Fact from the writer’s convention – 100% of the people I have talked to either did not have a literary agent, or had tried to get one and been rejected many times.
Every one of the writers I spoke with had books for sale.
I don’t know what the reasons were for the rejections – I didn’t ask. That’s really personal. It’s like asking, “How many times have you been humiliated, and can you tell me in detail each occasion?” Or worse, “How many times have you asked someone on a date and been rejected? What were the reasons they rejected you?”
It’s like that.
Writers think of Literary Agents as an evil that writers don’t need. It’s one more obstruction between you and your goal.
But here’s why Literary agents are often the best thing FOR writers.
We’re lazy. We can studiously write a novel in three weeks. Yes, I wrote a 50,000 word novel in three weeks for NaNoWriMo – and MAN, it was TIGHT! I’ve never written such a water-tight novel before! It’s why I heartily recommend doing NaNo. It’s so close to publish ready it’s astounding!
But writers drag their feet at editing your novel. It’s like cleaning your room. Nobody wants to do that. “Put things away??? If I wanted them kept in drawers, I never would have taken them out!”
Yesterday I gave good compelling reasons you have to edit your novel. Literary agents are another reason.
Why is there literary agents? It used to be that literary agents simply were the foot in the door to a publisher, who would then assign you an editor. The editor would take all kinds of childish whining from authors about why your book shouldn’t be edited, and make you edit it anyway.
Then a recesion hit, and publishers all seemed to come to the same decision. Fire all the editors. Let them become literary agents, and serve as a vetting process.
Yes, the literary agent’s job is to reject the majority of writers. Analogous to Hollywood’s Script Readers, they are the ones who have to wade through five hundred manuscript submissions a week. The criteria usually is this –
Read the first five pages.
Determine whether it is professional quality or not.
Determine whether you’re ready to be published or not.
Determine whether or not they want to keep reading.
Number four is the big one. If you survive that, the agent reads twenty more pages. If they get through that without tossing it to the discard pile, you’re about to get an acceptance.
Sounds unfair? Here’s the truth. You were REQUIRED to learn as much as you can about writing in the first place. You weren’t told that, by the way. The assumption is that you’re trying to be a professional writer, so you’d do professional things like – learn about writing.
Another assumption is that you heeded the oft-neglected advice not to send out a novel until it’s been extensively edited. I know, I know, I have editing too. But as I pointed out yesterday, it’s when your book is really written. DO NOT SUBMIT UNTIL YOUR BOOK HAS BEEN EDITED! Until it is the same quality as the best selling books out there, it STAYS on Dropbox, and not the agent’s in box.
Publishers view literary agents – a completely thankless job – as the vetting process. If you land an agent, the publisher now is ready to put you through an additional vetting – this time, the rejection is not you, but your novel. Solution to this? Have several novels publish ready before approaching a literary agent.
If I have to hit a milk carton with a marble, I stand a better chance if I throw a handful instead of one. Publishing’s the same way. You get five or more novels publish ready, and send a query letter and synopsis for two or three of them, you get the agent AND the publisher.
But you have to get the literary agent first.
Not interested? If I hear you’ve got a literary agent, I assume your work is good quality. I’m more inclined to consider reading your novel.
If you tell me that you were unable to get an agent, it implies your work is… Finish the sentence yourself.
This is why you need a literary agent. It tells everyone, “I can write.” And that your writing is not junk.
That’s why you need a literary agent!
