’s done is done. At least the waiting is over, eh? As you said, his bowing out frees you of your contractual obligations to him—though I would make certain that is in fact the case—and now you’re free to self-publish, and keep most of the profits to yourself. Hooray and congrats!
You’ve already established a large audience at judgybitch.com, Free Thought Blogs, AVfM, and on Twitter; the upcoming International Mens Conference would also be a great place to do a reading from the book, and sell some autographed copies in the process.
I’ll certainly buy one.
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Your take on the dynamic here, if this is truly the case (which I believe it is) is fascinating.
For should your book become successful (and I hope it will) then it will serve as a perfect example of how and why feminism will eat itself.
You – and not ‘the system’ will gain the lion’s share of the profits. You, and not ‘the system’ will gain a wider exposure, you, and not ‘the system’ will get to promote your beliefs.
You, and not ‘the system’ will reap the rewards.
And the feminists are utterly dependent on ‘the system’.
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hi,
i suggest you talk to castalia house about publishing it. they are generally resistant to political pressure of any kind. also if you would like an advance reader’s review on kindle, please let me know.
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I see what you mean:
“A man’s control ended the second he let his jizz fly. Keep it in your balls, pants, sock, tissue, condom, whatever. But once you let it fly, you can fuck off.”
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“Now I must learn the fine art of self-publishing”
Guy Kawasaki has some information on this: http://apethebook.com/
Just in case you don’t know this already.
Good luck with you book.
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This article appears to be disingenuous, at best, and a lie at worst. By your own admission, have no evidence whatsoever to support your hypothesis that your book was dropped for gender political reasons, yet you persist in pursuing this line of ‘reasoning’ – presumably in an attempt of garner pre-publication sympathy amongst your fan base; a thinly disguised attempt to bolster your sales. The obvious flaw in your ‘logic’ is that published anti-feminist books are ten-a-penny, and as such, it’s highly unlikely any publisher would drop a book for that reason. This leaves the obvious conclusion, and the one which your ego is presumably too fragile to admit; your book isn’t very good.
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I make of that….a coward.Cant hold it against the agent…what with a career on the line…possibly.Ians thoughts on self publishing seem to be the way to go…..not the point.If you had the common fucking courtesy to denounce all men and claim victim status for all women….then maybe….a publishing house would come a calling.That`ll teachya to to say stuff about the menfolk that doesn`t include pure hatred.Keep up the good work Ms Bitch….we got your back.
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Fragile ego? Dude, you clearly don’t know me very well. I think my capacity for self-criticism and my ability to digest legitimate critiques from commenters is one of the things that makes this blog work.
I would be the first to admit the book was just a piece of crap, but it’s not, and that has everything to do with the work and outright genius this man put into it. We went through five re-writes, all guided by his very perceptive and intuitive questions, and then I was amazed by the final draft that he crafted from all those different versions.
Maybe I’m wrong and it ended up an unsaleable mess. That is certainly possible. It did not read like to me. And something just doesn’t fit – we went from speaking openly and honestly about what was happening online – to vague comments about how he has “reached his limits” – even though the book is still out with some publishers!
It doesn’t make sense.
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Don’t feel too bad, Judgy. For something like this to happen out of the clear blue sky would seem to indicate that there was an outside force that put the scare into the agent. Like you said, nobody just drops all contact like that. Certainly not after investing all that time and energy into it.
I’ve lost a lot of business because I don’t hesitate to express my views on controversial subjects. Feminists and liberals all think nothing of spouting off about their beliefs, and attacking anyone that doesn’t toe their line. We see this in corporate America were political correctness goes hand-in-glove with promotions and performance evals.
When I tried to strike out on my own, I found out very quickly that a non-PC web presence can resort in a lot of lost sales. The upside, though, is that I don’t have to worry about being fired for what I say and I feel a whole lot better about going to work. Just wish I could make a few more sales! 😀
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I’m sorry about the setback, but I wanted to tell you about James Redfield, another much-loved writer of mine, who also self-published his first book after having it rejected by publishers, and went around selling copies out of his car. It became so popular that Warner Books bought the rights, at which point it quickly moved to first place on the New York Times Bestseller List. Sometimes a message is so radical that publishers are scared to sign on with it, until they see all the public interest. I bet something similar will happen for you!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Redfield
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I was going to suggest this as well. Vox Day started Castalia House initially as a home for “blue” (non-politically correct/SJW) science fiction after his ridiculous expulsion from the SFWA and has done quite well in building a list pretty quickly. Castalia has since branched out into such areas as military SF, military strategy (not to mention home-schooling material) which might make it a good fit for your book. My understanding is that the terms are similar to what you’d get with self-publishing with Amazon, with the addition of epub versions for other e-readers, and it would take some of the headache of dealing with Amazon and other outlets such as ebook formatting. And Vox has tapped his readership to produce translations for foreign markets.
At least an avenue to explore, one that feminists have absolutely no influence on. And between your readership here and his growing marketing mail list, it could help get the word out.
Good luck. Don’t let the bitches keep you down!
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pulease
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Your book doesn’t mention North Korea or any other cyberwarfare-capable country, does it? =|8-}/2
For self-publishing, I use — and very strongly recommend:
http://booklocker.com
The owner, Angela Hoy, takes a great interest in helping authors. In fact, whether or not you self-publish through BookLocker you might like her newsletter:
http://writersweekly.com
In any case, good luck!
PS: Speaking of radical feminists and their ilk…Happy 135th, Uncle Joe!
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Do not feed the concern troll, says him with an H factor in the teens. (and mate, if you do not know what an H factor is, look up google scholar)
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You probably don’t remember 1971 when Time-Warner did the same thing to Noam Chomsky’s “Washington Connection,” but… you’re in good company.
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I’m not sure what to make of that. After what’s been happening lately, I’m in a “let’s make sure all our facts are checked” mood. The most likely explanation is definitely the one you gave but I’d hate for us to pull a Rolling Stone and have egg on our faces.
Wherever your book is published, I’ll still buy it
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Judgy, you go ahead and publish the book yourself.
Freedom of speech eh!.
We are bombarded by the media every hour to celebrate womeness, you go girrrrl.but when it comes to celebrate man, , NO.
Yes, YOU GO GIRL.
Do it on your own.
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While the most obvious explanation that’s it’s MRA /anti-feminism related is certainly the easiest, there are a multitude of other possible reasons for your agent to back out like this.
We all want to make sense of the world we live in, and sometimes that desire gets frustrated when something happens w/no explanation given, so we substitute our own thoughts and speculation in an attempt to fill-in-the-blanks.
My advice is to file this away somewhere as an unfortunate turn of events, do a course adjustment to get your book published, move on from here. If an explanation is forthcoming sometime in the future – then great! If not, that’s ok too.
Wishing you all the best on your book!
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Janet, at least all hope is not lost.
You have a professionally edited manuscript, and a professional book cover. You now have the full right to all royalties via self-publishing, which is a huge and burgeoning industry.
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JB, seems like there’s some very good feedback here (e.g. self publishing.) Another suggestion would be to reach out to people like Dr Helen Smith and Christina Hoff Sommers for comment/advice. As you likely already know, they are accustomed to publishing controversial and anti-feminist works.
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JB – just do a decent google search on how to self publish, do some good home work and you’ll be fine. Much of the advice I have on self publishing – even just getting a book published period recommends having a blog and a loyal following, which you have already.
Good luck getting published. 🙂
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“Now I must learn the fine art of self-publishing”
Cappy Cap has a good video on self publishing on Amazon. Walks you through all the steps, including formatting and cover art questions.
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Does he have a wife? You’ve mentioned in posts before how much hate you get sometimes from other women who see you rocking it as a wife and mother, so if he has a wife that’s another possibility. I think it would explain the lack of communication better than feminist threat. I find it hard to imagine you gave him the impression that you’d punish him somehow for being open about why he’s backing out. Shame at being coerced is a solid reason, but it’s likely to be greater in the case of ‘I’m married to someone insecure enough to make me drop you’ than ‘I’m afraid feminists will ruin my career.’ In my (limited) experience, people in industry are not shy about admitting that non-PC stuff is career poison.
Also, was he somehow unaware of your political profile? It’s not hard to find out, and I’d think if it were a deal breaker for him, he’d check that out before investing a year of effort. It’s not as if you were an unknown last year, though that was before the #WomenAgainstFeminism bomb went off.
I think the explanation you propose makes total sense, I just find the unwillingness to tell you perplexing. Best of luck on publishing it, I know I’ll be picking up a copy. 🙂
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Brilliant idea.
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Probably your agent liked the manuscript, but the publishers don´t.
It is hard to believe that the failure has something to do with your activism. If some literature material is good, no problem if the writer is fascist, comunist, feminist, macho pig, gay, homophobic, whatever… At least in Europe. I guess the same in USA.
In any case I would ask for an explanation to your agent.
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Pulease what?
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Reblogged this on ¡Los españoles merecen saberlo, por la Paz y la verdadera Igualdad en España!.
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