After spending some quality time in the query trenches I wanted to address a (seemingly common) misconception about how an agent’s stated areas of interest should be interpreted.
On the Waxman site, my bio says:
She is actively seeking upmarket and commercial fiction, including women’s fiction, mystery, urban fantasy, romance, and YA, and voice-driven nonfiction projects, with particular areas of interest in narrative nonfiction, lifestyle, psychology, self-help/relationships, science, and practical spirituality and religion.
If you’re writing a project that’s any of those, query away. It doesn’t need to be all of them! I’ve been seeing lots of “My novel doesn’t have a religious element but I am hoping you’ll take a look anyway” or (worse) “My project crosses over all your areas of interest, from science to religion to self-help and urban fantasy.” You really don’t need to be all things to all people, and very few books are. So just pitch me your project as best you can, and don’t fret about needing to tick off every interest or affinity. It’s a menu, not a mandate.
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Some YA thoughts
Check out this Wall Street Journal article on the trend to the dark in YA. If you’ve even strolled through a B&N or Borders you can see this move to the darker/edgier play out in the cover designs especially.
I’d point out particularly the last line referencing YA novels “which initially seem frolicky and fun but are actually creepy and morally bereft and leave you feeling utterly hopeless” as a particular pet peeve of mine. I love a fun read but do also feel, as many of the authors interviewed in the article express, that YA authors especially have a certain calling to present a world where a moral code, any moral code (even if in the course of the action it’s violated) exists. Amorality is a bigger qualm for me than immorality–one is a choice, the other is unrealistic.
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Why I Say Yes
Someone asked on Twitter, why so negative with the last post? How about the reasons you say yes?
Well, they’re even more subjective than the nos, honestly, and not so interesting. But here you go, why I say yes:
I love it, I can sell it, it plays to my strengths as an agent.
(Told you it was a bit boring.)
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Why I Say No
A quick off-the-cuff list of reasons I’ve said no to projects–not queries but projects:
- Great concept, writing didn’t follow through (usually these are things where the person did not include ten-ish pages of writing as requested in my sub guidelines–usually I wouldn’t have requested otherwise)
- Concept had potential, execution wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t how I thought it would be (this happens all the time and is the source of that frustrating, “but you said you WANTED vampire books!” Yes, but it wasn’t quite what I hoped and didn’t win me over).
- As I read it, no editor names came to mind as people I just had to share this with
- Writing technically proficient, story too familiar/not fresh feeling
- Solid project, didn’t make me jump for joy, know it will make someone else really happy
- Solid project, too similar to something one of the existing clients is brewing up
- Solid project, but didn’t totally slay me, in a genre where I have lots cooking and am less likely to take on a new author
If you’ll notice, maybe two of those are you. The rest? It’s not you, it’s really me. Just a quick reminder not to get discouraged if you’re looking for that right match. And a killer ms blazes right through all of these.
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7 Publishing Virtues
So earlier here on the blog, we did the 7 deadly publishing sins. Only fair to flip it around to the virtues as well–because let’s face it: it’s more fun to talk about what you should do than what you shouldn’t.
CHASTITY
Ok, I’m reaching here, but let’s use the metaphysical rather than literal meaning. (Some things are better left un-blogged.) But purity–of focus, of intent–is a lifesaver in a business that can be exhilarating, frustrating, joyful, disheartening, inspiring and infuriating–and that’s just before 11am. But knowing that you have stayed faithful to your goals as a writer, to your brand, and to doing business in a way you’re proud of goes a long way toward peace of mind. And isn’t that all what we’re after? (Well, peace of mind, and a fat book deal.)
TEMPERANCE
Fear not, I won’t tell you to give up the hooch. I’m going meta again here: Moderating your responses will get you far. Think before hitting send on that angry email to your editor (better yet, send it to your agent to get a second opinion). Sleep on it before you make important choices. Don’t get swept away either in excitement or frustration. Be the cool head on your loop or critique group. Allow everyone (including, and perhaps most of all, yourself) a measure of grace.
CHARITY
Once you’ve broken through, find some way to pay it forward with other writers in whatever way feels right to you, whether that’s blurbing, offering a read to a newbie, doing a panel, giving a referral, or just being a source of encouragement. There is lots of success to go around, no need to pull the ladder up behind. And give others the benefit of their best self—don’t assume the worst or jump to the most horrifying conclusion.
DILIGENCE
Work hard. Do your mama proud. Meet your deadlines. Turn in your best work.
PATIENCE
Oh is any virtue so necessary in publishing? It frustrates everyone–literally everyone, even the people you perceive to be the cause of the delays–and yet it’s a truth. It’s a lot of hurry up and wait. Remember yours is not the only book anyone works on anywhere along the line, but of course it’s reasonable and smart to be firm and kind about getting your needs met in a reasonable amount of time.
KINDNESS
You really can’t ever go wrong with this one. Thank you’s and telling someone’s boss how great they are are will do wonders for you. And if you play well with others, they are that much more likely to go the extra mile for you when the unfortunate happens (as it is bound to) or when there are extra goodies to be passed about. There are many ways to do this that are thoroughly professional; find the one that feels right to you and excel at it.
HUMILITY
Even your favorite, most fierce bestselling author puts her fabulous shoes on one at a time. That uberagent? Has allergies. Your publisher? Soft spot for Pinkberry. We’re all just humans trying to do our best and get by. No matter how huge you get, or how huge you think someone else is, it’s never bad to remember that.
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New submissions info now live!
We’ve updated our submissions guidelines in an effort to ensure we catch every last terrific project that comes our way. We appreciate the effort you all put into your submissions and want to handle them with the maximum respect and attention. With that in mind, we’ve revised our guidelines to make it much more straightforward to contact the agent you’re interested in. Check it out at our website.
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Tweet-Qs, Tricky Edition
For this edition, I’m tackling some toughies, along with some from the last round’s comments. Let’s get to it. Again, feel free to offer up your questions, too.
Q: I’m less than a month away from starting to pitch novel # 2 … which has good prospects, I think. Novel #1 was tantalizingly close. One agent basically said, “do this revision and I’ll have another look.” My (somewhat convoluted question): is it worth looking for an agent for # 2 with the thought that you want them not to run screaming when I bring up the subject of revising and trying to sell #1?
A: So long as there is no submission (to publishers) history with #1, there’s no reason an agent would see its existence as a negative. Doesn’t mean the agent will agree it’s sellable. I repeat: It doesn’t mean the agent will agree it’s sellable. Sometimes first books never go, and for a reason. But strictly logistically speaking (holy adverbs Batman), it’s not a dealbreaker. If it’s a dealbreaker for you (i.e. you only want an agent who is equally enthusiastic about Books 1 and 2), that will be a more complicated agent search. I would still advise you to query with your strongest work, and mention other projects when you talk with an agent who is already receptive to your work.
Now, if it had been previously represented and sent to 25 houses, that’d be a very different story. I have taken on and sold books with a prior submission history. But I had to love them a LOT, and also feel confident, after seeing the submission list, that I could blaze new ground there. If I see the sub list, and it’s virtually identical to what I would’ve done, or has really hit every viable house for a book, then I’m probably not going to have a different enough take to make a difference.
Q: Partial & full requests, rejections w/ positive comments, 2 yrs, still no agent. When does tenacity become foolishness? And seriously, your honest, gut answer. Not the “keep querying” and “write something new”. Been doing that. But so frustrated.
A: Oh, I hear you. First and foremost–I hear you. This is a tough and subjective industry, and it can seem like you’re just beating down the same (locked) door. There are a couple possibilities that come to mind here:
- it’s execution; your concept and pitch hook readers, but the pacing/characters/storytelling are letting them go–check for fizzle (where your opening is incredible but the rest is less polished);
- it’s concept; your writing is good, and from the pitch it seems like there could be something there, but you haven’t hit on the Big Breakout Concept that feels like magic and will nab an agent/editor;
- it’s timing: ahead, behind, whatever, you’ve just not hit the right intersection of Your Idea and What People Are Buying. This one really stinks, because you can’t control it. But that’s the unfortunate thing about this industry (and for that matter–life): you sometimes have the illusion of control, but there are so many moving parts that try as you might, you never really do.
Q: Going back the YA saturation–are you seeing anything in particular that there aren’t enough of? I’m sure that everyone is on the sparkly vampire bandwagon now–but what young readers are getting missed by the YA wave? Serious and dramatic? Contemporary? Fantasy? (please don’t say more Gossip Girls)
A: Fear not, the answer is not “more gossip girls.” It’s tough to say, though–I think everyone is looking for something slightly different. Editor A will tell you middle grade is underpublished; Editor B is looking for dark & scary; Editor C says urban fantasy is still strong while Editor D is totally over it. Same applies to agents; what we want to add to our lists changes depending on what our current clients have cooked up, our moods, and what we’re hearing, so I’m reluctant to issue an edict that any one thing is It.
Q: When an agent says they didn’t connect with the manuscript enough to offer representation what does that mean? I’ve had three agents pass on my full manuscript. They all said that the writing was strong but they didn’t connect with the manuscript enough to offer representation. Two asked to see future work. I sent my second novel to one of those agents, again he complimented my writing but said he didn’t connect enough with it to offer representation. I sent 30 pages of my second novel to the other agent who requested future work and he said I was a talented writer and was sure I’d find a home for my work but that this story was right for him. Should I keep sending queries out for my two novels or should I pull back and revise? I’m still getting a steady stream of requests but I don’t want to burn bridges with writing that isn’t ready.
A: Well, first off, if only three people have passed on your book and you’re still getting requests, it’s way too early for despair. Honestly, “just didn’t connect” means a trillion different things, almost all of which have to do with me, not you. If I thought your story was slow, or your characters unlikeable, I would say so. But think about your own reading. You don’t love every book you read, and that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the book. So if there’s something I think needs fixing, I say it. But personal taste is a huge part of this job and so there really is no code or secret here–”I just didn’t connect” means exactly that. Keep querying. But it’s a decent bet that if someone has seen and not loved two of your books, they may not be your ideal reader, unless they’ve specifically asked to keep seeing your work. Expand your search, and focus on querying your strongest book (Others’ mileage may vary, but I have a really tough time with it when I have a novel, and an author tells me they’ve been offered representation–on another novel. What am I doing with the other one then if that’s the one you want sold? Plus, now if I want to be in the game, I have to read an additional full manuscript–oh, and under a time crunch. Nine times out of ten, I will step aside instead. Frustrating and avoidable. Focus, focus).
Q: What about YA geared at boys? Is there a market for it?
A: Yes. Everyone wants the next King Dork or Percy Jackson. And there’s a perception that a boy main character will be read by girls, but not vice versa. (Make of that what you will.) Honestly I think the problem is twofold: 1, a lot of people have no idea how to write a teen boy that feels sharp and realistic, and 2, there isn’t as much out there, so teen guys tend to have migrated to other sections of the bookstore, as opposed to teen girls, who have plenty to keep them coming to the YA shelves.
Q: How many clients do you take on a year?
A: It’s different every year. The plan for 2009 is approximately as many as I: 1) absolutely must represent or I will never be able to walk into a Borders without feeling abject regret and 2) can represent well while still maintaining a high level of service to both existing and new clients. #1 is of course your goal and #2 is impossible to know from the outside, so you should always at least give me a try with that query (big smile). In practice this means that if three current clients have YAs, or historical romances, or personal finance books in the works, it’s going to take more to get me to add a new one. I never want to cannibalize and you shouldn’t want me to either, as it wouldn’t be best for your work. This necessarily means I will pass on solid, salable projects, especially for fiction. But I also tend to think that these kinds of things intersect where & how they do for a reason, at the risk of sounding too woo-woo.
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Some Tweet-Qs, part 1
I put out a call for any questions from writers via Twitter and got some terrific ones with great applications for a wide variety of readers. If you’ve got one (of the general variety, I can’t help as much with very specific questions unique to your book), feel free to leave it in the comments–or Tweet it my way!
So: here we go with the first round!
Q: An agent recently told me that YA is reaching saturation point. Do you agree?
A: I definitely see where this agent was coming from. I still see room for growth there, but that’s also a reflection of my tastes and list. I think awareness of it as a viable writing option is growing/has grown by leaps and bounds, so there are more people lining up to take a crack at it–which means a project I, or another agent, could’ve felt very confident about placing two years ago may not feel as fresh or unique now–because we’ve read a lot in that time, and a lot has been published in that time.
Q: In this tough climate – are you finding it harder to sell debuts? Are houses more reluctant to take chances on an unproven author?
A: The opposite in fact. For novelists, it’s easier for me to sell a debut than it is to reup an author two or three books in with a rough sales track. A debut is a blank slate, all expectations and optimism; bad sell-through numbers are tougher to overcome (an agent who really believes in your work can help you do so), but the honest truth is that everyone’s still looking for that great debut.
That said, if you are writing nonfiction,this is not quite the same situation. We say it all the time but platform, platform, platform; “unproven” for nonfiction is not a synonym for a lack of platform.
Q: What is the #1 thing you look for when previewing a MS or query?
A: Me personally–voice. I’ll go along for any story if I like the teller. And in virtually every case, if you go back and look at my clients’ original emails to me–whether they were cold queries or following up on a referral–the voice is there, 100%.
Thanks to my Twitter-teers; more soon!
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At conferences and editor lunches, the question I’m getting most is “how is the economic climate changing how you do business.”
The short answer is that it’s not a matter of changing, it’s about refining. And for me, that refining is mostly taking the form of, more than ever, looking for the Big Book–fiction or nonfiction–and what makes a Big Book almost always comes back to high concept.
Ok great, you say. What is high concept and how do I get one?
Well, the classic agent cop-out is “I know it when I see it,” but quite honestly–that’s what high concept is. It’s an idea that is immediately accessible & appealing to a large group of people, that taps into the hive-mind if you will, but with the added spark of feeling new (even if it’s as old as the hills).
Twilight has that feel. Sophie Kinsella owns high-concept. So did Michael Crichton. And it’s not just for fiction–Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Roach are terrific examples of high-concept (and bestselling) nonfiction.
How do you know if you’ve tapped into that? Honestly, I think it’s often intrinsic. I know that’s not what you want to hear, and you can teach yourself to work & think this way, but some writers are naturally drawn to the Big Commercial Plot, while others are just not.
And I see a lot of writers who refuse to accept that what they are naturally drawn to isn’t high concept. This might be you if you have ever tried to make an existing manuscript high concept. Often people do this by patching in something they heard was “high concept”, and then they wonder why it’s not selling/getting requests. It’s not about taking your quiet family saga and sticking a vampire into that. You can’t make an apple into an orange by spray painting it. Often, making the leap to high concept is a matter of redirecting your passions and strengths into an area with more commercial appeal. For instance: turning the Salem story inside out and giving it a totally new spin is high concept; a novel set in the heretofore underreported witch trials of Borneo is not. For writers who are drawn to the obscure and the un-covered, who think “but no one has ever written about this! why write about things people already know?” I hear you–this feels remarkably like commercial pandering. But I would encourage you to think about three things: 1. it is all in the execution but no one will ever see your execution if your premise doesn’t catch their attention; 2. it’s hard to be attentive to things we don’t recognize on at least some level; and 3. who do you write for? If it’s for readers, think about it not as selling out, but about seducing people into your world, giving them a point of entry that lets them feel comfortable. High concept is all about the touch of recognition that makes readers ready to go along on your ride.
High concept is about making it easier for people to pick up what you’re putting down, which benefits you at every stage of the publishing game. Everyone is busy. I’m busy. Editors are busy. Booksellers and publicists–I don’t actually think they ever stop moving. And readers, who are inundated with noise and ads and coop, are busy and overwhelmed. To get and stay published, you have to make all those people stop for 300 pages worth of time. Yes, they will be seduced by your glowing prose. But aren’t the odds of that a whole lot better if that glowing prose comes with a premise that makes them go “Ooh?”
For instance, my author Libby Sternberg is an incredibly smart, gorgeous writer. Her work is nuanced and sharp. But the film rights to one of her manuscripts were optioned before a publishing deal was even in place, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that her book, FIRE ME, has a crystal-clear high concept: when her boss announces the company must lay off a staffer, a young woman spends a day at the office trying to convince him that she should be fired. Of course there is a lot more to the book. There always is. But you can see Amy Adams darting around creating workplace shenanigans already, can’t you?
If the idea you’re kicking around is really high concept, it should feel natural to come up with a one or two sentence affair that conveys the general premise of the work. It won’t capture every detail of course, but that’s ok. The essence of “oh neat” should be coming through. This blurb is what should headline your query. If yours is really good, I’ll probably bogart it when I pitch the book to editors. For instance, debut YA author Rachel Hawkins had a line in her original query: “where the traumas of mortal high school are nothing compared to the goings on at “Freak High,” which made it all the way through to my pitch letter and the Publisher’s Marketplace announcement of her sale. So you can see that one strong concept line can really have some serious legs.
Of course, there are plenty of ways for this to go terribly, terribly awry. I just caught the trailer for a certain upcoming movie, which just cuts to the chase and lays its high concept on out there, saying, “It’s Sweet Home Alabama meets Legally Blonde.” And while I have no doubt that killed in the pitch meeting, the trailer still leaves me feeling meh–because it feels contrived, like it was cooked up in a focus group. Which is why I do caution people about the “x meets y” formula. While it is helpful, and I use it in my pitches all the time, there can be a sort of cart-leading-horse feel to a project that’s created this way. Sometimes I can feel that an author sat down and said “I’ll show you, publishing. Today I shall write a book that is Back to the Future meets Joe Versus the Volcano.” And other times authors go way too far with the comps in an attempt to capture every aspect of their books: “Schindler’s List meets Joe Versus the Volcano,” for instance, which just leaves me very confused.
And as we all know now, that reaction is the opposite of high concept.
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