What is AALA?
AALA regularly holds panels, educational programs, and social events to help its members maintain and broaden their professional skills in a fast-changing publishing environment, keeps members and their clients informed of developments in publishing, and works towards increased diversity in the profession and in publishing.
Its committees meet monthly to discuss important issues and prepare alerts and announcements on the latest developments in areas such as contracts, royalties, and legal developments. Members represent authors in all areas of the publishing process, handling the sale of rights through publication, and in general helping their clients develop successful publishing careers.
In addition to the work of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee described below, the Membership Committee is considering new tiers of membership; the Communications Committee is expanding AALA’s social media presence; the International Committee is developing affiliations with agents’ organizations in other countries; and the Small Business Committee will be presenting a series of programs on working remotely and developing best practices.
While the new website is in development, the currrent site is still available at aaronline.org. For further information on how to join, please contact us by using the form below, selecting “Membership Query” from the dropdown menu.
Agents of Change is offering an Internship Program (application link here soon!) to encourage recruitment in the profession, and a mentorship program (apply here) to increase retention and promotion of agents from marginalized communities. The Internship Program will administer a stipend to each intern to cover costs for their ten-week stints with an AALA member. It intends to sponsor no fewer than four interns in 2021 and no fewer than eight interns in 2022, while also broadening outreach to schools nationally, particularly HBCUs and colleges with large numbers of students from underrepresented communities.
We hope AALA members and others in the publishing community will donate to Literary Agents of Change and help make the 2021 internships the robust start of what will be an enduring and transformative program. AALA members are also encouraged to sign up to sponsor our interns in the coming months.
Stay tuned – the new aala website is coming soon!
Website still accessible to members.
© 2020 Association of American Literary Agents, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
© 2020 Association of American Literary Agents, Inc. | All Rights Reserved.