How many times have you heard this:
“If agents are so damned needy for new authors, why do they keep rejecting me? I’ve had my novel query returned without comment 7 times. It’s so frustrating. Why did I ever think I could do this? I’m going to quit and go back to school.”
Hold on – 7 times? That’s nothing. Try 20. I know a novelist who scored an agent on her 30th submission. More important: everyone gets rejected. Everyone.
In baseball terms, everyone gets put out. In fact, even a .400 hitter (that’s a phenomenal batting average) fails at the plate 60% of the time.
Second, a rejection of your submission isn’t a rejection of YOU or your future as a writer. Agents don’t have time to tell you, but there are many possible reasons your work might have been rejected that have nothing to do with you.
Third, agenting isn’t like selling beer franchises. Beer is beer is beer, but every story is an unknown quantity and has to be hand sold. It’s more like real estate, where a property might be reasonable, but the prospect must “fall in love” with it. To sell successfully to her customers, an agent must ask:
Does this story make my heart beat a little faster?
If the answer is no, she’ll have trouble making the sale, and she knows it. After all, at that point SHE as well as you will be on the line.
If you want to lower your rejection rate (raise your batting average–same thing) here’s your challenge:
Craft an absolutely irresistible presentation – one that not only makes an agent’s heart beat faster but inspires her confidence in you as well, as a possible client.
In Part 3 I’ll get get specific about how to give your submission that edge, but in the meantime, take some time to get familiar with how agents think, talk, do business. Unfortunately, you can’t physically sit next to a good agent all day, but lucky for us all, in the past few years, agents have started to blog!
When they are blogging, agents, like all bloggers, give a lot of good information away. Here are a few links that will bring you about as close as you’re apt to get to the truth about what they expect and why.
Miss Snark
This anonymous (sort of) agent blogged from 2004 to 2007 and established the sassy tone now used by many agent-bloggers. Miss Snark, as her name indicates, gleefully donned the “snarky” mantle, but if you can take her withering sarcasm, you’ll learn plenty about what NOT to do, and how NOT to do it. Ouch!
The blog is no longer live, but her archives are worth gold to writers wanting an agent’s private take on just about everything crucial to the ambitious newbie. The blog is hard to navigate, so I recommend browsing her archives. (For technical reasons, don’t go back to the first archive, or the second – both empty. Instead, start here.
Pub Rants
Denver agent Kristin Nelson (she has her own small agency) writes in a breezy manner. She’s tough but as she sees it, essentially nice. She’s definitely less snarky than Miss Snark, but lays out what she expects, in detail. Newbies, your ears should be standing straight up. See particularly the multi-part “Blog Pitch Workshop,” as well as “Agenting 101″ to learn what really works with agents, and why.
Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent
A well-known agent with the Donald Maass Agency (see her profile here). How does she feel about new writers? She puts it right out there: “Jennifer is currently seeking new clients in all genres of fiction for the agency… She is interested in both new and established writers.” Her blog is called Et in arcaedia, ego (don’t ask). Jump in anywhere, but a good starting point might be the collection of posts tagged “Agent Manners” from her archives.
Agent Noah Lukeman’s 76 page “How to Write a Great Query Letter” is the one indespensible source on the subject…and he’s made it a FREE download. Read all about it and get the download link here.
Be sure to check back here in a couple of days for Part 3 the last post in this mini-series – wherein I will reveal a few simple principles for helping your work (and you) succeed with agents.
Part 1 in this series
Those Darned Agents – Why So Snarky? Part 1
A 2-part interview with New York agent Miriam Altshuler
Those Darned Agents – Miriam Altshuler, Part 1
Those Darned Agents – Miriam Altshuler, Part 2
