Tag Archives: literary agent

Here you go

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Lit agent Rachel Vater has some questions you can ask to help you understand what your strengths are as a writer. Here’s one:

What feeling do you want when you read a book? (This is a more important question than it would seem — Not as obvious of an answer as you might expect.)

Great question, eh?

The feeling I want when I read a book is transported. I want to be lifted out of the here & now and taken to vantage point where reality is framed in archetypal or even small-d divine terms. The redemption may be through love, or joy, or coming to terms with one’s self, doesn’t matter really, as long as I’m lifted. This applies to non-fiction as well incidentally; for instance, Peter Ackroyd’s histories transport me by shifting my perspective via point-in-time.

Vater has also summarized the main strengths of a number of writers, wonderful way to put ourselves in an agent’s place as she experience our writing.

More agent interest

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I’ve queried 21 agents so far for my latest completed novel, “When Libby Met the Fairies and Her Whole Life Went Fey.”

I mentioned previously that I got a request for a partial. Now I’ve also had a request for a full.

My query has now gone through one major and one minor revision. The major revision came after I queried Kristin Nelson and she noted that although the title sounded light, the query came across as dark. It was a spot-on critique, so I rewrote the query to bring its tone more in line with the tone of the book.

Now, this week, Anne Hawkins is the guest on Dorothy Thompson’s Yahoo forum, TWLAuthorTalks. I wasn’t going to query her/her agency — their list is so literary — but in her introduction she said she looks for fiction that’s on the border between literary and commercial.

Hmmmmmm.

I can’t presume that I’m able to hit that spot, but I will say it’s my ideal, as a writer. A book that’s plotted to keep things moving but doesn’t shy away from a pretty turn of phrase once in awhile . . . after all, that’s what literature once was.

In any case, the last rev I did to my query, I added in a couple of sentences about the — I wouldn’t say darker, but maybe “more human” elements of the plot — human in the sense that all of our lives are leavened, to some degree, by fear of aging and death, by the scars of betrayals we’ve either committed and betrayals we’ve suffered, by the disappointments of realizing our best-laid plans were actually elaborate illusions — my book doesn’t wallow in those themes but they are there.

Yet there’s also a romance . . . and little folk.

So you see, I need my query to show both. It’s not easy . . .

My title may not be quite right, for that matter. It may be skewed too much toward “lite & frothy.”

Lots of nuances to juggle, to pull this stuff off . . .

“Hi, Concept!” “‘Lo, Concept!”*

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The subject of “high concept” came up this week on TWLAuthorTalks, where agent Kristin Nelson is a guest (and is going to be critiquing pitches this afternoon!)

If you’re a novelist — for that matter, if you’re involved in any aspect of the entertainment biz — you’ve probably at least stumbled across the term. And hopefully after you stumbled you did more than glance at it and kick it out of the way, since it’s one of the cornerstones you’re going to need if you want your career to get anywhere.

The members of TWLAuthorTalks’ spinoff forum, PitchClinic, have been refining our pitches this week, with an eye to showing off our novels’ high concept aspects.

We also talked a bit about what high concept is. Diana Peterfreund posted this link, to an article she wrote about high concept for her lit agency blog. Here’s an excerpt:

A high concept story has the following qualities: easily understood from a few words, and promising tremendous public appeal. When you describe a high-concept story, you can see the whole story — its premise, promise and execution — in a few words. A high concept story also “has legs” — in other words, it doesn’t need a name to sell it. It doesn’t need to be written by Stephen King or have Reese Witherspoon attached to star (though neither of those hurt, and you’ll notice that these two most often produce incredibly high-concept products).

It isn’t easy condensing your 70-100,000 word masterpiece down into one catchy sentence, but as we’ve also noted on the forum, the benefits far outweight the pain. It forces you to really focus on what your novel is “about.” If you can’t find that sentence — if it’s just not there — it may mean that you have to re-think your book. It’s that important. (More to come on that topic . . .)

*Bonus points to anyone who gets this reference hee hee hee

Pitch slam AND pitch clinic!

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It’s big bonus time for writers!

Starting Monday, July 12, literary agent Kristin Nelson will be the guest at TWLAuthorTalks.

Not only will you be able to ask her questions about the writing biz, but she will also be critiquing one-sentence pitches, like Jenny Bent did this last week.

Don’t have a pitch? Not to worry! With TWLAuthorTalk owner Dorothy Thompson’s blessing, I started a spin-off Yahoo Forum, PitchClinic. Join up by following the link, and you can send along your pitch and other members will give you feedback and help you refine it.

This is a wonderful opportunity even if your novel isn’t ready to shop. Think about it: you have a chance to run your premise/concept and main conflict/story arc past one of the industry’s top agents. What better way to find out if you’re on track? What better way to find out if you’ve got a gem or need to rethink your novel’s basic elements?

See you there!