Memoirist Debra Ginsberg gets fiction-y in her new book Blind Submission and the California publishing world gets dishy about the similarities between the author’s boss-from-hell West Coast literary agent character and her real-world former employer Sandra Dijkstra. Says Josh Getlin of the Los Angeles Times:

In Blind Submission, Lucy Fiamma, the central character, is a brilliant, conniving literary agent who terrorizes her minions. For many California literati, Ginsberg, 44, has served up a wicked, unmistakable take on Dijkstra, whose aggressive style is well known. And the author isn’t the only one to dish: Her book editor, Sally Kim, and her prior literary agent, Amy Rennert, also worked for Dijkstra.

At a recent meeting of the Southern California Booksellers Association, book mavens were tittering over the similarities. But almost none agreed to be quoted, because they wanted to protect their relationship with the powerful agent, who has represented Amy Tan, Lisa See, Maxine Hong Kingston, Susan Faludi and other West Coast authors.

“A lot of Sandy’s tremendous success and notoriety is due to her strong, colorful and often aggressive personality,” says veteran literary publicist Kim Dower. “So it makes sense that someone has based a character on her. The truth is, if you want to succeed in a field where most of the players do business 3,000 miles away from where you live, you’d better stand out and make yourself unforgettable.”

Read more here. Read excerpts here and here.

Submit yourself: As part of the promotion for Blind Submission,the book’s publisher is staging a contest to win a “consultation” with a top New York literary agent. Read about it here.