To sell a novel, you’re usually best off getting an agent. To get an agent, the first step is the “query letter.”
A query letter is your mountainous labor of love distilled down into a couple of paragraphs. But not just any “couple of paragraphs.” It has to be a couple of paragraphs that grab an agent’s interest, raise the possibility that you’re a good writer, and plant the idea that your book may have a market.
Also, it can’t set off any danger bells. You can’t come across as desperate (“if this novel doesn’t sell, it’s all over, and I’m taking at least 46 people with me, right after I eat the last saltine in my cupboard”) or hopelessly amateurish (“you’ll notice a lot of spelling errors in my manuscript, but I promise I’ll clean them up in draft #2”).
Alas, some of those danger bells can’t be taught, because nobody knows what they are except the agents themselves, and although they will happily share their information with you there’s no way of ensuring you’ll stumble over it in time.
This is experience talking. About two weeks ago, after I’d sent off some eight e-queries that described my novel as “chick lit,” I came across this blog entry by agent Kristin Nelson. Turns out there’s a shake-down going down in chick lit right now. Chick lit was hot. Now it’s not. And none of those queries resulted in so much as a nibble.
Fortunately I hadn’t broadcast that query to every agent in the known universe. So I revised it to describe my novel as “commercial women’s fiction.” Also fortunately, that description isn’t a stretch. My novel has a chick litty voice, but doesn’t fit into the genre 1:1. No mentions of clothing by brand name, it’s not set in NYC or London, and my protagonist is an animal control officer, not an office employee. Oh, and her best friend isn’t a gay male. ( “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” lol)
Since I made that revision, I’ve queried another five agents, and of those, I’ve received two requests for partials (first 40-50 pages and a synopsis). I can live with those odds :-)
That said, lest I tempt fate, let me quickly add: I’m still a long, long way away from getting an agent at all, let alone seeing this novel in print. But based on my experience, I’d say that with a query letter, you need to walk a fine line between giving specific information about your project and pigeon-holing it in a way that may work against you. If your novel fits neatly into a particular genre, by all means, say so. You don’t want to bother agents who aren’t interested in selling that type of book. But if you can stick to more general categories, you may increase the odds that you’ll at least get a few pages of your ms into the door. Which is what a query letter is supposed to do.
When I was soliciting agents, I saw some advice to the effect that one should not send out one’s inquiries all at once. The reason for this was not that the agents would be offended by a mass solicitation (apparently, they’re not) but that the feedback offered by a few might be useful in tailoring/repositioning the pitch for the remainder. Which is pretty much what happened in your case.
The agents want something that’s been done before (no one wants to be first) but not something that’s been done to death (no one wants to be last, either). I was too close to the former for most tastes, and had to find an agent with some sense of adventure (no one had done a “best stories from the Internet” type book before) who could connect my concept to something with an actual track record (“best of” compilations from books or magazines had worked in the past). It was actually a lot more difficult a connection for some agents to make than I’d thought. Many people think the ‘net is not translatable as prose. I say it is, but it does require some effort and imagination. (And a whole lot of editing.)
I think the key is that you really have to give an agent (and subsequently, a publisher) every reason to say “yes” while taking away as many of those reasons to say “no” as you can manage. Unless you are a known quantity, after all, you’re asking someone to take a real chance on you. On the other hand, such chances do get taken all the time. It’s because of the fear of risk on an unknown that the first book is the toughest sell.
(Not that I’ve sold anything yet, mind you.)
the feedback offered by a few might be useful in tailoring/repositioning the pitch for the remainder.
Exactly!
had to find an agent with some sense of adventure (no one had done a “best stories from the Internet†type book before)
I think your agent is going to be glad he/she was adventurous :-)