#mswls

[kimyoonmiauthor]

The Bad Week on Twitter in publishing and possible SOLUTIONS to the problems discussed.

"I’m sorry, not sorry ’bout what I said Don't lose your head" --Anne Boleyn, Six, the Musical

Twitter updated their software back end to handle more images, so I added the full text and images into this post.

I’m aware of the fact by doing this post someone is going to say: “You hate all agents, the entire industry, you hate me, and you know nothing. I’m black balling you.” simply for doing this post or try to find solidarity, but I’m begging with a bunch of other writers that we work together on a problem I know we all collectively see. I’m doing cold reporting as well as trying to find a way through to bring us together. And this isn’t the first time I’ve tried to do this.

My personal dream is end to end diversity in the bookstore/Library without question. Indie and Barnes and Nobles alike. I was highly affected by the lack of diversity in my childhood, and it’s a gap I want to fill/be filled. I’m hoping you dream it too and are willing to work with us to achieve better numbers and better faith. I want uplift, not only for myself, but others in my position. This has sections, I’m going to be the tdlr; first. The sections are:

tldr; get the point already

Me and previous activism so you have some faith I'm not here to yell and you know that I have some clue about the publishing industry. I'm just the messenger don't shoot me. I'm solutions-oriented.

History of the Diversity Movement (as I know it)

Statistics

This Bad Week in Publishing on Twitter

Tangible Solutions to reach our goals.

To be clear, I'm here to report, but also use my anthropology degree in systems to try to improve the system and show everyone what we see on our end, so that hopefully the whole industry coordinates so it's not authors/writers v. agents/publishers (the people)/publicists/booksellers/editors. From talking to other authors pinning their hopes on trad publishing, we, too, ache for cooperation. And what we are hoping is that industry professionals will help us with that so we can achieve and fight for it together by extending empathy and cooperation.

I, personally, understand how asking for change feels like it might be hating you, personally, but I think the point is us coordinating together to better serve the readership. Shouldn't we focus on that?

The rest of the post is here because tumblr wouldn’t allow me to post all of the relevant images:

Too long, didn't read, get to the point already

Authors/writers are confused because what we see on our end are these statistics from Pew Research center:

Since 1980's cishet male readership has slid to lower and lower with a lot of articles speculating why, but publishers try harder to bring them back. The last numbers sliding to as much as ~80% women ~20% men readership with as much as ~90% women as serial readers.

And Black College-educated women being the now principal readers. We unfortunately don't have disabled readership numbers, but I speculate those numbers are high.

It's what sells, but we aren't given numbers on your end, so from our end, we're trying to fill a market you won't sell to, so we feel frustration. Wait, aren't we selling to a demographic that really loves diversity?

What we want is numbers from your end so we can UNDERSTAND WHY. It would also help us generally with comps, etc. We're willing to do the groundswell work to ask bookstores and readership to also pitch in. Just come and talk to us and show us what money is generally being put into a diversity book, and also give us the freedom to prove to you we can put out our most creative and sell it. We're not asking for laziness on our end and you do all the work. We're asking for cooperation and transparency.

Some background on me because clicking the profile is so hard:

I've been studying publishing since I was 13 years old. One of the first bits of advice I ever got from Writer's Digest was: Writers need to know contracts and the industry too, to protect themselves. So, I've done my best to keep up.

I've worked as a production assistant at a publishing company--though for translated works, which included editing and compiling Product Bibles. I got in by contacting the head of the company with editing mistakes (I was young and I didn't think much by doing this--I wouldn't recommend it usually. The young are brave and occasionally a bit thickheaded). I also bothered to write a rejection for someone as well.

I know the process and have listened to hours of writers telling me how it works and read blogs back in the day religiously. I can give you a history of publishing from the roots of China all the way to present day in staggeringly geekish details. You don't want to try me because it's a book.

I've read books and watched movies *just* to understand why that piece of media was hated or loved, watched countless reaction videos to books, movies, pop culture from around the world, so I can keep tabs on not just the US market, but the world market. I've collected tidbits about how other markets work and why. I wouldn't have done that without a really deep love for this industry. No one else really would care exactly how publishing is changing in Japan under the pressures of the internet in the US except industry professonals.

I've also tried over the years to find solutions to social justice problems:

I used to make every year for Nanowrimo lists of resources to write diversity until the moderators got upset one year and locked all the threads. I put my neck on the line for that. This was, BTW, long before "We Need Diverse Books" was a thing. I got a lot of hate for simply compiling the list of resources. (That was all I did and people breathed on me for it.)

I worked on the rehoming situation for the boy that was in Ohio. I sent a bunch of people to pressure the governor and sheriff's department about his welfare. And we got a result; China is going to quit adopting children out to social influencers. Holt also reconsidered their policies because I got adoptive parents, adoptees and the general public to cooperate on a single goal. Up to that point social influencers were using his situation to get money and comment on it, but not do any actions to solve it. BTW, the boy also ended up in a better situation as police followed up and made sure.

I tried to work on the communication problems with adoption in Korea.

I was the one that asked that PoC Agents and Associate PoC agents get credit on the agency listings so they could move up the world for more transparency. This caused a ground swell and now it's standard practice, with more PoC agents getting promoted as a result. I was sure I was going to get hated for that too.

I also questioned the whole "PoC/diversity fad" thing, though I'm not sure if it was completely from me, but I was one of the voices that asked is this really necessary after mass trauma? What should mswls look like for diversity?

I had a thread on why your book would be banned in support of ALA's Banned Book week to get people thinking in a fun way about the impact of banned books and if it is possible to ever write a book that won't get banned (and the answer is no.)

I also did a few loose surveys on number of rejections before being published and a general writer survey on Nanowrimo to get a sense of the demographics (The long questions list was so writers could practice interview questions and help those who had school projects on Nanowrimo.) I learned a lot from running those surveys, such as how to respect other writers and if identity correlated to how likely someone was going to get published.

I've also tried to help authors/graphic design artists, etc with reading contracts on occasion too.

My activism has been minor because I have limited wavelength for drama, but I've done my best to contribute something *positive* rather than merely pile on. I also backtracked claims (Fact checking is something I do frequently) and tried to posit solutions to problems with cooperation. I did a post on what writers would love agents to have as policies by working together with an agent and writers and talking it through. I *love* cooperation.

Full disclosure: I've been through a lot of trauma, and I'm drama phobic, but it's also made me very focused on less accusations and more solutions. This is 100% what I'm looking to do. Bring groups together to attack a singular problem. BTW, I'm not saying my solutions are perfect. But can we talk about it and work on it together?

History of the Diversity Movement (as I know it)

Agents

According to On Writing by Stephen King, it rose in the 1970's -1980's... so it's a relatively new profession. He was deadset against agents, saying that hiring a contract lawyer was more effective. But as I'll cover, there were solid arguments for the need for this profession.

Before 2009

So after the 19th century, a bunch of white men pretty much locked out a bunch of women and diversity voices by saying their writing was inferior in a variety of ways (lol I'm working on a nonfiction book about this--well a chapter). This caused issues pretty early in the rise of the publishing industry as the tech to reach the general public got better. A lot of the fiction for (white) women was relegated to being either "trash" or "Literary" (which is the fate of a lot of PoC written for PoC books.) TT I don't have stats for Diversity books.

However, the internet hit and people that were previously disconnected found out that other people thought the same thing, and the industry shifted significantly as self-publishing became more viable than before. An industry also rose to try to meet the demand, but this left traditional publishing in a lurch.

But on the diversity side people could finally ask questions about representation and connect to other authors like them.

2009

There was a groundswell after The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF had a controversy, where the authors were all white cis male. This controversy hit Nanowrimo and then exploded from there. NK Jemisin said that she probably wouldn't have had her books published without it. <3 (She helped me as I helped her, but I'm not saying how I know that.)

There was adult books being published as well as YA of different backgrounds. We got Saladin Ahmed from that... and then...

We Need Diverse Books

came out. And then all of the diversity was stuffed over time into YA. Part of it was their fault as they gave up on Adult demographics books, and part of it got heat for chasing only authors. Authors felt like they were getting chased out of YA. Some of the reporting was terrible (I'm looking at you Publisher's Weekly. You know what you did, which is why you needed to call for a PoC editor after my call out).

Some people in the We Need Diverse Books movement are mad at me because I asked them to represent Black people and adults, and do better with adoption presentation... and questioned why they chased after only writers, not publishers and the industry as a whole. (As I said, my jam is cooperation as a whole)

There were also general quibbles from writers about how they were doing this, and trying to do upfront censorship, limiting things, but that's a whole mess to explain.

Because of college I had to step out for a while... so I don't have the nuanced beats from about 2017-early 2019. However, what I do know is that as writing moved to Twitter, writers didn't like how it was focused all on writers doing better and the numbers not changing on who got published. At the same time I was watching librarians cry over the fact they were not getting the books they wanted. Sure, for children, but where are the rest of them? Book covers, after prominent figures stepped up improved greatly (because I do a self report every year since I was 13 because I super take this seriously.)

2020, pandemic

So after a bunch of academic learning about systems, I took a look around and decided to challenge a few in minor ways. I'm sure it got me blackballed for asking that PoC agents get listed, but I thought it was small systemic change that was manageable.

I missed the whole conversion to comps thing, which I probably would have challenged earlier had it come up. (Anyone have the tea, give it to me... ‘cause I really want to know...)

So here we are in 2023, and asking questions such as, 2009, 10+ years, the numbers haven't changed.

Statistics

https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp

This source said it was roughly the same in the 1980's, but male readership significantly has been declining since. I checked numbers in the early 2000's and at the time, the writer population matched the reader population at about 60-40. (Nanowrimo surveys of the time) Pew research center suggested similar numbers in early 2000.

Editors proudly reported in the same time period they did a 50/50 split on male to female. TT Did you not check the market numbers?

By 2021, this had slid significantly to an ~80-20 spread and ~90% of women being the serial readers. (NBs not included)

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/21/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/

This was so significant that the Atlantic reported: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2014/01/most-likely-person-read-book-college-educated-black-woman/357091/

Since 2009, there have been health of the industry reports on mainly LGBTQIA and PoC, though occasionally on ND and disability (We need better stats for that, just saying it would be useful to know).

Here are some of the ones I know:

https://reachoutandreadmn.org/news/blog/diverse-childrens-books.html

https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2019/7/18/who-are-the-characters-in-your-picture-books-diversebooks

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

https://www.slj.com/story/an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books

I've also seen general statistics, but those are harder to dig up, which has reported that nothing has changed, except, look, the really needy group who can't read gets representation, animals. While Librarians were BEGGING the industry to fix it, the industry took it as a sign to back away from race-related issues. That's what it looks like on our end. The ALA has our backs because every year they do a report on banned books and why they were banned highly discouraging it.

Women as readers, especially liberal (and more recently Black ones) are more likely to like diversity issues. Women make up mothers trying to change the next generation of boys so they don't end up as toxic men, they also fought for civil rights. And Black women were at the head of the LGBTQIA movement, several civil rights movements, etc.

So if authors/writers see these statistics plus Twitter's Publishing paid me, it feels like on our end, that trad publishing doesn't really care what readers want nor what writers want. They want to publish white straight abled books or bust despite the statistics, and agents are willing to cooperate with such notions by closing ranks and telling us, "That's what sells." But since the rise of the Self-publishing industry, the self-publishing industry is saying that's not true, so we, who pinned our hopes on distribution and help with international markets feel a disconnect. What's going on in traditional publishing that you're ignoring the market? And thus, this brings us to...

This Bad Week in Publishing

First, I have to state, if you take these names and try to harass, doxx, or otherwise do nasty things to them, I personally, will not condone it, and in general, it makes you a terrible, terrible human being when the focus is on the future and trying to make concentrated change rather than blame.

People hate change. Our job is to convince them we can do better.

I'll state this over and over again, the opening tweet wasn't about manuscript wishlists.

https://twitter.com/JayMoneWrites/status/1655351493724188673

The original tweet was asking agents to back off telling writers how to write stories:

For example (mine, not Jay's), you HAVE to use the 3-act conflict narrative or it's a BAD story. Wait, I've been doing studies on that and that's not true. Inciting incident is from a Jew (cries as a Jew) who seemingly is super racist. I'm sure the agent doesn't know that, and some PoC story structures are older in history (also the agent likely doesn't know that.) But this is problematic as it comes off accidentally racist and formulaic.

But then there was this bad take, which might be confusing the subthreads, but should have taken from the subthreads:

https://twitter.com/chronicles_of_n/status/1655562727417323525

The subthreads talked about mswls:

https://twitter.com/Stpolishook/status/1655583477885018120

I own I'm in this subthread, trying to argue that agents aren't "Helpless"

Subthreads also lamented agents asking for shorter and shorter page counts and more specific story structures:

https://twitter.com/MorganSloan215/status/165561094842891469

Also a subthread on comps and setting trends:

I know agents could take this in 2 ways:

That's fair. I could see how this feels like a personal attack with the questions arising and no solutions presented. But no one paused to ask how much industry/knowledge experience any of these people have.

And this is what I see. People are asking a lot of whys, how does it impact the market, make us understand the market. Is what you're posting really driven by the market?

Agents took it the first way, not the second way, unfortunately.

This is a general, not specific answer to the questions inherent above. Is it backed by marketing or not? How much do agents know?

It's saying "it's someone else's fault, not mine. I'm not going to help you with your quest."

Authors disliked this take because it seems like agents are as clueless as authors and we asked shop questions.

Also kinda feels like mswls are personal wishlists because the question wasn't answered: are you taking it from marketing info or not?

Another Agent said if you don't like trad publishing, self-publish:

https://twitter.com/ChelseaBigBang/status/1656069239168434184

I get there were hurt feelings. "And you all hate us, and you don't understand." But the very fact from our POV is we're trying to understand the justifications for it. So the people who want to trad publish, or were entertaining it, especially the diversity writers felt like the people in the list who liked the post were against us. Because the majority of the writers are from diverse backgrounds where "cookie cutter" plot arcs won't work to describe what we're trying to achieve.

Hurt feelings continued when an editor said this:

And writers asked for the same courtesy from agents that ghosted them, and agents vilified the writers. The frustration was reaching a boiling point, because the initial questions weren't being answered at all. Agents wanted something they weren't willing to give back.

Then this tweet happened:

https://twitter.com/SBLitAgent/status/1656429611645906945

This made people really mad and I think some of the anger was unjustified because it was misdirected, but if you have a really important series of questions about the market you want a career in, you want to understand, and someone says, "Well, I make a living from it and you don't. I could be rich doing this, and I really don't care about books. and we know better than you and we're not sharing our information. Live with it." How would you feel? But you asked a valid series of questions about how decisions are made in the industry and you want to innovate diversity stories on top of it. Are they justifying it with market numbers or not?

And really, agents closed ranks, rather than saying that's not cool, which sent writers into another tailspin. Do they not care about us anymore? Why won't they call out this bad behavior and say they will protect us? Why not disavow this agent who says we're just a paycheck? I thought we were in this together. We get you have to work together, but do you really want to close ranks for an agency that says:"if it's too difficult for grown-ups, write for children" https://ktliterary.com/

(Which isn't a call out, it's more like why support this agency saying this about authors?)

Bigolas Dickloas

https://www.insider.com/bigolas-dickolas-wolfwood-trigun-interview-time-war-2023-5

proved some of the adages and the writer's asks as true from our PoV. We can't sell the books on our own. We need other people to support us to get there. And that it's not the length of the beginning pages, as asserted, or the structure, but readers enjoying books and recommending them.

Bigolas Dickolas is a what? Anime fan. And a lot of anime is what? Kishotenketsu. Do agents know that?

So there was celebration that this could be done. At the same time frustration because look, huge fan of anime, and you won't let us have the freedom to tap into the different like anime.

The cover thing...

The cover debacle.

From a pure writer's perspective: So you don't want even spent money to make copyrightable covers anymore? Why are we going for traditional publishing?

I should note that most writers have no hand in their covers. Don't chase down, discuss, think about it.

There is nothing more delightful to a new author than showing off their unique cover that shows what their characters looks like and all foriegn iterations. Many authors are also artists. And we, too, dream of crying, literally tears down or faces at seeing the achingly beautiful covers of our books. And supporting our fellow artists. Because solidarity all the way.

From a personal graphic designer's perspective, we work so hard to make covers and images for you. I used to cry in utter delight at Michael Whelan covers. And daydream about having a cover by him. There's other covers that you can hate the book for, but can't imagine a different cover for it and spend hours admiring the graphics design. As a graphic designer, I'd want that for authors. I'd want them to cry and slowly understand why a cover is the way it is--I mean I made a whole post about covers.

So imagine our disappointment at seeing this is a thing. And you realize you can't copyright an AI image, which puts the cover into a precarious position.

What writers see about Agents

Early in the internet, there were blogs, such as Miss Snark, and others which helped with contracts, how to send a query letter, what's good and Bad, Janet Reid, and agents talking about the business side--that really helped writers and there were long threads about how to approach publishing after Nanowrimo and on other forums, such as Absolute Write.But we don't see that... writers are clueless on how to read contracts, and agents are leaving us high and dry sometimes. Because that's useful info for writers to know. Are there particular weasel clauses we should think about these days? Match this dearth with the attitude above where you're supposed to care about us for more than a paycheck, and how do you think we feel? We pin our hopes and dreams on publishing because we love it, we struggle to try to understand the business to make ourselves attractive, but the backstab is deep when you won't talk about the industry and numbers with us. There's a disconnect.

Miss Snark used to say, hit me with your most creative, no matter what and I'll do my best. She liked to say, "Knock my socks off."

She also said, (between her poodle) that her colleagues would get on her case for doing it, and share how hard it was being an agent, because she'd have to read manuscripts on the way to work. We see your struggles, too, but with the above tweets, the question was, do you understand ours? How much are you willing to help us to the finish line? We know how it works.

Some internet troll is going to misconstrue this as a way to hunt down agents... but she's a fictional agent and retired, so...

We want you to sell and sell hard, but also sho off your selling prowess and innovate the industry. Our books don't have a market. We know that, that's why we're asking you to be our partners--agents editors, and publishers to help us prove we can innovate it. You don't have to be alone.

Demographics of writers

For diversity writers what we were promised from the age we thought, "Hey, I'd like to be published" is, "Ah, this will be an industry that doesn't judge me for things I can't control and we can create empathy for people like me together." And then there is a big shiny sign that says, "Hey, kid, I believe this too. Let's work on this together."

This is the greatest power of books that we were promised from a young age. If we grew up around "We Need Diverse books" then we pinned our deepest hopes on this. We could revolutionize the industry if we understood it deeply enough and worked hard enough to become better writers.

We were told to red everything and consume as wide as ossible, over and over again, but we don't know and can't put our faith in that industry pros are doing the same. I know this sounds like an accusation--it isn't. We just want to talk about what you do and don't know so we can share the info and help each other out.

The writer demographics match the reader demographics by and large, and as avid readers, we also want to reach the same market as the industry pros. We also know the market and are trying to reach it. It's not only, OMG, hobby, let's publish. Some of us try to keep faith while the industry says they hate us. Because we dream of social change towards us and people like us.

The reader demographics tend to match the writer demographics: I ran the survey for 5 years and cross referenced it with Pew research center in my time I'm struggling to find their older studies). So there is more frustration when there are more and more diversity writers around, from our PoV (taking out the internet self-selecting), and still no change in books.

So imagine people like that hearing that too bad, we're not going to share marketing information with you? How would you feel?

Yes, angry, disappointed, but I thought you were on our side~ Why can't you answer our questions? And to be told too bad, you're whining... we make the rules... what does it look like? Can we move forward or not?

By and large, the majority of PoC and diversity writers are POOR and need the support of big publishing to cover the upfront costs. The people who have the spare cash to do self-publishing--pay for editors, reviewers, covers, ISBNs, etc. And we see the market for our books, but trad publishing is still chasing after that elusive white cishet abled NT male.

The FAQ writers have:

- Marketing numbers to back up the requests from agents/editors.

Can we also see them? Why close ranks and say they are industry secrets?

- Is the 10 page count justified by statistics? If so can we see them? Or if it is convenience?

Convenience for the agent or are there market forces at work?

- "It's what sells," what are the numbers to back this up?

- Can we have a conversation about innovating the market, making trends and comps? And if we can go back to elevator pitches?

- Why often pitches and asks for them in public don't result in the agent getting back to us.

- Are there marketing numbers to back mswls, and specific requests? Can we SEE them? Are they whims, or really backed by the market? Can you back it up and SHOW us why you think so? Or was it because it occurred to you over morning coffee and you want to read the book, but not write it? Was it an editor? Writers are hungry to learn about the industry too. Contract help, for example.

- But sometimes the hyper specific mswls and saying and declaring "Trauma doesn't sell" when it was a specific request doesn't feel like it's coming from marketing advice since we have Encanto, Everything Everywhere all at Once, and Turning Red. (I'd mention authors, but I don't want to give them heat.)

- Can you also post more about contracts, loosely. Agents used to boast about particular weasel clauses and how they got a 5% boost on a sale because of X thing. We like that. We love that.

- You know that the paper catalogue back in the day just said genre, send it. Because you have about 30 words to cram into it. But now there are thousands of ways you want to send the manuscript with no clear set rules and it drives even the most neurotypical person into a panic attack as they try to look for the nearest crystal ball. It used to be uniform. Can we get set guidelines similar to what I posted and TALK about it?

The disappointment sometimes turned into disgust as agents didn't talk about it to protect their own, but how would you feel if you've pinned your hopes and dreams your entire life on the joy of books we thought you shared to find out that you won't and can't fight with us and even like the post and appear to feel the same by liking the post saying you're our source of cash? (Especially when those agents claim to be on our side in the diversity struggle and they share the same diversity too.)

We, who wanted to be published with you, are working hard to understand this industry too, so why lock us out like we're less than and not intelligent enough to understand the intricacies. Why can't you talk about it instead of taking it as a personal insult? That's the question rattling around. We wanted to talk shop with you.

- Why do the publishing statistics not match the readership?

- What do you mean by "What sells?" Can you justify it with some market information? It feels terrible when you won't tell us why. Can't we share marketing info?

- We thought that one had to either set a trend--in which case edgy books or be ahead of a trend, rather than follow it--writers are confused on this front. We were told explicitly to not follow trends because by the time we do, they'll be gone. Sometimes it takes a year to write a book. So by the time you see it, it might have been around for 2 years at minimum. Diversity books take longer and we all know it.

- Writers would like more uniform or at least clear submissions guidelines which can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/685983497588965376/how-literary-agents-can-help-neurodiverse-people?source=share

BTW, if you have objections, voicing them in a professional way would help me refine the list. I worked with an agent and several writers for that list, and it would be good for everyone.

- We have questions about trauma representation that have gone unanswered by industry pros and often when we ask them we get blocked?

Diversity writers have questions about the same things in publishing. Can we discuss it?

Some of the ones I've seen are why agents are against covid, but want diversity trauma so much, and why can't you ask for nuanced takes and diversity joy? And then follow through? We notice when you don't get a new client after asking for a specific diversity client.

- We have questions about all these quotas we hear about.

"We have a Jewish writer, we don't need more" "We have an X, we don't need you.".

So are our manuscripts being assessed on merit, or by filling a quota, where the rest of the quota is filled by people who don't have diversity to hit phantom numbers like 50-50 male/female though the writer's population matches the reader's population.

- Also foreign markets and the US markets aren't the same, yes, but why are they jumping so drastically forwards, and we aren't? Can you talk shop with us about it?

- Can you allow more diversity of story structures and ways to write a story?

From our end we see things like anime fans talking avidly about their favorite anime, which uses kishotenketsu and jo-ha-kyu, and Korean drama fans who like shows that don't use 3-act structures and do things like Dream record with high viewership. We see things like Bollywood do a complete 180 in 10 years and then look at the West African market in books and television and find they are playing so hard with story and we want in--especially as own voices. We see Encanto take off and do well. We want to tap that market too, and please our domestic readership and international.

In our bones, we know braided narratives so well, that even if they don't have a name in our heads, we produce them anyway...

and we're told: It's not marketable.

https://www.kimyoonmiauthor.com/post/641948278831874048/worldwide-story-structures

But Everything Everywhere All at Once was publicly called a kishotenketsu (Though I felt it matched more closely beat for beat with qichengzhuanhe--I suppose one could debate that), and people were explained it and felt it in their hearts. And Encanto was a Braided narrative with different parts coming together. And there are motifs that our core fanship would recognize, say the old man that is an herbalist from Chinese tales, with zany ideas who helps the hero/heroine out of a lurch (like falling off a cliff and not getting that broken.)

I get it, though, it feels like a huge risk to be able to invite more structures and more story types, but they managed it in the early 19th century with ONLY US-invented story structures. People won't be that confused. What it feels like to writers is that you're not giving us a chance to really dazzle you and show off our understanding of the readership. But we were hoping you, too, loved the media that was prevalent to us when we were growing up and you also wanted change.

We want to be able to tell you a story about being disabled from an own voices POV, and rock your world with how it feels such that it blows the stereotypes out of the water and nuances it so deeply because it's not really about the disability in the end, you walk away from the book stumbling. Don't you want that too?

We want to share our joys, sorrows and let our creativity soar and meet the market *we* see and work on this problem together, so can you see our confusion? Transparency will help with that. Show us the marketing justifications.

Writers also pay attention to markets and passions too. We aren't ignorant to whims, we try our hardest to be plugged in, because it's also our necks on the line, our names on the book, and we aim to do well for the readership, ultimately. We are hoping you are hoping to do the same. We have customers to serve.

I know these asks seem like "You hate all agents" No... that's not the point. We want to understand and talk shop.

Actions to do together

If you want diverse clients, we won't hire you if you sell these.

PoCs also largely have solidarity with each other, so you have a PR issue if you betray one group, because the other groups won't trust you either. Also, why. Also, we appreciate agents that condemn it and say no.

Do everything in this list to set some industry standards and encourage your collegues to do the same: How literary agents can help Neurodiverse People (and everyone) query If you have questions ASK. I like feedback, it's my job. If you don't want it to be public, tag, me let me know, you can use the tumblr ask function and be anonymous and ask me not to post.

Agents that implemented it did it in less than 24 hours. If you are busy, maybe a week, but it's not hard asks.

Worldwide Story structures If you're not educated, then we can help.

Transparency and communication

On our end, we can work to prove the numbers you have maybe are wrong and there is more support for the movement than you think. That you won't have an epic fail if a Japanese own voices author uses Kishotenketsu in their story structure. That someone from Nigeria might have a different understanding of story and it won't fail. Show us the path and what numbers we need to meet and beat to show it won't fail if you're open and honest with us.

There's marketing discussions to be had on this. Maybe we can help work together on a better marketing plan. We can't help you, if you don't communicate with us about what you see and don't stop saying we know better than you. OK, spill, share. Give us the info we need to understand without saying you're superior. We all started somewhere--you did too, you weren't in the womb knowing how to publish a books and the market. Give us the leeway to learn and we'll do our best to also cast out people who aren't there for a friendly conversation and asking about how to work on it together.

https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/685983497588965376/how-literary-agents-can-help-neurodiverse-people?source=share

Conclusion:

Communication, honesty and transparency are minimum risk. If we work together to make it happen, I think it will. I know that people promote the conflict narrative and individualism in publishing stories--though as I outlined, I think it's more nuanced, but people LOVE stories of cooperation too. And I think we could achieve it if agents, editors, publishers (the people, again), and the writers work together to achieve goals to meet the market.

Remember, a lot of us pinned our hopes on the love of books and stories, some from the age of 2 or 3, and some from the age of a teenager. We want to fight with you to make this the best industry around and kick other country's butts so we look like the most innovative on the block--are you willing to join us?

[smallmight]

Howdy!

Im Pidge / Sol, a queer autistic librarian who likes telling stories. Im a debut author and have a duology series named 'Probe Of Gaia' (the first book will be named 'Grave Experience') that i am currently working on.

It involves active parts Past, and Future of colliding into one Present. A true mix of past hubris, present discovery, and future greed from characters and world. Below is a Synopsis, Table of Contents, and a link to the (3 page) foundational Prologue. (looking for agent)

[they-them-pussy]

ive connected some alarming dots and im crumbling under the knowledge

[shannoneichorn]

Would read.

[ghostjelliess]

Going through agent MSWLs for querying but getting distracted and adding a gagillion titles to my TBR cus they all sound so good like:

[literallycait]

Hello Caitlin! I just wanted to check in to see if you had a MSWL for when you open on Sept 1st?

Hi, great question! My MSWL is mostly the same as it has been, with the exception of no longer taking MG and NF queries. You can find my full MSWL page here (manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/caitlin-mcdonald). I'll try to do a more targeted post of my current "dream ideas" next week, assuming my health allows for it.

[esckeyes]

It's #MSWL day. Here is a link to my "official" MSWL page. I haven't updated in awhile but I don't have big changes.

Here are some books I loved in 2022 that were published in 2022: Babel by RF Kuang (Adult Fantasy), Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson (Adult NF), The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson (YA Horror), Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas (MG Graphic Novel), Love in the Library by by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Yas Imamura (Picture book).

I rarely get to read things right when they come out so those are some things that I was like, "Oooh! I am interested in this!"

I also liked the Hulu movie Prey (I don't think I have seen a Predator movie since I was a kid, no I'm lying I watched the one with Michelle Rodriguez). Ladies of any culture fighting aliens is apparently appealing to me.

Here are more MSWL tweets. I was also going to link to some tumblr posts tagged MSWL but now I can't find any. But they're in there.

[torpublishinggroup]

sending him to our editorial staff so they can add him to their mswl’s

[oficmag]

Issue #9 submissions are OPEN!

Submissions are open for short fiction and nonfiction until 11:59pm EST on June 30, 2024.

Send us your dead doves, your blorbos, your plinkos, your wretched meow meows yearning to be free; that thing you wrote that made you think, “I don’t know where this belongs”; the stuff you’d never show anyone you know IRL. Give us your shameless, self-indulgent smut; the manuscript to the video essay you dictated to your YouTube subscribers in your head; your thoughtful explorations of trauma and identity; your Pepe Silvia wall; your sci-fi, your fantasy, your romance, your realism. We want anything and everything. As long as you identify as a fan, we want to read your work.

We are currently looking for:

Short fiction (only 1 piece at a time, max 12k words; if flash [under 1k], you may submit up to 5 pieces in one document)

Nonfiction (personal essays, articles, or meta, max 12k words)

Check out our MSWL!

We can't wait to read your work!

site | subscribe | submit | faq

[elumish]

I talk about what writers should do a lot, so now I'm going to take a break and talk about some reforms that I think agents should make.

A caveat: I am not an agent! Unlike when I talk about writing, I am just talking about this as an author who happens to be in the midst of querying. If I have an followers who are agents who think I'm getting something wrong, please let me know!

That said, here I go:

Trad publishing is, fundamentally, about getting past a whole bunch of layers of gatekeepers, and agents are the first gatekeepers. With some very limited exceptions, you can't be trad published without having an agent. From what I can tell, being an agent is a bit of a thankless job--it's based on commission, so an agent only gets money if they are selling their clients' books. (Remember: the money flows towards the writer. If someone claiming to be an agent is telling you that you need to pay them to represent you, run.)

Because of this structure, agents have a massive amount of power over unagented authors, particularly because unagented authors simply do not have another option if they want to trad publish. It is my opinion that that power dynamic is part of the reason why querying actually sucks so unbelievably much for authors.

Now, part of why querying sucks is that it's a numbers game, which means that most of us will lose. Every writer is competing against a gazillion other writers, some of whom are better or writing things that are seen as more sellable or happen to be eariler or whatever. You are going to get a bunch of rejections, and that's not the fault of agents.

But here's the other problem:

There are, from what I can tell, no true industry standards and somewhat limited professional expectations for agents when it comes to how to deal with querying. Again, this is what it looks like from the outside--agents, if I'm getting this wrong, please let me know.

For example, many agencies and many agents will have different rules about what you can submit to them and how, and in many cases those rules are in somewhat arbitrary places, which means that querying authors have to hunt for them, and it's easy to run afoul of them even when you're trying. It's common for some agencies to say that you can't query two agents from the same agency at the same time, but some say that you can't query two agents from them ever--a rejection from one is a rejection from all.

But most agents' Twitter bios/MSWL pages/personal pages/etc. don't say that--which means that authors need to hunt through every individual agency's webpage and then cross-reference against every agent that they have ever queried previously, which can be arduous when many people are querying dozens or hundreds of agents. It also means needing to keep track of things like when agents switch agencies.

There are also no standard expectations for agents to actually respond to queries in any sort of time span, or at all, which complicates the above issue even more. But it also is just (imho) kind of unprofessional to ghost people who are seeking a professional relationship with you, when you have explicitly asked them to reach out to you seeking that professional relationship.

And to make that worse, many agents don't say whether or not they respond to all queries, meaning that authors are often left wondering if a 6-month or longer wait is a "no" or an "I haven't gotten to this yet but will definitely respond to you."

There are more issues that I could cite, but my overall point in this is that authors have no recourse here. There's not authors' union, no way to go on strike until agents change what they're doing.

And some agents are really awesome about this! But enough are not, and authors don't really know what they're going to get when they query someone.

So all of this is to say that, if you are an agent, here are some fairly easy changes I would love for you to make to your own behavior to make querying a little bit less of a nightmarish hellscape for authors (and thank you so much if you already do some or all of these):

Respond to every query that you receive

Tell people your general response times and be communicative if that changes. It's okay if it regularly takes you six months! Just tell us it regularly takes you six months, so we're not left wondering if we've been ghosted at four months

Outline all submission guidelines on Query Manager or where you accept queries, including things like a) rules about whether a rejection from one is a rejection from all, b) length expectations for things like synopses (I've seen a range), and c) any other expectations you have (e.g., you require trigger warnings). Don't make people hunt through 2-4 websites to find what you want

Stop asking or at least strongly rethink how you ask about Own Voices or why an author feels like they are qualified to write about a marginalized identity--I understand the impulse, but nobody should be expected to disclose medical or other personal information like that in a professional setting

Also, just to say (other than please don't reject my query because of this post), agents: authors really do appreciate the work you all do. I want someone to work with to get published, because I am very well aware that I am not the expert in this situation.

And again, please tell me if I got anything wrong or misrepresented anything.

[performativezippers]

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find a writing agent to represent you? Been interested in writing a book for a while and I thought you might have some pointers since your posts are so informative and I think you’re an awesome writer :)

Great question, and thank you so much!

Background: The reason you get an agent is because you're interested in having your book published by a publisher (not self-publishing). Not all publishing houses require you to have an agent, but all of the big ones do, and many of the other legit ones. Some big exceptions are boutique small presses, like Ylva, for example, who accept unagented submissions and sometimes even solicit people.

But in most cases, if you want to be published by a publishing house, you need an agent, which is because these houses do not accept book submissions from authors. they only accept them from agents; ergo, to be published you need to submit, and to submit you need an agent.

Answer to your question: The way you get an agent is by applying, a lot like a job application. Here are the steps:

You need to write your whole book first (unless it's nonfiction) and have it be as good as you can possibly make it. That means beta readers, editing rounds, everything. Get it to the level where if you were self publishing, you'd be done.

You write what's called a query letter for your book, which is essentially a cover letter. Title, word count, comparison titles, plot hook, character intros, take them through about 50% of the plot, establish clear stakes, plus a bio about you. All of this in 400 words, mind you. This is often the hardest thing you'll ever write. I find the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You About Writing" to be the very best way to learn how to do this, and also a LOT of great stuff about writing craft. I listen religiously even though I haven't queried in years.

Research agents. There are thousands of agents out there. Some don't rep in your genre, some are not accepting queries (only working with the clients they already have). You can follow them on social media and search "Manuscript Wishlist" or MSWL to see what they are looking for.

Start querying! Send your query letter and sample pages (usually the first 10-50 pages, depending on what each specific agent wants) to agents, usually in batches of 10-15 at a time.

WAIT

Some agents get back to you very quickly. Most never get back to you at all, and you figure sometime between 6 weeks and 6 months is a pass. It's a very awful, sad, dehumanizing process that you need to be prepared for.

I queried for a year. I queried 65 agents. I only received one offer of representation. I think this low success rate was because I had a weird book that was outside of any typical genre (this was my fault, not that I created something new) and a bad query letter, but my writing was good and my now-agent saw potential in me.

But I will say this: If the only reason you want to write a book is to be published, you should either be good with self-publishing, or not do it. The odds of being published are astoundingly low. There are many many more talented authors than there are slots for debut novels. It takes talent and perseverance and luck to make it through all of these processes and emerge with a book deal, especially from a large publishing house that will pay you an advance and treat you well.

So I'd say, write the book if you want to write the book. Make it a joyful process whose best possible outcome is it being written. And then when you're done with it, if you're ready to drink from a firehose of research, resources, rejection, and hope, then fucking do it!

[cara-delaney-author]

From what I can tell, the agent's profile has been removed from the agency's website, so it's safe to assume that there was internal fallout over this.

I'm under no illusion that this doesn't happen all the time. Agent receives manuscript, loves concept but not manuscript itself, so they update their manuscript wishlist accordingly. Quietly. Which is pretty much the opposite of what happened here.

Just... mistakes and bad behaviour all around.

Which isn't even getting into the hilarity that is "The Road x Deliverance but make it YA", like, have you READ those books?! ���

hey i just saw this happen online, but basically an agent PUBLICLY asked for someone to write the concept of a querying author, and basically said the author wasn’t strong enough of a writer but the concept was really good. here’s the link incase you don’t know what i’m talking about. my question is, how on earth does a querying author protect themself from this?

Agent Tweets Concept of Rejected Query

Oof.

Well, consider this a developing story because the literary agent in question seems to have deleted their Twitter account, presumably due to the fallout... Literary agents are supposed to adhere to confidentiality guidelines and professional standards that demand discretion when discussing specific details about rejected queries and manuscripts. Rejecting a query because the opening wasn't strong enough, then tweeting the concept via comp titles and entreating others to write it better certainly doesn't feel discrete, respectful, or confidential. I think there are those in the publishing sphere who would argue that "comp title x comp title" doesn't constitute "specific details," but it's less about that and more about the breach of trust, not just for the querying writer but for any querying writers who--like you--are left wondering if their concepts are safe in the hands of the agents they query.

And, regardless of the argument against comp titles constituting specific details, I think it's fair to say that the more unique the comp titles, the more specific the concept would be. Yes, you could still give a specific concept to three different authors and get three wildly different novels, but that's not the point. The point is this writer had a unique concept, and now it's in the hands of the public.

Aaand... I think some would further argue that since the writer didn't use the comp titles in their query, it shouldn't count as a breach of trust, but if that was their concept, that was their concept. From an industry standpoint, I think there's no question this will be seen as unprofessional behavior by most, and it will be interesting to see how this shakes out over the coming days.

Having said all of that, I genuinely don't think this is a common occurrence, so I don't think it's something you have to worry about when querying. If things were getting a little loosey-goosey in terms of literary agent confidentiality guidelines and professional standards, hopefully this will serve as a wake up call that discretion and respect are still very much desired by querying writers.

Do me a favor? If you see further development, would you let me know? I'll keep an eye out, but I don't use Twitter so I might miss something. Thanks, and potentially stay-tuned!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I��ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[bettsfic]

Hi Betts, what was it like querying your novel? Do you have any advice on finding an agent?

querying agents...is not fun. it's the worst part of the publishing experience because you're on the precipice between "i've finished a manuscript" and "what if there's no one who sees the same merit in it that i do?" it's a very lonely time, and for me anyway, after a while it started to get kind of humiliating.

i initially queried with a novel that needed serious developmental revision that was beyond my capabilities at the time. there were several agents kind enough to give me feedback in that regard but i didn't really know how to implement their suggestions and ended up giving up on the project. i queried with my short story collection instead.

i found my agent through a twitter pitch event called DVpit. by that point i'd queried i think 60 agents and received 10 full MS requests on the novel. i'd queried 15 with the short story collection and didn't receive any response from anyone. i got one like on my DVpit tweet, followed up with that agent, and she read the MS and offered to sign me. i've been very happy with her. although we were unable to sell the short story collection, so we're working on first run revisions of a different novel right now.

i think getting started can be rough, because there's no cohesive database of agents yet, only pieces of databases. from my understanding, a lot of agencies are starting to use QueryTracker, so that might be a good place to start. there's also the #MSWL tag (manuscript wish list). what worked for me was finding one agent on twitter, then clicking through the recommended accounts, checking out agency websites, and finding which agent would be the best fit for my work at that agency. it was kind of a chaotic process and i didn't really know what i was doing.

my biggest tip is that somewhere on the spreadsheet or database where you track your queries, indicate whether a rejection is a rejection from the agent or the agency. for small agencies, they tell you a rejection from one of them is a rejection from all of them, because if you're a good fit for someone else, they'll send over your MS. however with bigger agencies where there are dozens of agents, a rejection from one means that you can query other agents at that agency.

another big tip is to make sure you're ready. i went in half-baked and i really regret that. make sure your manuscript is as far as you can get it, and you're confident enough to send it straight to print if you had to.

i can talk about query letters in a different post but the main things in your query are:

personalize the query to the agent

find good comp titles and use those titles to indicate a gap in the current market that your book fills

don't take risks

that last one may be controversial because i've heard people have had success with gimmicky queries, like writing the letter in the voice of the book's narrator. but unless you're a gimmicky writer, you're not going to sign the right agent with that method. it's important to show you understand the genre of the query letter and you've done your research. the agent you sign will have a huge stake in your work for years or maybe decades; they want to sign someone who is kind, patient, and professional.

once you get an offer, find a way to tactfully figure out the agent's likelihood they'll remain an agent for a long time. i know a lot of good writers who have lost representation because their agent retired, or became an editor, or just straight-up quit. ideally you want to find someone who is really passionate about putting good books in the world.

also, you'll want to find someone who loves the same things about your work that you do, and has the same vision for it. if you write what you feel is literary fiction but they want to market it as YA, that's not a good fit. if their critical feedback is hurtful and insulting instead of solution-oriented, that's also not a good fit.

and lastly, if you're young, say under 30, there are a lot of people who will try to exploit your youth and potential. they will try to overpower you and take your work in directions you don't want it to go. they'll make you feel powerless and bad about yourself. it may be hard, but if you get a big name agent who wants to sign you but they make you feel like shit (manipulation, backhanded compliments, judgments, etc.), it's better to walk away. from my experience this is a rarity, but it's still possible. look for someone who makes you feel understood and proud of your own work, who is excited to work with you, and whose critical feedback inspires your revision and doesn't hurt your feelings.

[literaticat]

It's been recommended for a writer who is a POC to look for agents who actively rep writers of color. It's enough for an agent to say they want diverse stories, but if they don't rep diverse authors than they talk the talk but don't walk the walk. 

This advice has been bothering me. 

Querying agents is tough and no matter what you look like, agents only sign a handful of clients a year anyway. 

I keep thinking, it would be cool to be an agent's first diverse author. If we get along, and they like me and my work then that's all there is to it. 

But should I be wary of agents who don't rep a diverse client list? 

I think, as you research agents, it's good to keep an open mind. An agent actively saying "I'm looking for marginalized voices" is great and all -- but it's not the ONLY thing that matters. After all -- some people might not put that on their website or have a "mission statement" or whatever, but they DO actually sell books by all kinds of creators. And others might indeed just be saying that to say it, but there's no action behind it. (Some people also might SAY they want to rep Diverse Books -- and they DO rep Diverse Books -- but also they are toxic a-holes, or just wouldn't vibe with YOU PERSONALLY!)

So, IMO, while their statements about diversity or the identities of the creators on their list or whatever else are things to think about, they are not the ONLY things to think about.

(In other words, and this goes for ALL writers: There are lots of agents out there! But the agent who is a great fit for your work might not be a great fit for another author, and vice-versa. An agent can be great, but not great for YOU. That's why it's important to do as much due diligence as you can before you query, rather than JUST googling "Top Agents" or whatever.)

Tips on Researching Agents

The first step in building a good query list is to find agents who rep the kinds of books you write; you can go on Query Tracker or similar and just literally filter by category. That will probably be quite a lengthy list, including great agents and lousy agents, and multiple agents that are at the same agencies, so you'll want to narrow it down.

I'd take a multi-pronged approach. Start by looking at who reps the authors whose careers and books you admire and want to emulate. (You can often find these names in the acknowledgements of the books, or on the author's website, or by googling author name + agent, etc). Put a little star by those names!

Then, I'd get a subscription to Publishers Marketplace for a month and look at Dealmakers, compared to the long list you have going.

Who are the agents who seem to do lots of deals in your category? Who are the agents who seem to rep books by BIPOC authors? Who are the ones with books that sound cool to you? Who are the ones that seem to work a lot with publishers, imprints or editors you admire? (If you have other criteria, add that, too!) -- Start starring that list, baby!

You're probably going to start to see patterns here; take notice which agencies seem to crop up often with what kinds of deals -- you might notice some that seem to ONLY EVER rep sort of sketchball sounding projects, weird/tiny publishers, vs ones that clearly have more Cool Sounding or "Bigger" Books, etc. (You might even reverse-engineer and look up titles or authors that you think feel Problematic in some way and see who reps THOSE -- maaaaaybe that's a little "x" by their name!)

THEN, I'd dig deeper on the agents you have starred, bearing in mind that you'll need to pick ONE agent per agency, at least to start with, and some agencies might have LOTS of cool sounding agents. Go on their MSWL profile if they have one, go on their website and see what they are asking for and what they say about themselves, google and see if there are interviews with them. If something resonates with you: ADD A STAR!

At this point, some people will have NO stars, or just give you the ick for whatever reason; you can cross them off. Some people will seem PHENOMENAL, like "ultra-star" category -- and most will probably have a star or two and sound like good possibilities but who knows.

IMO, the most important criteria are: A) They are somebody who seems to have a good reputation and who SELLS BOOKS (or, if they are new, they are at known Good Agency); B) They seem to like your kind of book and/or have some things on their wishlist that seem to vibe with your work -- generally just seem like they could be a great fit. Both of these are top priorities and nobody who doesn't have those two things should be on your list.

But it feels like the vast majority of the agents who have made it this far in the process and fit those two criteria and have some stars probably WOULD have at least a somewhat diverse client list -- unless they are VERY new? (IN which case, OK, hey, they are new, but they are at a good agency that surely has sold books by BIPOC creators?)

If an agent has made your "Cream of the Crop and Good Possibilities" list, but they DON'T have at least a somewhat diverse client list, or it is just unclear from their website what the deal is... I am NOT saying don't query them. (Hey, you did a lot of due diligence! They MUST be great in lots of ways if they got this far!) -- but maybe DO put a little ? next to their name.

And IF they offer, you can talk to them and see, hey, do they really seem to "get" me and my book? Do they have a vision for it? Do I feel comfortable talking to them? Does this feel RIGHT? (And, they should connect you with some clients of theirs that you can talk to, as well!) -- And you'll be able to decide from there.

Good luck!

[aerodaltonimperial]

I did promise that I would try to explain how horrible (soul-crushing) the publishing world is, so at least people understood that I’m standing on the wreckage of all my self-confidence, so here’s the super abridged version. I suspect most people don’t know what it takes to be trad published—for our purposes here, trad published is going to be published by a major publisher with distribution. Normally this is the Big 5 but some of the smaller houses would still count here. We are not counting indie pubs here, because they have no distribution (meaning they are not in libraries or book stores), and I have already had experience with them and it was horrifically disappointing.

So you’ve written a book. That’s great. Now you have to try and find a literary agent, because you can’t submit to any of the Big 5 (normally) without an agent doing it for you, so you have to embark into the query trenches. Querying is where you spend a shit-ton of time researching lit agents (and weeding out the schmagents and the agencies with bad reps by trolling forums and somehow tapping into a whisper network; yeah, good luck with that if you aren’t in the biz already) and then you send them a little letter about your book and anywhere from 5 to 25 pages of the manuscript itself (depending on what they ask for, and every agent is different). The opening pages, so you’ve hopefully spent three weeks constantly tearing those pages apart and re-writing them, because you have approximately 3 seconds to be AMAZINGLY GOOD and catch their eye.

Agents all rep different age categories and genres. You have to filter through them to find the ones that rep what you write, and are open to queries (many are NEVER open, or open only to referrals from existing clients, or open only to expensive conference live-pitches, so again, good luck!) Some of them will throw up MSWLs (manuscript wish lists) and then you might find one that is asking for something very similar to what you wrote, and can toss it their way. Depending on what you write, you might have 30 agents to query (niche genres) or 100 agents to query (romance, women’s fiction, thrillers).

Agents are extremely busy. On average, the response time can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 years (no, I’m not kidding). Most of the lit agencies have a rule where you can’t submit to more than one agent at a time, so you are stuck waiting for the first rejection before you can query another agent there, and in at least a third of the situations, you will simply never get it. You’ll have to mark it as “closed, no response” after about 120 days and assume it’s a no. Some agencies STILL run by the “no from one is a no from all” which is BULLSHIT so you have to REALLY HOPE the one agent in the agency you picked to query will like your shit cause you can’t query anyone else.

And then you wait for the responses to roll in. Most will be form rejections. A few might be requests for more (partial or full manuscripts). And like I said, probably a third or higher will simply never get back to you. Ever. Generally, after about 6 months, you are probably done querying, with some outliers who will take a year to get back to you if they do at all.

If you get LUCKY and one of them requests your full manuscript, hooray! Now you get to wait even longer while they read it. If you are VERY VERY lucky, that agent might offer representation on it. They have to really love it. They will ask you for a call (these are all done via Zoom or the like, nowadays). Sometimes, you might get an R&R—or, a revise & resubmit, where the agent asks for changes. There is no guarantee that doing them will please them enough to get an offer on it. General consensus is that R&Rs only slightly raise your odds for getting an offer, and about 70% of them will still result in a rejection.

Fun thing about getting an offer of rep: industry standard is that you ask for 2 weeks to contact all the OTHER agents who still have your query and/or materials so you can let them know that you have an offer. And this is where my LEAST FAVORITE FUCKING PART of this industry comes in. It’s practically the tenet that publishing was built on—people only want shit that someone else already wants. Any outstanding queries, you “nudge” to let them know you have an offer and your timeline. Any outstanding submissions, you let them know they gotta read fast. You WILL get a shit ton of agents asking for your manuscript here, because SUDDENLY SOMEONE ELSE WANTS IT so it must be great. (On my only successful manuscript, my request rate for materials was 8% pre-offer. After my offer, it shot up to 60%. I will die furious about this.)

You may, if you are super duper lucky, even get multiple offers, and then you have to decide which agent you are going to choose.

So if you get this far, GOOD JOB. You have beaten 95% of the other writers out there. You are still doing all of this for free. And you still have more to go through! From here on out, now that you are with an agent, you get to go on “submission,” where your agent sends your book out to editors that they have (hopefully) matched up genres/likes with. And it’s just like querying, only your agent does it instead of you, and you sit at home and wait EVEN MORE TIME for overworked, underpaid editors to somehow fall in love with your book.

Maybe one of them does! Then you get to go to something called “second reads.” This is where the whole TEAM at the publishing house reads it and most of the time, they all have to agree. Then you have to go to ACQUISITIONS, which is a meeting at the publishing house where the editor has to pitch your book and ask the rich CEOs for money to offer on it. Your book can die at any one of these milestones: it can be rejected by editors, it can be rejected at second reads, and it can be refused at acquisitions. This process takes anywhere from 1 day (if you are super lucky and probably shit gold) to 2 years, and when all the editors are exhausted, your book is officially dead on sub.

If you DO HAPPEN TO GET THROUGH THIS and get an ACTUAL BOOK DEAL, you are the lucky 1%. And you might finally, FINALLY, get paid for the work you have done. (In installments, spread out over years, depending on how much of an advance you get.)

Or, like a whooooole bunch of us, you end up figuring out that your agent, for whatever reason, isn’t working for you. Maybe you want to write a genre next that they don’t rep. Maybe they leave the industry for whatever reason. Maybe you have a mismatch of communication/expectations/needs. Maybe they suck at being an agent and stop doing what they are supposed to do (like mine). And then you end up either leaving your agent or getting dropped by your agent, and you are back to square one all over again.

Remember that every time you have to query again, or go on submission again, you have to have a new book ready. The people who succeed at this industry have time, money, and luck; the more of those you have, the better you will do. A LARGE number of writers are bankrolled by a partner and/or parent and/or generational wealth who pays the bills for them, because otherwise, it’s pretty damn hard to find enough time to write as much as you need to.

And every single one of those rejections is going to eat away at you, inch by inch by inch, until you’ve amassed more than 150 of them representing all the times you just weren’t fucking good enough. Then you have to decide: do I keep doing this? It’s been years. It’s been double digit books. How much of my life and time am I going to waste on this fruitless quest? And I guess that’s the question you gotta answer lol.

[clonerightsagenda]

Counterstriking by sending a new query at 9:30 pm last night

Getting a horrifying look at literary agent work schedules based on when they email me