When Agents and Editors Talk, You Should Listen

I was reading through assignments for my UCLA Extension class this weekend and it got me thinking about writers in general. My class had the assignment of reviewing a single publisher out there. I wanted the to really take a DEEP DIVE (yes, I am referring to yesterday's post) into a publisher. If it was a bigger publisher, I wanted them to really get into a single line. For the last 5 weeks, I kept pushing to look beyond the surface level and dig. But here is the thing that I told them that I believe connects to today's topic here on the blog. I told them to pick genres they know and to avoid extremely small and narrow presses.

They didn't.

And they struggled. Why? Because they did not take the advice I gave them. The goal for this assignment was to learn how to really dissect a single publisher, to understand the voice, to understand their true philosophy and approach (beyond what they post on their website). In the end, these students made their journey through developmental editing even harder.

Now, on to this post. I provide ideas here to get you to think. I want to see authors succeed. You might not find that success through Greyhaus, but I want authors to win and to be successful. I am not the only agent or editor out there doing this. Others are out there on various forms of social media. Posts of "Do This" or "Don't Do That" are all over the place. Reputable editors and agents are giving you very clear suggestions on everything from submitting projects, writing query letters, crafting characters and so forth. There are a lot of different ideas out there. Please note, I am not saying conflicting ideas, but different ideas. For example. Janet Reid's approach to query letters is different than my approach, but in the end, it is mostly cosmetic and structure. We are still saying the same thing.

For authors, YOU have to decided to take those suggestions. YOU have to decide to listen. If you are getting rejection after rejection, don't just blame the industry into not being open. Look to what you are doing first. One of my students, for example, was looking at a publisher who is only open to agented submissions. When you go to the website, the publisher very clearly explains the rationale for this approach as well as what they really want in their authors. The student, however, spent a lot of time arguing that this publisher clearly did not see what what hot out there and what was really selling. Um, nope. This student did not listen, like a lot of authors out there.

I have always loved sitting on editor and agent panels where we all sit there and tell you exactly what we want in a story, what we want in a pitch, what we like, what we don't like and, more importantly the WHY of the story. And yet, after these sessions, we see authors come to our tables pitching stories we openly said would not work, and then try to justify why we were wrong. I remember specifically sitting on a panel with a great group of editors, one of whom was beyond respected. For those who have been around for a while, you might have been fortunate to have met Kate Duffy from Kensington. I watches some author stand up in a session and proceed to "try" and argue against Kate for missing the mark with publishing. That was clearly a wrong thing to do.

All I can say is this. We are trying to help. If we say, this approach is not likely going to work, then you should listen. Trust us.