Interesting stuff. I know exactly how it feels approaching literary agents. Having had a pretty decent career in non-fiction where I was in direct contact with editors and publishers and had quite a few occasions where they had approached me to commission work, I started querying my fiction in a fairly confident frame of mind.
Over-confident, as it turned out. Some agents didn’t reply at all, some sent what looked like a template email, but my dream agent sent a very positive reply. Still in the end it was ‘nearly but not quite’.
My decision to switch to self-publishing however was ultimately determined by the fact that I could get my books out on a faster schedule.
Still, I’m fascinated to learn more about what makes agents tick and I do have another project which I will submit sooner or later.
One question I would like to see them all tasked with is how they deal with unsuccessful submissions: form email or no email? I understand they don’t have time to craft individual responses to everyone but I see comments from a lot of aspiring writers who would really benefit from any clarity even if it’s ticking boxes on a checklist.
Hi Jon, Yeah, it's a difficult one, in a way, because, ultimately, an agent's business is their existing clients. Clearly, they need to take on new clients, too, at some point. Most say on their websites that if an author hasn't heard after a certain time period to assume a rejection. I feel agents are like editors - it's not their job to teach you where you're going wrong, but if they do, then it's to be treated like gold dust because they've gone out of their way to offer you that feedback. I also think the challenge with fiction is that quantifying the market potential is less scientific than non-fiction. With non-fiction you can offer a good guestimate as to market size, but with fiction it's so subjective at an agent/editor/publisher/reader level.
Agreed. Certainly with a lot of the non-fiction I’ve done there’s a defined market (people who want to go walking in Lancashire, or users of a certain Nikon camera). Other stuff like memoir it may be different.
I totally get how pushed for time agents are and expecting any sort of feedback may be asking a lot—so it does mean something even to get a rejection with proper personal comments.
Interesting stuff. I know exactly how it feels approaching literary agents. Having had a pretty decent career in non-fiction where I was in direct contact with editors and publishers and had quite a few occasions where they had approached me to commission work, I started querying my fiction in a fairly confident frame of mind.
Over-confident, as it turned out. Some agents didn’t reply at all, some sent what looked like a template email, but my dream agent sent a very positive reply. Still in the end it was ‘nearly but not quite’.
My decision to switch to self-publishing however was ultimately determined by the fact that I could get my books out on a faster schedule.
Still, I’m fascinated to learn more about what makes agents tick and I do have another project which I will submit sooner or later.
One question I would like to see them all tasked with is how they deal with unsuccessful submissions: form email or no email? I understand they don’t have time to craft individual responses to everyone but I see comments from a lot of aspiring writers who would really benefit from any clarity even if it’s ticking boxes on a checklist.
Hi Jon, Yeah, it's a difficult one, in a way, because, ultimately, an agent's business is their existing clients. Clearly, they need to take on new clients, too, at some point. Most say on their websites that if an author hasn't heard after a certain time period to assume a rejection. I feel agents are like editors - it's not their job to teach you where you're going wrong, but if they do, then it's to be treated like gold dust because they've gone out of their way to offer you that feedback. I also think the challenge with fiction is that quantifying the market potential is less scientific than non-fiction. With non-fiction you can offer a good guestimate as to market size, but with fiction it's so subjective at an agent/editor/publisher/reader level.
Agreed. Certainly with a lot of the non-fiction I’ve done there’s a defined market (people who want to go walking in Lancashire, or users of a certain Nikon camera). Other stuff like memoir it may be different.
I totally get how pushed for time agents are and expecting any sort of feedback may be asking a lot—so it does mean something even to get a rejection with proper personal comments.