The agent who eventually accepted me as a client had never heard of the novelist who recommended me. She just liked the premise of my book. After I got an agent, she shopped it around and got rejections from thirteen publishers before one said yes.
I considered myself lucky. My first manuscript was published! The second time I launched a series, Percy Jackson, I still used no connections. The result? Lots more rejections from agents. One agent liked the premise enough to give it a shot. She had better luck with the publishing houses than I had the first time around, but it had nothing to do with who I was or the people I knew. It was all about the book. Publishing is a business — a bizarre, sometimes maddeningly convoluted business, but a business.
If an editor takes a risk on a novel, his or her job is on the line. The editor has to love the manuscript and believe it will sell. Whether or not you have a personal connection is irrelevant. Similarly, agents have to make money by representing books that sell. They build their reputations by finding new authors who turn out to be successful. Whether or not they know you — that means nothing.
Often I will encourage aspiring writers to go to such conferences, where you can listen to editors and agents speak about the business, schmooze with publishing industry types, and practice making your pitch. I asked this agent if meeting an author in person affected her decision to represent them.
The answer: no. At best, a personal meeting will assure that she would agree to look at the query letter and sample chapters which she would do with any project that intrigued her. She looked rather sheepish. Not one. The flipside to this may seem radical: A good novel will find an outlet one way or another, whether you know someone or not.
But remember they are actively looking for great writing. They would be in heaven if every novel that came to them read like The Next Big Thing, or even just a moving novel with quiet appeal. The writing is clunky and garbled, showing a poor command of grammar and style. I hear the embittered writers out there, because I used to be one of you. Taste is purely subjective, right? Easier said than written. Even mainstream or genre blockbusters, so easily dissed, have some quality that made them successful in the first place.
The pacing is good. The plot has twists that no one else has quite mastered. The settings and characters are memorable. Most of all, there is a certain level of technical competence to the writing. This is no small feat, nor is it something that every or even most aspiring writers can do.
When an agent comes across a novel that reads like. The agent will not care if they know you. They will get on the phone and offer to represent you. Why have all these agents said no to me?
Maybe they will! Everyone thinks they have a family story that the general public is dying to read, just like people so often think their guests are dying to see their pictures from their recent trip to the Grand Canyon. Most of the time — not so much. We are only interested if you somehow find a way to make it our story.
In a similar vein, if you write Cyberpunk zombie novels set on Mars and involving dinosaurs, the publisher may have a hard time marketing such a novel. Hmm, actually it sounds pretty good to me! These niche markets are small and difficult, unless again you somehow manage to make the story appeal to a broader range of people.
Taste is somewhat subjective. We all know that J. Some publishers rejected The Lightning Thief, too. The less said about them, the better! But to be fair, editors have to go with their guts. Lynnette Labelle April 23, at PM. Casey Something April 24, at AM. Anonymous April 24, at PM. Casey Something April 24, at PM. Christina Farley April 27, at PM. Melinda R. Cordell May 29, at PM. Casey Something May 29, at PM. Casey Something September 16, at AM. Casey Something January 20, at PM.
Kelly Bennett June 6, at AM. Ashley K September 7, at PM. Newer Post Older Post Home. Ben Clanton. Victoria J. Nina Crews. Robin Cruise. Pat Cummings. Jessica Dainty. Jamie LB Deenihan. Jeanne DuPrau. Sarah Dvojack. Sara Echenique. Kate Egan. Kat Fajardo. Brian Falkner. Amy Seto Forrester. Camryn Garrett. Cynthia Leonor Garza. Stephanie Greene. Jessie Haas. Kayla Harren. Carolyn Hennesy. Lynn Joseph. Mike Jung.
Bobbi Katz. Kristin Kladstrup. Janel Kolby. David Kreizman. Susan Kusel. Dawn Lairamore. Mary E. Ashlee Latimer. Robert Liu-Trujillo. Dana Alison Levy. Laura Williams McCaffrey. Gillian McDunn. Madeline McGrane. Jim Murphy. Laura Murray. Sarah Nelson. Jerdine Nolen. Ellen Oh. Erica Orloff. Kathryn K. Amparo Ortiz. Daria Peoples-Riley. Randi Pink. Robin Pulver. Kelly Quindlen.
Anne Quirk. Kristin Rae. Andy Rash.
0コメント