I think one of the biggest frustrations I have had over the years is getting overly excited about a project from a pitch, only to find that the actual story is far from what I expected. I know that I am not the only person who has faced this before.
So, here is how it works. I read a query letter or here a pitch from an author and it is exactly what I have been looking for. It was, as if the author had been reading my mind. The story concept sounds great, the conflict is something that should really drive the story. I am drooling. So I ask for more. Please send it to me I scream.
And then several days later, the email arrives. There it is! The manuscript I have been dreaming of. Time to settle down and get to reading.
And then it falls apart. Maybe the writing is weak. Maybe the author has chosen the wrong voice. Or maybe, and this happens more often, the story is not what the author told me. It is as if I am reading a completely different project. What happened???
In those first cases, it is simply a matter of execution. Authors know exactly what they want to the story to do, but something happened for the author and the writing just is not what they see.
In other cases, the author has worked so hard to craft a perfect query letter or pitch that what they do tell us is just a hyperbole of their story. They truly made it sound a lot better then it really was. Not intentionally. It just happened.
Sometimes also, an author pitches a story that is not finished yet. The end result here is really easy to see. They told a story that they thought they would be writing, but the end product, after the query or pitch, ended up as something else.
I do want you to know that when we are excited about your project, we truly are. But these things do happen. It wasn't that we lied to you. It is just the nature of the business.
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