Press

8 Questions for MICHAELA RöLL（米夏埃拉•罗尔）, Petra Eggers Agency

Dear Michaela, what have you been busy with lately?
I have read manuscripts, have given several authors feedback on their unfinished projects and suggestions about what to change. I have also advised some authors on foreign rights and press activities. And I have talked with film production companies who are interested in making movies out of some books I am agenting.

What does your company Petra Eggers do?
We are literary agents. We help authors find the right publishing houses, negotiate the contracts and consult with them on all important topics. Often, we are the first person to read a new manuscript and help the authors work on it.

Why do authors need a literary agency like yours?
Authors often like to concentrate on their texts more than on contracts and figures. They can talk more freely to their editors or publishers when they know somebody else cares about the contractual business. The editors time to look at texts is often limited. Agents sometimes read seven or more different versions of a text, before it even reaches the editor.

Digital development has changed the media market tremendously. Does this also affect your business model?
Digital publishing provides more distribution possibilities for an author. It can also provide new models of interaction between an author and his readers. There are some authors who consider allowing readers feedback on their texts. But digital publishing is still a very new field and it poses some yet unsolved rights problems. So it is a whole new field that requires our attention.

What was your best experience working as an agent?
Two examples: 1. Many years ago, I met an author who had written a first manuscript. He was completely unknown to the publishing industry, and I helped him find a publisher. Now, he is an international bestseller author. I accompanied him from the beginning to his great carreer. This is a very gratifying experience.

2. I saw a movie clip of a young woman talking about her doctoral thesis. It thrilled and fascinated me. I called her up and proposed she write a book which I agented. Today, this book is an international number one bestseller.

But sometimes I am equally proud of a book that I think is very important, even though it does not enter the bestseller list.

What are the main qualifications of a good agent?
A good agent loves literature and can tell the difference between a good text and a bad one. He also needs to forsee trends, be able to work very closely with individualistic authors and need not be afraid of tough negotiations.

Could you name three bestsellers in the German market in recent years which you think Chinese reader shouldn’t miss?
Giulia Enders: "Gut. The inside story of our body’s most unter-rated organ.“

This is an amazingly clever and entertaining book, and it has changed how people see their bodies worldwide. It has just come out in China and I hope it will be just as successful here as in other countries, where it already counts as super bestseller.

Robert Seethaler: „A Whole Life“ It has been shortlisted for the Man International Booker Prize that is to be awarded today. A deeply moving and powerful novel, which has appeared in Taiwan already and will appear on the Chinese marked probably next year.

Robert Seethaler: „The Tobacconist“. An extremely fascinating book set during World War II that tells the story of a small shop keeper who meets the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Rights have been sold to China.

How many copies have to be sold before a book can be called a bestseller in the German book market? And a SUPER bestseller?
Difficult to say, as the market is volatile, depending on the season. Roughly spoken, a book might already be called a bestseller after having sold 30.000 times. This might seem little compared to numbers in China, but we are talking about hard cover copies which are still extremely strong in Germany, and are sold at a price of about 200 yuan. A super bestseller would sell more than 300.000 copies up to more than a million.


MICHAELA RöLL（米夏埃拉•罗尔） will be speaking at the StoryDrive Conference in Beijing (29 -30 May 2016).