STATUS: Sara and I are still chuckling over a query received this morning that was a real gem. It opened with “do I have the balls to take on a real writer.” Uh, well, if you looked at my website you would see that I am a woman. I guess the answer would be no. It got even better. This person reminded me that I should be thankful that I was queried for such a terrific project. Good because I needed the reminder. The writer also used three obscenities in the query—including the “F” word. Honestly folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? NO REPLY AT ALL by Genesis
So, has your agent lost that loving feeling?
Well, if the first round submission didn’t go, then yes, I can tell you truthfully that the agent has probably lost a little of the love for the project. It’s just natural. That doesn’t mean the project is dead or that you should start biting your nails. Lots of projects don’t sell during the first round but do sell in the second (and even in the third). It’s just part of the process. Don’t sweat it.
However, it’s bad when the agent has really lost that loving feeling and isn’t willing to go the distance to try and sell a tough project.
How do you know if that’s the case?
Well first, you can look at the submission numbers. How many editors saw it? For a lot of projects—like literary or women’s fiction, you’ve got about 25 to 30 NYC imprints to exhaust before the bottom of the barrel is reached.
For genre fiction (like romance, mystery, SF&F), the number of imprints with editors who handle it is smaller—like under 15.
Sometimes an agent will go the smaller or university press route but that’s a lot of time for very little money. It really depends on the project. A literary work has a lot of options at the independent but exclusive smaller venues. An agent might be willing to go the submission distance for the prestige rather than the money or because the agent really loves the book and darn it all, it’s going to be placed.
According to a lot of writers I’ve talked to, the next big clue of lost love is when an agent becomes less accessible about communication. There’s more time between email responses. Requests for submission updates are ignored or followed up weeks later. I’m sure the list goes on.
Frustrating I know. What can a writer do?
That’s a tough question because that’s not how I operate but I would suggest that writers become pro-active. Schedule a phone meeting with the agent to discuss the status, the rejections, any strategy, future possibilities, and a definitive time frame for the submission.
One of my authors went out and did her own research, bless her soul, and really found some niche places that I wouldn’t have dug up. We ended up not needing them (as we sold it to a major publisher) but I loved that she stepped up to become a partner in the process rather than a passive participant.
Some agents hate that though so know your agent’s style.
If an agent loses the love halfway through and only has submitted it to a couple of places (or half the possibilities based on your own Publishers Marketplace research), then that’s an even tougher place to be.
If I were the writer, I would find out if the agent has any plans for a further submission. If not, you can take the project back but here’s the rub. Most agents would prefer to take on an unshopped project.
The reason why is obvious. The agent is taking on a project where some of the submission glow has already worn off. Talk about starting in a tougher place as an agent. There isn’t even the initial optimism going into a brand-new submission. The agent has to re-ignite that loving feeling just to get started.
Have I done it? Yes. But I have had mixed results on then finally being able to sell the project. It’s not my favorite thing to do so yes, I’m hesitant but if I feel that initial love, I’ll take a chance.
And a final word, some projects don’t sell—despite heroic efforts on the part of the agent.
The key is knowing whether the effort was heroic (or, at the least, tenacious). Ultimately, a writer might have to accept that the project couldn’t sell and move on.
According to a lot of writers I’ve talked to, the next big clue of lost love is when an agent becomes less accessible about communication. There’s more time between email responses. Requests for submission updates are ignored or followed up weeks later. I’m sure the list goes on.
I was in this position not too long ago and when I was hit with the phrase “I work on commission”
(with the implied–Therefore I have no time to update you whose project did not earn me $$ from the get-go).
I decided to leave rather than be shoved back past the slush pile in terms of priority.
“And a final word, some projects don’t sell—despite heroic efforts on the part of the agent.”
How often does this happen?
I’ve heard really bad numbers, like only 30% of agented fiction sells. Is this true?
According to a lot of writers I’ve talked to, the next big clue of lost love is when an agent becomes less accessible about communication. There’s more time between email responses. Requests for submission updates are ignored or followed up weeks later. I’m sure the list goes on.
You mean some people get email responses?
And here I thought it was ME and not my agent (who has been rather incommunicado from the get-go).
Thank you so much for posting this kind of stuff. You give people in my situation hope.
One of my authors went out and did her own research…. Some agents hate that though so know your agent’s style.
Did she ask you before she did this? Just want to be clear that asking is really the best way to find out for sure.
In general, what questions should authors ask up front in a new author-agent relationship, and which ones generally come up over the course of the relationship?
So if an agent is exhausted is it acceptable to ask permission to shop it around to smaller presses that don’t require (and are actually too small to afford) agents and ask the agent if they would consider looking at your next project?
I guess making it policy to have a project in progress while shopping around the first book is a good habit.
Someone said, “I’ve heard really bad numbers, like only 30% of agented fiction sells. Is this true?”
I went to a writer’s conference not long ago and one of the agents there said that a good agent will be able to sell between 50 and 80 percent of the projects he/she takes on. Hope this helps!
“I went to a writer’s conference not long ago and one of the agents there said that a good agent will be able to sell between 50 and 80 percent of the projects he/she takes on.”
I’m presuming this is a combo of fiction and non-fiction. I’d really like to know what sort of shot agented fiction has in the market overall, since non-fiction tends to stick around a lot longer than a first novel by a new author, and therefore be more appealing to agents to begin with.
Can’t believe the f’ing query. Good thing it made you smile. Maybe put a little hair on your chest? Oh–obviously not!
As for the loving feeling, my dd just happened to put on a Righteous Brothers cd this AM on the way to school (she’s 12) and she skipped through the tracks to, you guessed it, Lost that Loving Feeling (or whatever it’s called). Why isn’t she listening to rap? or pop? or something current?! Don’t know, but I thought of you and this blog series. Knew I had to come back and read some more.
Thanks for the details of how these things work. Just in case (I get so lucky as to have an agent).
“NO REPLY AT ALL by Genesis.”
My morning coffee very nearly came out my nose, I laughed so hard at that.
This sounds like a point-by-point summary of my experience with my first agent (now ex-).
There was no second round. By halfway through the first round, he’d not only lost the feelin’, he’d lost track of where he’d sent it and when to begin expecting their response.
That was bad enough, but of the few places he DID send the book, about half “lost it”, or “that editor left” or some such fur.
I did the math. A 30% loss/nonresponse rate doesn’t strike me as typical.
Once it got harder to communicate and ask my questions (such as “what responses haven’t we gotten yet?” simple stuff like that), we parted ways.
I later sold the book on my own.
When my agent lost that loving feeling for book #1, it also transferred over to book #2. I, then, very quickly lost my loving feeling for her. We amicably parted ways, I found a new agent in a matter of weeks, who then sold book #2 within ten days. So in my experience, if your agent has lost that loving feeling not just for your ms, but perhaps for your writing in general, it’s time to hunt elsewhere.
Sounds like Anonymous #3 and I had the same agent at one time. She lost that loving feeling halfway through a project. I fired her. Tough as it was, it was the best thing I did. I have a new agent (and it took me just over a year and a sale to get one) and I love her.
I’m so glad I didn’t see these posts until AFTER my agent sold my novel…on the 3rd round of submissions for much less than we’d hoped for. I would have been even more freaked out. I’m lucky. My agent really stuck with it and did not lose the love for my ms. Or at least she didn’t communicate the lost love to me. She’s even still talking TV & film rights. We’ll see.
Please post that letter in its entirity. It sounds like a gem.
I really am surprised that with so much reputable information on the Internet about the right way to approach agents there are still nitwits out there who are clueless! Well, the good thing is, the nitwits are showing their true colors at the get-go. Can you imagine repping someone who acts like he/she is God’s gift to publishing?
Thanks for the laugh, Kristen!
So when you say a “good” agent is capable of selling 50%+, I read between the lines and that tells me that most agents don’t approach that statistic.
I’m trying to visualize…
Dear Ms. Nielsen,
I am [name withheld]. Joo are my agent. Prepare to cry.
To cry with joy, to weep with wonderment & wonderwomen… for your wait is over! At last you hold in your shaky hands a work of such indescribababble grandilolequence that you will be stuned!
The Magnifizent One & Only is an only mostly semi autobiographical work set in the 1930s with made up names and places to protect the innocent and their husbands from the really hot parts. It is the story of a BOY who grows up to become a MAN, who thinks he is the son of a farmer and a butcher, and a banker, but is actually the first inner tube baby hatched in the secret labs underneath Ford Motor Co., and built to be really tough. Really.
He becomes a super soldier secret agent, who secretly fights against the rising power of the Nazi regime and sleeps with all their women, all the while moonshining as a professional wrassler.
Joo can’t make this @#$%! up.
But I can.
It is the only mostly semi autobiographical fitional novel and combination coffee table book you will ever need.
Call me.
Am I close? Or not enough cursing?
oh bollocks… I forgot the anatomical references. Oh well.
On the bright side, at least there are some queries out there that even my first few attempts can stand out from. I’m getting better thanks to examples posted here and elsewhere, but I never thought of the “In Yo Face!” kind of query. Almost makes me wonder as to the subject matter. But not quite.
Uh,oh, prnewland. Someone who hasn’t a clue just might think your query and story’s premise is da best. Agents better watch out–they’ll now be inundated with queries just like your made-up one!
This whole topic is very enlightening! I sold my novel to a NYC publishing house over a year ago and felt pretty darn good about handling the whole thing myself. But when the publisher decided last month to cancel the line, I was left with nothing more than my advance to show for my trip down publishing lane. Suffice it to say, I’ve been kicking myself pretty fiercely over not getting an agent in the first place. Lesson learned the hard way.
But hearing that not all agented projects result in sunshine and daisies and money for everyone makes me feel at least a little better.
Regarding the “balls” query though, I’m still laughing about that. In my younger years as a journalist, an editor once patted me on the back and said, “you’ve got some really big balls.” Despite the fact that I most assuredly do not, I still consider it one of the finer compliments I received from her.
Thanks again for the enlightening topic, Kristin!
Tawna
I think my friend’s agent said it best, when she turned in her second novel.
“It’s well written, but I don’t love it and I don’t think I can sell it.”
In this case, the writing was on the wall.
As for the relationship, 3 things need to be considered:
1. Nothing gets signed without the writer asking a lot of questions and passing it in front of an attorney, if need be.
2. The agent is not your friend. This is a business associate.
3. The writer, as a business associate, may take their business elsewhere.
You’ve got my partial…so I hope you -get- ‘that loving feeling.’ ^_^