JABberwocky's History and Employee Information
Joshua Bilmes is the Proprietor of JABberwocky Literary Agency, which he founded in 1994.
His path to owning his own literary agency started in high school, when he sent monthly letters to the editor of Analog, the leading science fiction magazine, critiquing each issue. These letters impressed the magazine's associate editor so much that she offered Bilmes the chance to do freelance readers reports and other work when she left Analog to join new start-up SF publisher Baen Books. Joshua Bilmes and the publishing industry took an immediate liking to one another, he landed a job at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency after graduating from college (University of Michigan, BA in History), and started his agenting career in February 1986.
While his path to becoming an agent went through the science fiction genre, his interests were and are far broader. In the mystery genre, the Hardy Boys led to the Three Investigators, and from there to Agatha Christie, Perry Mason, the 87th Precinct and John LeCarre. He became a "Variety" junkie during high school, hasn't missed an issue in 20 years, and still has a fascination with the entertainment business. His college degree in history introduced him to The New Republic, though he now reads The New Yorker. He keeps up on pop culture with Rolling Stone and spends fifteen hours a week reading newspapers. There's always time for a good movie, and baseball and tennis are often his background music.
It was in fact a debut mystery novel, MARY'S GRAVE by Malcolm McClintick, which became Bilmes' first sale in the summer of 1986. It was also in the summer of 1986 that he reached out to Elizabeth Moon and discovered the extremely popular "Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy, helping to launch the career of an award-winning and bestselling author. By the end of the 1980s he had commenced work with Charlaine Harris, Simon Green, Tanya Huff and other mainstays of the JABberwocky list.
But it wasn't just about building his own list at the Scott Meredith agency. Carl Sagan, Harry Kemelman, P.G. Wodehouse, Ellery Queen, these are just a few of the longstanding Meredith clients whom Bilmes worked with. After Meredith's passing, Bilmes was promoted to VP and got invaluable managerial experience holding the company together for several months pending the arrival of new ownership.
In 1994, Bilmes struck out on his own to establish JABberwocky Literary Agency. After ten years of growth, many milestones were reached in his 10th anniversary year. Among them: taking on Steve Mancino as the agency's first full-time employee to help handle the demands of a growing business and increasingly successful client roster; seeing one of his earliest clients, Elizabeth Moon, win the Nebula Award for Best Novel for THE SPEED OF DARK; watching Charlaine Harris climb to #22 on the NY Times hardcover fiction bestseller list with DEAD TO THE WORLD; going to the Chelsea Cinemas on a Friday night to see TESTOSTERONE, based on the novel by James Robert Baker and the first theatrical release based on a JABberwocky title, with a large and appreciative audience; topping 100 foreign rights sales for the first time.
Some second decade highlights so far: Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) shooting the pilot for an HBO series based on the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, while a series based on Tanya Huff's "Blood" books aired on Lifetime;, the agency's first 7-figure deal for the 8th thru 10th Sookie novels; Simon Green's "Nightside" series becoming the author's most successful in an already successful career ... launching Brandon Sanderson, first with his Tor fantasy ELANTRIS and now with a major middle-grade series launch from Scholasatic, then following that up with his best-ever first novel sale for Peter Brett's PAINTED MAN ... Tobias Buckell becoming the youngest-yet JABberwocky discovery when CRYSTAL RAIN appeared for his 27th birthday ... watching as Steve Mancino's first two discoveries are published to good results, and exceptionally so for Kat Richardson ... watching Ohio State students pour into the Union Ballroom to hear Elizabeth Moon speak on THE SPEED OF DARK
Other relevant links: Bookstore Splog (1/07), Oscar Splog (2/07), Joshua's Real Blog
I'm excluding work by my own clients here, but...
Favorite fantasy: LITTLE BIG by John Crowley
Favorite sf novel: HYPERION by Dan Simmons
Favorite mystery: THE SECRET OF THE OLD MILL by Franklin W. Dixon, because it was the first
Favorite director: Stanley Kubrick
Favorite movie not directed by Kubrick: Superman, The Movie
Other Favorites: Goodfellas, lots of Tom Cruise, Bull Durham, The Empire Strikes Back
Favorite movie theatre: Loews Astor Plaza (1974-2004) Obituary
Favorite film composer: John Williams
Favorite football team: Michigan Wolverines, and the Pats for as long as Tom Brady is QBing
Favorite NL team: NY Mets
Favorite AL team: Toronto Blue Jays
Current Tennis Player to Watch: Richard Gasquet
Favorite Metropolitan Area to Visit Bookstores: Washington, DC
Borders Visited: 183
Favorite bookstore hang-up: Snooty indies with crappy sf sections
Favorite Song: Hotel California
Favorite Ringtone: What's a "Ringtone"?
Favorite Groceries: Whole Foods Markets
Favorite Whole Foods: Bellevue, WA and Austin, TX
Favorite College Thing I Can't Stop Doing: Eating at Uno's
Favorite Drake's Cakes: Yodels
Eddie Schneider is a recent arrival at JABberwocky, and is actively working on growing his client list (see "What I'm Looking For" below).
Schneider is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where he counted Yiyun Li, G.C. Waldrep, and Alan Drew among his many writing mentors. He is also a graduate of New York University, and holds an M.S. in Publishing.
Prior to his joining JABberwocky Literary Agency, Schneider worked for Folio Literary Management, where he assisted on a wide variety of different projects, including those by best-selling authors Garth Stein, Will Lavender, Robert Hicks, and Phillip K. Dick award winner Chris Moriarty.
He has also been, at various points in his life, a magazine editor, computer salesman, short-order cook, freelance graphic designer and elected public official.
What I'm looking for
Literary fiction - I'm looking for literary novels with both great writing and a strong conceptual anchor. Ideally, I'd like something that can both push boundaries and keep readers along for the ride. An example of a (non-client) novel I enjoyed that meets these criteria is Italo Calvino's IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER.
Fantasy - I'm looking for literary fantasy with one foot in the real world and one foot in the fantastic. I go for character-driven novels with intricate, imaginative settings that are internally consistent and have verisimilitude. An example of a (non-client) novel I enjoyed that meets these criteria is Susanna Clarke's JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL.
Other subgenres and special areas of fantasy that are of interest to me include: magical realism (e.g. Isabel Allende's THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS), steampunk, and urban fantasy. Epic fantasy is probably best directed to Joshua.
Science fiction - I'm looking for science fiction with evocative writing and a good sense of adventure, in which the info-dumping takes a back seat to character and narrative. An example of a (non-client) novel I enjoyed that meets these criteria is Ursula K. Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS.
Other subgenres & special areas of science fiction that are of interest to me include: dystopian novels, for which I have a special place in my heart (e.g. Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451, Robert Charles Wilson's SPIN), some space opera, and novels involving near-future space exploration and first contact. Hard SF and military SF are best directed to Joshua.
Other genres - I will also consider literary adventure novels, horror, satire, and graphic novels, the last of these by either an author-illustrator or an already established author-illustrator team. Aspiring graphic novelists should include a standard query letter and one printed or photocopied page of artwork.
Mysteries are best directed to Joshua.
Young adult - I am happy to consider young adult submissions in any of the above genres or subgenres.
A maddeningly non-alphabetical list of favorite, mostly contemporary authors (who aren't clients):
Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, David Maine, Ray Bradbury, Miranda July, Susanna Clarke, Dave Eggers, Philip K. Dick, Isabel Allende, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Chabon, Alan Moore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Junot Diaz, Nicholas Gurewitch, Mario Vargas Llosa, Neil Gaiman.
Favorite film: The Seven Samurai
Favorite video game based off of a licensed property: Knights of the Old Republic
Favorite video game with highly flawed gameplay: Arcanum
Favorite genre of music: Garage rock
Favorite species of duck: Muscovy
This area was last updated 8/26/08
© 2008, JABberwocky Literary Agency