My question is how do agents make way for disabled writers. I am an established poet, but I am in the midst of my first attempt at finding an agent for a memoir. It seems writers are expected to spend hours and hours of submitting, working on the queries, and doing research. Also, your notes imply that there is one kind of "correct" query. Often, the agents don't even answer, and I'm not a new writer. I have published widely and successfully.
Anyway, my question is how do you make space for writers with energy limitations (or time restrictions due finances) and/or different modes of communication???
It seems to be disabled voices are what America needs the most (and the interest is there). But, we are asked to navigate a landscape without accommodations. It's kind of like asking a wheelchair user to take the stairs.
Thanks Jane, but I gave up on the agent game after two years of fruitless effort. I attended workshops and took classes online. I hired and paid the editors. I spent hours and hours on query letters and book summaries.
Basically, I concluded two or three things.
One, starting in my mid-60s, it is too late. The publishing industry is age-ist. One agent, a young woman, listened to my pitch after we met at a writing conference. She said, “We don’t need more books by kooky old people.”
Two, I think the publishing industry is an anachronism that is slowly committing suicide by pursuing and perpetuating a business model that is a century or two old. This business of agents as middle-men is ridiculous.
Three, the book as it once was is a dying medium. Why are publishers still printing black and white books without images in an age when everyone can get mountains of visual content from myriad sources. It’s totally outdated.
Finally, who really believes these agents are infallible judges of talent?
People can now write direct to their readers and publish online in places like Medium and Substack. People who write what readers want succeed. Others do not. There are plenty of people making money now with newsletters and essays.
Again, I appreciate and respect you, but I’m done with all of that crap.
THIS... is Gold! I have gained more from this one article then the million others I've handed over my paycheck over to. You've given me back the zest I was in dire need of. This advice will bring my Query back to a "Hell Yeah" moment. The first post I've read on The Forever Workshop, and I am now a "Forever" fan!
This was wonderful! Thank you for the great advice! I do have one question. I’m a Childrens novelist for kids ages 10-14. Do you think the querying game changes or maybe has different hurdles when considering this age range?
Thank you so much for all this wonderful advice! There was one question sparked: If messaging 1-2 days after you send something in, how long do I wait, or do I not try to contact in any way?
It seems some critical factors are missing from this discussion in how agents decide to represent an author and a project.
1. The most important is convincing the agent the book will sell. Agents are largely uninterested in a book, no matter how well it's written, if they don't believe it will sell. As Ted Gioia recently said in his Substack piece about NY publishing losing its soul, "Nowadays editors (and agents) make a commitment to a single book, and it must sell in large quantities. Authors who don’t deliver are dropped faster than a bad Tinder hookup. It’s more like playing the lottery than building a writer’s career."
2. Another obvious omission from the discussion is how agents use an author's number of social media followers to determine if they should take on a project, even though there is NO data that supports a correlation between social media followers and book sales.
3. Lastly, as Liza Libes discusses in her Substack essay on 'The Rise of Soulless Novel,' if the plot and structure do not follow the 'MFA formula,' agents (and editors) avoid taking on the project. As she says in the piece, "publishing professionals—literary agents and editors especially—seldom see literary fiction that does not follow the prescribed 'MFA formula" and "can we fault literary agents for only ever green-lighting one specific sort of writing and one specific sort of narrative engine?" (I believe we can, but that's a discussion for another day.)
Until factors such as these are addressed in forums such as this, you are giving would be authors false hope at least, and selling them a dream at worst, a dream they are no more likely to realize than winning the lottery, no matter how much money and how much time they spend on purveyors of writing and querying advice.
Great article!
Agents….. hahaha
People call themselves agents but they're not willing to take on new people. I don't understand how that works.
Thank you for such valuable information 💖
Bribery? Is it bribery?
Or voodoo?
My question is how do agents make way for disabled writers. I am an established poet, but I am in the midst of my first attempt at finding an agent for a memoir. It seems writers are expected to spend hours and hours of submitting, working on the queries, and doing research. Also, your notes imply that there is one kind of "correct" query. Often, the agents don't even answer, and I'm not a new writer. I have published widely and successfully.
Anyway, my question is how do you make space for writers with energy limitations (or time restrictions due finances) and/or different modes of communication???
It seems to be disabled voices are what America needs the most (and the interest is there). But, we are asked to navigate a landscape without accommodations. It's kind of like asking a wheelchair user to take the stairs.
Thanks for this practical guidance.
Thanks Jane, but I gave up on the agent game after two years of fruitless effort. I attended workshops and took classes online. I hired and paid the editors. I spent hours and hours on query letters and book summaries.
Basically, I concluded two or three things.
One, starting in my mid-60s, it is too late. The publishing industry is age-ist. One agent, a young woman, listened to my pitch after we met at a writing conference. She said, “We don’t need more books by kooky old people.”
Two, I think the publishing industry is an anachronism that is slowly committing suicide by pursuing and perpetuating a business model that is a century or two old. This business of agents as middle-men is ridiculous.
Three, the book as it once was is a dying medium. Why are publishers still printing black and white books without images in an age when everyone can get mountains of visual content from myriad sources. It’s totally outdated.
Finally, who really believes these agents are infallible judges of talent?
People can now write direct to their readers and publish online in places like Medium and Substack. People who write what readers want succeed. Others do not. There are plenty of people making money now with newsletters and essays.
Again, I appreciate and respect you, but I’m done with all of that crap.
Great info - I'm saving this one!
THIS... is Gold! I have gained more from this one article then the million others I've handed over my paycheck over to. You've given me back the zest I was in dire need of. This advice will bring my Query back to a "Hell Yeah" moment. The first post I've read on The Forever Workshop, and I am now a "Forever" fan!
This was wonderful! Thank you for the great advice! I do have one question. I’m a Childrens novelist for kids ages 10-14. Do you think the querying game changes or maybe has different hurdles when considering this age range?
Great article. Thank you
Thank you so much for all this wonderful advice! There was one question sparked: If messaging 1-2 days after you send something in, how long do I wait, or do I not try to contact in any way?
It seems some critical factors are missing from this discussion in how agents decide to represent an author and a project.
1. The most important is convincing the agent the book will sell. Agents are largely uninterested in a book, no matter how well it's written, if they don't believe it will sell. As Ted Gioia recently said in his Substack piece about NY publishing losing its soul, "Nowadays editors (and agents) make a commitment to a single book, and it must sell in large quantities. Authors who don’t deliver are dropped faster than a bad Tinder hookup. It’s more like playing the lottery than building a writer’s career."
2. Another obvious omission from the discussion is how agents use an author's number of social media followers to determine if they should take on a project, even though there is NO data that supports a correlation between social media followers and book sales.
3. Lastly, as Liza Libes discusses in her Substack essay on 'The Rise of Soulless Novel,' if the plot and structure do not follow the 'MFA formula,' agents (and editors) avoid taking on the project. As she says in the piece, "publishing professionals—literary agents and editors especially—seldom see literary fiction that does not follow the prescribed 'MFA formula" and "can we fault literary agents for only ever green-lighting one specific sort of writing and one specific sort of narrative engine?" (I believe we can, but that's a discussion for another day.)
Until factors such as these are addressed in forums such as this, you are giving would be authors false hope at least, and selling them a dream at worst, a dream they are no more likely to realize than winning the lottery, no matter how much money and how much time they spend on purveyors of writing and querying advice.
This is great, very useful.
Is it a waste of time to query agents when I have already:
a) Begun serialising My books on Substack
b) Published them, but only as paperbacks with Ingrams (no marketing and few sales)
I'm pretty sure I've shot myself in the foot at the get-go, but just wanted to check.
thanks,
Erron Adams
A wealth of information. Thank you! Gerry in S. Oregon