New Perspective...The Agent's Point of View

I'll admit it, I've been kind of bummed these past few days because I've been working so hard sending out queries and so far, I've only received rejection letters. So, I was complaining a little bit (ok, a lot) yesterday. It's really incredible, though, how when your mind is open to it, something someone says can take everything you're thinking and turn it on its head.

I was saying how frustrating it is when these agents read my query letter or even my sample chapters and write back with a rejection letter basically telling me my work is not good enough because I feel like they're not giving me a fair chance. I've even blogged about this same concept. Maybe that is what they're saying...but guess what, not a SINGLE rejection letter has said that--not in so many words, not in so few words, not in any kind of cryptic innuendo... nothing of the sort. It was a conclusion I jumped to in this "me vs. them" mindset I was in.

In fact, they might think my work is really great...they might have just been rushing out of the office...they might just be only looking for "Twilight-like" books right now, they might have an assistant reading their stuff and have told them to ONLY bring them stuff that is vampire-esque, which my book is not. Looking at it from that perspective, a rejection letter does not say anything about the quality of my writing. Timing= yes; subject matter= perhaps; market= possibly; quality= no!

It might not even be any of those things. They might just not feel like it's THE BOOK for them and this point in their lives (the subject matter is a bit heavy and controversial)...and that's ok, too. In fact, my favorite author is Sophie Kinsella. I have read every single one of her books, except for one. I don't know why, but the one book of hers, I have picked up and tried to read three times and I am just not identifying with it. Is she a bad writer? Far from it. Do I love her work? Already said I do. But if I was an agent and had received a query letter or sample chapters from that particular book, I might have passed as well...and I might have missed out on something amazing.

The fact of the matter, though, is that a lot of people probably did pass on Sophie Kinsella (Madeleine Wickham as people know her in England), but someone didn't and now hundreds of thousands of people get to read her work. So, I'm hoping that my work will resonate with that one special agent at the right time and my stuff, too, will get out there when it is meant to.

The Love/Hate Relationship

I absolutely love writing...and I absolutely HATE everything about the query process.

I hate writing the letters, I hate sending them out, I hate the waiting game, I even hate that the name in itself (query) sounds like some kind of anti-gay slur.

I mean, I get it. How else are agents, publishers, etc. going to know what your book is about? But there has to be a better way. That's what I'm going to try to do with my YouTube channel (which I've set up, but haven't posted any videos on yet--I will get to that, I promise). Although since I'm still querying, I guess it doesn't circumvent the whole process, it just gives me a more creative outlet to hopefully achieve the same goal.

Really, though, I'm a creative writer, not an advertising agency or some kind of marketing expert. I feel like  I'm a used car salesman writing what will appear on a window sticker....except that I'm trying to sell a word document. It feels wrong in some way, but it's a necessary evil. 

I know a lot of writers that struggle with this. We aren't salespeople--in fact, most of us are pretty introverted when it comes to putting ourselves out there in this manner, although I guess in the end, we all figure out a way.

So, here is to a weekend...and probably the rest of the week...full of sucking it up and being the used car salesman because I believe in my book that much :)