Hershman Rights Management (HRM) officially launched in July 2015, so you know what that means? Yes, you’re doing your math correct- it’s been over a year! We couldn’t do it without all our amazing authors and publishing partners. We have so many people to thank for making our first year such a success. At HRM we pride ourselves on our customer service. It is always our primary goal to keep our clients happy. In order to continue to reach that goal, HRM needs to focus on growth and adapt to every fluid market.

That’s why we are rolling out a couple new things this month. First, and most importantly, we have created a new way in which authors can submit their already published work to us for consideration of representation. Check it out on our new ‘Submission’ Page. The best part? Your answer is instant! If we think you will be a good fit for HRM based on the information you provide on the form, you will know about it right away. If you aren’t… well, you will know that too. We are so excited about this new addition to our agency because the concept of instant results/answers in the literary agency industry is innovative and a first of its kind. Every author knows the harrowing pain of waiting for months just to hear that your work has been rejected. At HRM, we want to eliminate that wait time as much as possible and we have the newest technology that will allows us to do just that.

Second, we are looking to expand our social media reach and visibility. We just launched HRM’s Facebook Page, so we definitely think you should all head over and check it out. Give us a ‘like’ if you dare. Even if you aren’t a part of the HRM family it will be a great place to stay up to date with everything we are doing and everything our fabulous authors accomplish.

There were five reasons HRM decided to amp things up in this way:

1. We need to be accessible. It’s easy to have a standard contact form on our website that just filters to an e-mail address with an ever growing pile of mail waiting to be answered. Anyone can do that. It’s great to get that mail and see that your business is getting recognition enough for people to reach out to you, but the ability to follow through on those contacts in a timely manner is what really matters. We need to be able to give our potential clients answers- quickly. We want to be an open channel of communication, not a dead end. We hope that with instant conditional offers for representation, we will be better able to serve our authors and give them a brand new tool to help them reach their career goals that they won’t be able to find anywhere else.
2. We want to be visible. We want authors and publishing professionals to know our name. We want to automatically be seen as a trusted service because well, we are! We have helped many authors advance their career over the last year and we want other authors who are looking for help to know that.
3. Our client’s (and potential client’s) time is important. The one thing I hate the most is wasting people’s time. It’s a priceless commodity that we can never get back. If we aren’t going to be able to help you, I want you to know that right away so you aren’t sitting around waiting for a hopeful answer. If we think we can help you, I want you to know that right away as well. I want to start working with you as soon as possible so we can start accomplishing your goals together. Your book sitting in a submission pile isn’t doing anyone any good.
4. We always need to be growing. We can’t get comfortable. Sometimes, we need to push ourselves outside our normalcy and comfort zone to truly succeed. We will never know how successful we can be if we just do the same thing day in and day out. We need to push our limits in order to see just how big we can grow.
5. We need to have the ability to adapt. Being in the publishing industry, it’s no news to us how important the digital world has become. Therefore, we need to use the digital industry to our advantage to both grow our business and reach our desired clientele. There isn’t a person (let alone author) who doesn’t spend part of their day on some form of digital outlet. The prime way to market a business or product has become digital. You need to go where your clients are going, you need to reach the markets in which they visit every day. By making our submission process and business name more digitally friendly, we hope to reach our masses in the most appropriate way possible.

Buckle in for another innovative year and please, write on!