How Long is Too Long?
Monday, December 14, 2009 So today....drum roll, please....I am thrilled to be turning the blog over to my fabulous agent, Elisabeth Weed. She'll be answering your questions all week, and she's enjoyed the experience so much, I'm happy to say that she'll be doing the same once a month here at Ask Allison. Without further ado, here ya go.
Question of the day: My question is...we read articles that say now-famous authors with best-sellers were rejected by ten, fifty, a hundred agents before the one who say yes. I'm wondering if persistence is the key or if there's a time that you think it's clear the book is a no-go. I guess it would be the same for agents submitting to publishers -- what's the cutoff? Is there one? I'm jumping ahead since I'm not there yet --- but I am always relieved when I hear that someone queried 100 times before finding an agent. I believe I have that in me too.
I love hearing those stories. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of the best. (I quickly looked in my rejection log after reading her story in The New York Times and was thrilled to know I didn't reject her!) I think the key is a combination of persistence and a well as a certain savvy about the market and reading between the lines in terms of feedback. I've had the pleasure of selling a fair amount of debut fiction, but each author has a very different story on how they got to me and then their publisher. In some cases, the author worked on that novel for many years, as it transformed from one genre to another, based on feedback from her writers group, agents and published writers. In another scenario, the author had a novel that got rejected from upwards of 50 agents. She realized from the responses that it wasn't her craft, but rather the structure of the novel. So, she shelved it, wrote another book, and was greeted with several offers of representation within weeks of sending it out. This is all to say that I think stories like Ms Stockett's are much more common that you realize. We just don't hear about them in the NY Times because her success of finding an agent and getting published is only written about because of the real success story, of being a debut novel that for all intents and purposes has been number one on the bestseller list (big brand name authors that get published new books every week are the only thing keeping her from that spot).
In short, I don't think there is one path to getting there but if you believe in yourself, do your homework, listen to feedback and yes, be persistent, you will give yourself and your book the best chance for success. I hope that helps. Does anyone want to share their stories of finding an agent?
Reader Comments (6)
Thank you for addressing this. As with so many things, it's the right mix of information and intuition that will give me my answers when it's time.
Excellent post, Elisabeth! Very encouraging to those of us still going through the process of finding an agent who is a good fit.
*waves to Elisabeth*
Part of persistence is knowing when to change direction. I think that sometimes gets lost in the story of authors who persisted despite scads of rejections -- it's not just that they're sending the exact same book to 100 agents and it's the 101st who finally "gets it". It's taking feedback, making adjustments, either from agents or critique partners or others whose opinions you trust. Maybe after 100 rejections the author made a big change to the book that changed the game entirely -- or maybe she put the 100-rejection book in the drawer and wrote another one. Maybe it was book two or four or seven that made the magic happen.
Don't let rejection get you down, but also don't assume there's nothing to learn from it.
I tried to find an agent three times.
First time: Manuscript not ready. Gave up.
Second time: Found an agent. Wasn't a perfect match. Had to move on with no sale.
Third time: Found an agent and my book sold at auction shortly thereafter.
These were three different projects by the way. I started fresh each time with a new manuscript. The first project eventually evolved and became a short story in the Cimarron Review. The second was a genre I decided I didn't want to stick with and will stay in the drawer, loved but unpublished, forever.
The third is REAL LIFE & LIARS.
The quick story:
1. Right book. Four months. This book flowed out of me like previous writing had not.
2. Submit. Submit some more. Sixty odd rejections later, a couple from partial requests, and decide a first person narrative from more than one pov isn't going to work. Too difficult to switch back and forth for the reader.
3. After a year, rewrite novel in third person. Six months later, submit again. Sixty odd rejections later, decide this is probably not going to be the one. Toy around with just putting it out there for free and moving on with next novel.
4. Start next novel. 30k words into it, get call from editor from one of two houses I submitted to several months prior and had pretty much written off. Holy crap, someone likes my story!
5. Create list of dozen or so agents from top of my submit list and recontact them to take a second look. Having actually read the novel, my top choice agent who had rejected me twice before, contacts me. "This is actually quite good. Is it too late to put my hat in the ring?" Uhm...no?
6. Bit over two years. Moral of this story. Patience grasshopper. Write well. Keep trying.
Ha! Right book. That's the problem with writing posts before first cup coffee is done.