tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7713833330686372470.post2070482228282847590..comments2023-09-02T03:20:00.374-07:00Comments on Small Crimes: Lessons learned from the trenches: Part 7Dave Zeltsermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007736514118297783noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7713833330686372470.post-23925422800229151592008-06-20T06:37:00.000-07:002008-06-20T06:37:00.000-07:00Sam, yep, having an agent you're on the same page ...Sam, yep, having an agent you're on the same page with, and comfortable with, is important. One thing to consider--if your second agent is getting editors to read the book and getting "I liked it but" responses, he could be doing a good job--at least he's getting editors to read it, and a lot of times editors are looking for excuses not to buy a book (especially from new writers). And I can understand your agent's reluctance to use the "horror" tag--the horror market is kind of a weird one these days where all the books seem to have the same sort vibe--if you go to Cemetary Dance's website and look at some of the sample chapters you'll see what I mean--plus the books all seem to have to have over the top violence, especially starting that way. My opinion, for what it's worth (and being several times in the same situation you're in now), if revisions can get the book sold--even if it ends up with a book that's not quite what you wanted to write--it's worth doing.Dave Zeltsermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04007736514118297783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7713833330686372470.post-53779843181387893702008-06-20T05:38:00.000-07:002008-06-20T05:38:00.000-07:00Dave, this is a vital piece of advice, and one tha...Dave, this is a vital piece of advice, and one that most of us have had to learn the hard way. I'm on my second agent at this point in my career. The first was terrible in all respects, the second just not very good at the work despite the best of intentions.<BR/><BR/>Selling a book is like selling anything else: <I>how</I> the sale is pitched is almost more important than the product. Even a great product will remain unsold if the salesperson doesn't know how to hook a buyer. I'm stuck in that situation now, shopping a manuscript that I offered to agents as "literary horror."<BR/><BR/>The manuscript is about medical crimes committed in Nazi Germany and uses ghosts as a literal vehicle for the painful secrets of the past. Consequently it's important to sell the book <I>not</I> as <I>Schindler's List</I> revisited, but something other. To borrow a film analogy: the manuscript is <I>The Others</I>, not... well, not <I>Schindler's List</I>.<BR/><BR/>Because my agent didn't like tagging the story with the horror label, we've had publisher after publisher reject it with "I liked it but," mostly because they were blindsided by the supernatural elements. Rather than adjust the pitch, I've been asked over and over again to revise the manuscript with less and less ghost material on the off chance that we'll hit some magic proportion of spooks versus lit. This is a backward way to approach a sale, to say the least.<BR/><BR/>Obviously we both want the same thing, which is to close a deal. I get money, agent gets money and we are both happy. But unless writer and representative are on the same page about what and how is being sold, it can actually be <I>more frustrating</I> to have an agent than to have none.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com