This topic has a special place in my heart. Years ago I was a literary agent based in the midwest, mainly handling books, but also screenplays as a Signatory to the WGA. I had a book (a techno-thriller) that I sold to a small hardcover publisher for a modest advance which the publisher then turned around and re-sold the paperback rights for mid-six figure money. Because of that deal--I literally received a phone call informing me that I had made $30k without having lifted a finger--my writer was instantly "HOT". So, as Scott always stresses writers do, he was ready with another novel. The hardcover house had just passed on it (because it was not a military story; but it was a thriller), so I immediately took it out to five major New York publishers and set an auction date. It was my first auction. When the day came, I began fielding calls. I never realized that I had landed in Agent-Hell. The publishers knew I was a newb at this--I couldn't hide the fact, as everyone knows everyone. So they "played" me like a Stradivarius. But I wouldn't give up. Unlike the typical auction that lasts an afternoon or so, mine lasted 11 days. At one point I was chasing the CEO of the largest publishing company in the world across a golf course with phone calls and bids. The book opened at $75k. When it was over, it sold for $510k. The stress nearly killed me, but I got it done. The New York Times did a story on the deal, saying I had beaten the New York agencies on their own turf. The experience was so powerful for me, that after I got out of the agency business, I wrote it into a larger story of my own about the amazing Hollywood spec scene in the '90s that saw Joe Eszterhas and Shane Black emerge. That's now a script: DARKNESS CALLS ME. What doesn't kill you... (as the saying goes). Lee Matthias