Fiction is So Subjective is the Agent's Equivalent of It's Not You, It's Me
Monday, April 19, 2010 Yay! Today we have a guest post from my fabulous agent, Elisabeth Weed, who will be chiming in here every month or so, whenever it strikes her fancy. For more info on Elisabeth and her agency, check out Weed Literary. And please feel free to reply in the comment section, so that she knows how much she's loved here. :)
We've all been there. We meet a guy who looks great on paper. He's got a great smile, a cool job and a full head of hair. But we just aren't feeling it. We don't want to go home with him and make out all night. We aren't imagining what our kids will look like. We don't want to call our best friend and our mother the next day and tell them just how fabulous he is. Nope. We are going to smile politely and decline the dinner. Drinks were great. We're glad we met, but we're pretty sure there's someone out there who's a much better fit for us...and him. There's nothing wrong with him, per se, but he's just not right for us.
The same can be said about agents and authors in this similar dance of trying to find the perfect match. I can't tell you how many times I've read something and thought, this is really good, but I am just not super excited about it. In lieu of the make out, I don't want to stay up all night reading it and I don't want to call my favorite editors and tell them that I have found the one that is going to change my life. And theirs.
So, for any of you out there who are going through the agent search, looking for the perfect match, please take heart when you get the rejection that "fiction is so subjective, I'm sure another agent will feel differently." We agents use that line. A lot. But it's really not just a line. Fiction IS so subjective. And, to prove my point, I wanted to share a little publishing anecdote with you.
Recently, a fabulous agent and dear friend, who I will refer to here as Super Agent, called me close to tears. A novel she'd rejected about year ago had just sold for a big sum to a very tony house and to a very respected editor. "What's wrong with me?" Super Agent lamented. " I feel like such a loser, but I really didn't like the book at all. Did I just miss an amazing opportunity? Do I suck? I suck, don't I? " Okay, maybe those weren't her words exactly, but having been in her shoes myself, I knew how she felt. In fact, I am not sure there's an agent out there who hasn't been in this situation, scrolling through Publishers Marketplace, only to see a deal announced about something they rejected.
But what I told Super Agent, after reminding her of her super-ness, is that fiction is subjective and if she didn't love it, she was very wise not to take it on because she wouldn't have sold it the way the other agent did. In dating terms, she would have strung the guy along, not really feeling passionate about him, and wasted both of their time. And, okay, I am stretching my metaphor here, but if the dating goal is to find the chapel/temple and priest/rabbi (Publisher! Editor!) It never would have happened because she just didn't like him enough. Thank goodness for the author that she did reject it.
So, in all seriousness, when you do get those responses, try to remember that it's not just a form rejection. There is hope that someone else really will see your work differently. And comfort yourself knowing that you are lucky that the agent who passed, did pass, because would you want that agent be telling her editors that you are great and all but you're just not in love?
One more anecdote that always makes me laugh. My first boss, an older gentleman who has great taste, actually likes to brag that he turned down The Perfect Storm, because, "Why the hell would anyone want to read about a storm that kills everyone on a fishing boat?" Perhaps it's his age, or more likely his Y chromosome that gives him the confidence, but it all comes back to the fact that while we are all looking for that next great book, that next great book is different for everyone. So, take heart. It's Not you. It's Us.
Reader Comments (26)
Thanks for positing this. I wouldn't want to go on the journey to publication with someone who wasn't madly in love my work, the same way I wouldn't want to go through life with someone who thought I was 'just ok'. It's a good thing to keep in mind when a rejection comes along :-)
Elisabeth, thank you so much for taking the time to chime in and give us a bit of "insider insight." Going through the querying process now, I always find it so interesting to hear agents' perspectives. I definitely think everything you mentioned is so important to keep in mind - just like we wouldn't want to go through life simply loving the one we're with instead of finding that perfect match, it would also be a disservice (to both parties!) to do the same with something like this. It's too great a journey to go on with someone who doesn't approach the ride with that same whole-hearted love for the project. Thanks for the reminder!!
And it isn't even just the agent who has to love it. I've been on submission with for a few months now with an agent who is with a major agency going to some of the best editors in the business and my novel still hasn't sold. . .because no one has "fallen in love" yet. (It's really hard when they say I liked it BUT or She's a great writer BUT. .makes one kind of crazy! )So it's important to also know that once you get your agent there are still more people who have to fall in love!
(Great post, by the way, Elisabeth. And even though you rejected my novel, I still think you're an awesome agent.)
I love getting your perspective, Elisabeth. The challenge though, is that even when we are not feeling it with a guy, if he is the one that breaks it off gently, it still kind of hurts.
Ha! Thanks, Judy! You will find your dream agent, I know it. If you all haven't been following the story behind Tinkers by Paul Harding, you really should. Maybe his Pulitzer alone will bring "quiet" back in vogue. (That's another reason we agents often pass on things. But, what the hell do we know? :) )
This is a terrific point, and one I didn't understand when I first started writing fiction - even if you've written a good book, you'll still probably get turned down by agents before you connect with the right one. Some agents won't rep certain genres, for example. It really isn't personal! Of course, it's much easier to see it that way after you have signed with an agent, but it helps to know that just as most readers gravitate toward some books more than others, so too do agents.
So true, all this. I think also some people hear things like "Harry Potter was rejected by X publishers" or "Twilight was rejected by Y agents" and think "That just shows that publishers and agents know nothing!" But editing at the agent stage and after the book is sold can mean that the book reaching shelves and readers is very different from the one that the editor/agent saw. So that could be part of what's at work when an agent sees a book she passed on strike it big, right?
And it just is personal, too. If you don't want to make out with the book, you don't want to make out with the book. It's funny how as readers we accept that one person might like some book that another might dislike, but with agents and editors we expect them to see only two categories: publishable and not.
Thanks for sharing, Elisabeth!
Wonderful post, Elisabeth. For me, personal rejections make me want to rewrite my work. Maybe if I changed this or that, then the next agent will say yes. So it's hard to know if I should hold on until an agent DOES love my work -- or revise it with the hope that the revision will increase my chances.
Thanks for this post, Elisabeth. I must admit I didn't get this until I started reading for a literary agent. I'd come across things that I knew were well written, but I just wasn't feeling it. I think all querying writers should have to intern for a month for a literary agent to see exactly what it's like. It would explain so much.
Such good, true advice. The Tinkers Pulitzer is so heartening. There's also the story behind The Help, such a quiet little book, which I hear a lot of agents and editors passed on before it went on to become a blockbuster success. As one of my colleagues likes to say, if the publishing business were a science, we'd all be millionaires!
This makes perfect sense to me. However, think I'd feel a little better if I had met more than one man worth marrying. ;)
Great post. Thanks.
So very true! I was rejected by some amazing agents, including you, Elisabeth, but I have found my "perfect match!" Right now, we're still in our honeymoon phase gearing up for submission. I'm trusting in "the force" that the perfect editor will also fall in love with me. (Threesomes are okay in publishing, right?) Seriously, love you and love Alison and wish you both much continued success.
This is a great post, and all so true! I'm not just saying that because Elisabeth is my agent and she's fabulous (though she is, and she is). Before I signed on with Elisabeth for my novel I had gotten more than a few "almosts" from other agents--and those really hurt, because I was so close. But I can tell you now that I'm really glad that those didn't work out. More than a year later I still have the recording of Elisabeth's first phone message to me on my voice mail. (Is that embarrassing?) I knew from the first time I listened to it that she was the right agent to take on my book because she was *so* enthusiastic about it and she really got it. I don't think my book would have sold so quickly and to such a desirable agent had Elisabeth not loved it enough to encourage me to get it where it needed to be to sell. If one of the other agents had taken it on he/she might not have worked so hard on it or for it. So I could have had an agent sooner but a sale might have taken much longer. That’s all so hard to keep in mind when you’re in the long and painful querying stage, but I went through all of that and it’s true. You really do want the agent who falls in love, and that’s worth waiting for.
I'm not at the query stage yet, but still I want to say thank you, Elisabeth. This is the sort of thing that we can be told many times along the way but it always bears repeating once more, because it'll probably take a few tries before it sinks in. I love the analogy, and really emphasizes how important that connection is.
Meg, I will one up your embarrassment--your post just brought tears to my eyes because I remember that call too! (Dear readers, an agent's goal in reading the slush, IS to find the perfect match!
Thank you everyone for chiming in. I am having such fun with this blogging thing! And a big shout out to my Social Media Sensei, Allison, who has worked tirelessly to get me over my SM Disorder. I just tweeted about it being National Weed Day without the slightest bit of angst. ;)
Really great post, Elisabeth, and such a good reminder to new writers. The anecdote about agents seeing news of books sold on PM after they declined them is a side of the publishing world that so few know about, and it's comforting to writers who can live in that lonely world of rejection for so long! And, this post makes me think of our unique story of coming to work together. I'm so glad you decided to take a second look at my work because I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with you now! xo
Love IT! Here's hoping everyone of us gets a "sleep over" soon ;)
Thanks for the smile and the insight.
Nancy
I know I'm a little late to the party (let's say "fashionably" late), but I wanted to chime in.
Loved. This. Post.
Elisabeth, you were one of the first agents to reject me when I started querying, but that in no way made me think any less of you. And it didn't make me stop loving the books you represent. Keep doing what you're doing because, with clients like yours, you *must* be doing something right. ;)
I tell myself versions of this with every rejection, as I whistle past the graveyard...but it sure helps to have it reinforced by someone in the industry. Especially the 'Super Agent' story. Now THAT made me feel better.
Laura - who, when she stands up to recieve her rose at RWA when she sells will say, "They like me - they really like me!
This is such an incredible post. I love that agents can be as insecure as us, even though we don't often get to see it. Thanks for sharing your perspective, Elisabeth.
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Thank you so much for this post, it seems like every time I get discouraged I stumble upon something that gives me hope and keeps me motivated. The query process is very stressful, like most people I have this fear of rejection. Hopefully someday soon the envelope will contain I’d love to hear more instead of we’d like to apologize for this standard form letter.