The Great Agent Chase

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I could fill a book with my agent stories. There was the agent who loved my manuscript and went on to assure me that she knew the perfect “book doctor” to smooth the rough edges, a fellow who turned out to be under investigation for defrauding dozens of hopeful would-be authors. One agent agreed to sign me for a small “administrative fee” and proceeded to blanket submit my not-very-good novel to every editor listed in the Literary Market Place. And let’s not leave out the gaggle of agents who never sent me so much as a slip of paper saying “no thanks,” even though I’d followed their published submission guidelines to the letter and included the required self-addressed stamped envelope.

Enough about the villains of the agenting world.

Let’s talk about the heroes.

Very early in my career, I sent my first attempt at a novel to an agent in Great Britain. I guess I figured that the dozens of rejections I’d received from American agents were the result of a gap in literary sensibility. It couldn’t possibly be that the book, though a valiant first effort, stunk. This Brit replied to my 600 page submission with a polite letter telling me that the book’s plot had merit, but that my “voice” was weak. I had no idea what an author’s voice was. Turns out that the narrative voice is the voice the reader hears in her head as she’s reading the work. It’s a mix of tone, rhythm and word choice.

The way for a writer to develop her own voice is to write, write, write. Studying poetry also helped me. It required me to narrow my focus to the level of the line and pay attention to the effects of individual words.

So I wrote and wrote. And I got better. Another novel came to nothing, but some of my short stories and poems found their way into print. Then I wrote novel number three and began the Great Agent Chase yet again. This time my queries earned me about one “read” for every eight or nine form rejections. The feedback from the agents who looked at the sample chapters was generally positive, though not very specific.

Then I queried a woman we’ll call “Exclusive Agent.” This agent does not list her agency in the popular writer’s market publications. I learned about her existence in the acknowledgements section of an ambitious first novel that had been briefly mentioned in The New Yorker. The author’s background and writing style was similar to mine. So, I took a chance and crafted a very targeted query letter. Within days I had an invitation to submit the first 100 pages.

I waited six weeks to hear back. As you may have guessed, Exclusive Agent did not want my book, but her rejection was the best thing that could have happened to my novel and my career in general. Busy as she was, Exclusive Agent had taken the time to write extensive comments across my title page. She told me where the narrative failed for her. How the structure that I’d chosen confused readers early on. Skilled writing aside, nobody would read past chapter one.

Right away I saw the truth of Exclusive Agent’s evaluation. I had no idea what to do. I could not see how to cure the novel’s problems without ending up with a completely different book.

It took me two years to finish the rewrite. Suddenly, readers who could barely trudge through the first half of the old version read the new one in only a sitting or two. They returned useful comments that I had no trouble evaluating. I was finally able to come up with a crisp synopsis. When someone asked me what my book was about, I could actually tell them succinctly and with confidence.

I am now in the midst of yet another Great Agent Chase. I feel pretty good about my prospects. I know my novel is strong. I know that whoever reads chapter one will turn the page to chapter two. Finding an agent and a publisher will still be a challenge. There are market forces to consider. Plenty of competition from other good writers. And, yes, even sensibility.

Copyright--Carrie Ann Lahain
Writer and Editor
Author of MERYL'S WAR
View my blog "This Writer's (sort of) Life"
at Clahain.wordpress.com