What Agents Want
So I had a great post I was going to write today about finding and working with the right agent. Then I came across this interview and went, "Here is pretty much everything you need to know." Imagine sitting down for dinner with four, young, exciting agents and asking them everything you always wanted to know about the industry. Well this is it. It ran February of 2009, so it's even fairly up to date.
Read it and let me know what you think.
http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and_editors_qampa_four_young_literary_agents
Read it and let me know what you think.
http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and_editors_qampa_four_young_literary_agents
Jeff Savage — 9/01/2009 01:09:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Thanks! I'll read it right now.
I read the interview with those four child-like agents, and now I'm so depressed I can barely look at my keyboard. What were you thinking? What was I thinking in believing I could compete in a world where a single grain of sand on an endless southern California beach needs to stand out so significantly just to be published ... or at least know somebody in the mainstream literary business to have a chance of being noticed? Those young agents are getting referrals from friends or family, or prestigious university professors, and getting very few, if any, clients from the only way that I can try to reach them—with a query letter. “I’d buy a shopping list if it was written by Steven King,” said one of the elite youngsters. If they are a cross-cut example of contemporary literary agents then I need to moth-ball my computer and concentrate on another talent, something visual, something that doesn’t require a commitment to reading.
Deb
(I'm sorry,I don't mean to sound angry.)
Deb,
Not to attack you here, but I am going to shake you just a little. What is the biggest complaint of unpubished writers? That they have to have connections to get published right? And what did every one of the agents say? That they are looking high and low for good writers. Magazines, web sites, and Dan Lazar said he gets almost all of his clients from the slush pile. The SLUSH pile.
This is an agent at one of the best agencies in the world--who has sold a book for over a million dollars saying that he gets most of his clients from the slush pile.
If you go back and re-read the Stephen King comment, he is saying that King's writing is so good, even a grocery list would read well. Not that he is such a star that they only want stars!
You are a great writer! If you don't believe that, what are you doing writing? I know for a fact that you are. So isn't it the best news in the world that big name agents care most about the writing?
You should be dancing and singing. You should be reading that interview saying to yourself, "Here I am, baby!" Just wait to my story hits your mailbox. If you really do pick writing that sings, I am the Alto of your dreams! The one agent said she missed out on "The Kite Runner."
Don't let her miss out on you!
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