Agents ,
The GHOST effect: how to keep your passion when publishing isn’t playing fair
By Kate Harrison
I’ve been in the novel game for over twenty years now and let me tell you – times are tough. New writers and veterans alike are saying the same, whether they’re meeting for real-life lattes or virtual hugs:
It’s never felt quite this brutal.
Hooky new pitches get ignored, deals take months to finalise or are withdrawn at the last moment, publication and payments are delayed. And, worst of all, everyone seems to be ghosting each other.
And yet… and yet, the knockout deals are still being done – and often it’s the debut writers, with no patchy sales records to put off agents or publishers – who are hitting the book trade headlines.
But how many talented writers give up before getting to the deal stage, because the silence has ground them down? Or hear from friends about how tough it is, and decide not to submit at all?
And how do you hold onto the passion that first drove you to write? As someone who has faced this as an author myself – and helped many writers to overcome the hurdles to get published, here are my GHOSTS golden rules for overcoming rejection (and its even meaner cousin, total indifference)
Gamify: if you reward yourself for taking more steps or eating more veg, approach querying in the same way. Focus not on finding the dream agent – who might be busy, or ill, or just plain rude – but on the numbers. Imagine there’s an app (maybe you want to make one) giving you rewards at 10, 50, 100 rejections – work out what the rewards are and look forward to reaching each milestone.
Helicopter view: the ghosting is not about you. Zoom out and you’ll be able to see the context here – fewer editors are handling more books so they’re under more pressure. Even the best agents are being ghosted themselves. Concerns about AI, book piracy and shrinking profits make the snail-like publishing world even more glacial.
Experienced authors like me – I was first published in 2003 – have seen how a previously polite industry doesn’t have time for ‘good’ manners. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. But as authors we have to adapt our mindset to keep our sanity. Part of that is about keeping informed about the industry – knowledge is power.
Obsess about your work, not their response (or lack of it): you can’t control their reactions, any more than you can persuade someone to date you if they don’t feel that spark. But what you can do is present yourself and your query in the most captivating way possible. So every time you do a new pitch, aim to improve the hook, or ensure the opening chapters are designed to make the reader – in this case, your potential agent – need to know what happens next. Obsess over everything from the email subject – and whether your book’s title could be even stronger – to the comps and sign-off.
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By Kate Harrison
About the author
Kate Harrison is the bestselling author of 25 novels and non-fiction books. Her book Pitch Power uses her TV & publishing expertise to help writers create brilliant blurbs and irresistible queries.