It’s not them. It’s you.
Friday email – Friday 13 December
Subject: It’s not them. It’s you.
Hmm. We’re getting close to Christmas and this email has a bit of a bah, humbug tone – but I’m also writing on Friday the 13th, so I think I can get away with a little cheer-spoiling, so long as I don’t err again soon.
And –
I saw a blog post recently, from a guy in the fitness niche. He’d been asked about why someone wasn’t losing weight, even though they were controlling their diet and exercising properly and doing everything right.
And he just said, BS. It’s not possible that you’re doing everything right – over a period of weeks and months – and not achieving the desired outcome. Like: you’d actually have to break laws of physics if you eat (say) 1800 calories a day and spend (say) 2200 calories a day, and then not (over time) notice weight loss.
That’s not the way our blogosphere normally goes. On the whole, telling customers or readers or users that they’re completely wrong isn’t a brilliant way to attract customers / readers / users.
But, OK, sometimes people are wrong and it helps to say so.
In our niche, the myth I most often hear is some variant of:
“I know my book is fine [because of Made-up Reason X], but agents don’t want it because they only give book deals to friends / they can’t handle conservative viewpoints / they only want books by pretty blonde thirty-somethings / they only want books with violence / or whatever else.”
All assertions of that kind are basically false.
Agents want books they can sell. They want books that they can plausibly sell to Big 5 publishers, or to the kind of independents that can compete financially with those guys.
It IS true that agents will be dubious about taking on niche literary fiction. There are excellent, tiny imprints that do a great job with more demanding, niche, or experimental novels. But “great job” in this context does not mean “generating huge amounts of moolah”, and agents working with this kind of fiction are essentially doing it pro bono.
It’s also true that agents may well be dubious about working with digital-first publishers. Those guys can create huge sales, but they don’t always, and advances are small. If an agent thinks that a digital-first imprint is your most likely destination, they may say yes anyway, but they will be thoughtful.
And there are niches – certain sorts of fantasy or science fiction, for example – where self-pub is so dominant that Big 5 publishers don’t really compete.
So yes, there are examples of good, saleable books being rejected by agents. But that doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy. It just means you’re knocking on the wrong door: you’re a fisherman trying to sell your catch to a cheesemonger. If you want an agent, you have to make sure that agents basically want your type of thing in the first place.
But that’s not mostly what I hear. Mostly, I hear authors who have written, let’s say, a standard issue crime novel complaining about being rejected by agents.
And if you’ve written a crime novel, and you can’t place it with agents, then EITHER:
You haven’t yet tried enough literary agents (10-15, let’s say)
OR
Your book isn’t good enough.
Assuming an even basic level of professionalism in your approach to agents, then one of those two answers WILL apply to you.
And the commonest, commonest, commonest reason for being rejected by agents?
Your book isn’t good enough.
It’s not them, it’s you.
We’re not really supposed to say that in the blogosphere. It’s not the most supportive, friendly thing to say. But it’s true. And, actually, it IS the most supportive thing – because it’s the only message that will really alleviate your issue.
At Jericho Writers, we do of course have a ton of services aimed at helping you make your book better. (The gold-standard service? It’s manuscript assessment, of course – or the Ultimate Novel Writing Course if your book is still a work-in-progress. Call or email us if you want honest advice, tailored to you and your exact needs.)
However, the paid-for service part of things comes second.
The first part lies with you. You need to recognise that your book may not yet be strong enough to sell, and that fixing this issue lies in your hands.
Honestly? If I could choose between working with a gifted but feedback-resistant writer and a less gifted, but feedback-responsive one, I’d choose the latter every time.
Write a book. Write it better. Edit it harder. Market it professionally. And don’t complain about agents!
Good luck, and I promise I’ll be less mood-spoily next week.
***
FEEDBACK FRIDAY:
Let’s use FF this week to just consider all any questions you have about literary agents. If you have experience of submitting, then share it, even if you don’t especially have questions arising from that. Let’s just share experience, unearth your questions, and see if we can help each other. Log in to Townhouse, then post your thoughts here whenever you’re ready.
***
The missus is reading the kids a (somewhat edited) version of The Sons of Adam, my third novel from way back. It’s a historical romp, set mostly in the oil industry of the 1920s and 30s, but flanked by world wars at either end of the book. The kids are loving it, especially the war stuff. Tucking the kids in one night, I literally couldn’t find two of them, and was blundering around in the dark trying to find them.
Then two blond heads poked up from a little crawl space in between the end of one bed and the wall. ‘We’ve built a dug-out, and we’re going to sleep here.’ Honestly, the kids are small but the space they’d made for themselves was tiny.
They spent the whole night there and refortified their den in the morning. But – the power of fiction, eh? The loveliness of imaginative play.
I was thrilled.
Til soon
Harry
PS: If you’d like 1-2-1 feedback from a literary agent on your submission package, we can help with that, too! We’ve just released a batch of sessions spanning January to April 2025. Find out more about what’s on offer and how to book here.
PPS: On a similar note – if the word of traditional publishing bewitches but also baffles you, why not consider our Path To Publication course? In eight weeks, our expert tutor Kate Harrison will teach you everything you need to know about the inner workings of the publishing industry
I read Harry’s email “Its not them, its you!” out loud to my wife.
She laughed, too!
Eek! I keep getting a 404 error on the FF link. I forgot to listen to my Daily Audio Bible podcast in the shower because I was busy sifting through all my agent experiences in my mind. A Tale of Two 1-2-1s forthcoming. Maybe you should keep the error message up!
I’m open to the idea of ‘book not good enough’, along some dimension, but which? And what will sell? I’ve been bashing my head against the screen over exactly this issue for so long it’s having a bad effect on both objects. And yes, I know there’s a lot of help/articles/courses on Jericho out there (and elsewhere) but I’m still not getting what it actually is that’s making my work unsaleable.
OK, the weekly rant from Mr Stuck-Record ends here, and I disappear into the melee of Friday Feedback but, Harry: if you can crack this one, you’ve got several thousand happy customers and friends for life. (Plus this one!)
You hit the nail, right-onn Harry, I enjoy your bouts of realism. Posted a pitch an first 500, didn’t make the short-list, maybe the long-list, but cannot find that one. Your (Jericho’s) guidance into the world of publishing has been an eye-opener, even for this retired journalist/essayist. You made me see it as a sport with our talents, dedications and painful failings. ‘Listen well and try-again!’ is the message I get from you and yes, dare to acknowledge and improve!
Good post, and something we all need to hear. It’s also worth remembering that most successful novelists had at least 2 or 3 unpublished ones before they wrote something that sold. It’s a hard road!
Yes but. An Agent at the Festival told her audience that she receives around 60 queries from writers a DAY unless I misheard. She takes on ONE new author a year. Forgive Trumpian caps. And you say it’s me? It reminds me of proposing marriage to an extremely busy courtesan. Uh I wouldn’t dare use the right word in a public forum.
It’s a process of making red lights turn green on a go/no-go status board. Turning each little red LED (highly abstracted) green is an effort amounting to weeks, months, and sometimes even years of _hard_ work. But work is work, and either we’re willing to do it or not. We’re each given a baseline of talent to start with, and we’ve got to make the rest up in sweat equity…if you want to play.
I’ve spent my life doing hard things that required turning many, many red LEDs on an abstract status board green before the project/business/client would lift off and fly. Writing is no different…at least in my mind. I’ve been dabbling as an amateur at this for four decades, and last year, I decided to light the fuse and burn this candle or walk away and hire a vanity press to print myself a pretty book and assuage my burning ambition with whiskey and lies.
Only time will tell how that winds up.
I do know that this is the single hardest thing I’ve ever done and likely will do. It takes a lot to be a good writer. I got the systems part down, I’m a Software Architect, business owner, “tech bro” that can world build and plot…I’ve had to spend twenty years on character arcs and emotional cues and personality types and a lot of feely stuff that probably isn’t my strongest suit…but it was a red LED on the status board that I needed to turn green if I wanted to play.
In my mind, you must face your red LEDs and make a plan to ‘green’ them. No amount of doing what you’ve always done will get you anything other than what you’ve always gotten. You’ve got to crowbar your behind directly into the fire, make yourself uncomfortable, and face your weak spots. You’ve got to address them.
–BUT–
First, you must identify your weak spots and create relevant, reasonable, actionable goals to turn those LEDs green.
That’s why I’m here. I plan to work with Jericho staff and services to determine what I lack to make it good enough and then find my limit or the solution—one of the two. Between you and me, I don’t plan to find my limit any time soon. Here’s to turning my publishing status board green and making a manuscript fly.
Wish me luck, and I wish all of you hopeful others the same. Yell at me if you want to chat some time.
I’m getting the 404 Error as well… I think your link is broke, as the other links in the email seem to work…
I always look forward to Friday, and your email is the first thing I read. Hard truth is good truth!
I’m sorry if this may seem long. I’m posting a few thoughts about the path to publish a novel for someone who (like me) has 0 experience in publishing but has a true liking for writing. I’m sure they may be considered wrong, but they are just my thoughts. I hope they can help people who are facing rejection in any of their submissions. Harry’s words about getting published may be a little harsh to hear (read) but I think they represent exactly what we can expect in any activity (professional or not) that we wish to undertake.
First, we must like what we do. If you don’t like writing (or what you are writing), you shouldn’t be doing it. You can face rejection when you cook for your family or when you play football with your friends or when you do anything that you believe you are an expert in doing. But, if you like cooking or playing football or doing that other thing, even when you get a negative comment, you’ll be doing it again, and again, and again, until you’ll only hear positive feedbacks. You’ll study culinary books, you’ll practice shooting and dribbling. You won’t sit and complain about family and friends.
Here, I don’t want to be harsh myself. I just hope my thoughts can bring motivation to someone who has just had a query, pitch, synopsis or First 500 Words not considered good enough – because of how they are written TODAY. Continue believing in you, in your work and in your ability to improve. Ask for help or get help. It doesn’t matter how you do it. What matters is that you keep in your journey – because you like it and you feel good doing it. And, I’m sure an opportunity will appear and you’ll be successful.
Just some words about querying, pitching, making a synopsis. Well, I’m sorry I don’t have much to write… I have very little experience on this, but I’m working hard to learn the steps. What I already know is that based on the texts I’ve read on different forums in Jericho Writers, on the submissions I’ve heard during the First 500 final event and on my mentoring activity, I must improve. And I will. Because I like what I do.
I hope this can become a positive post to someone who’s perhaps feeling discouraged. TODAY.
Question: how does the current querying process (which is more like submitting a one shot High School essay than a professional writing assignment where reacting to feedback is required) give *any* clues as to whether a writer is feedback-responsive? The average/mean/model response today is crickets, not “can you make this change and I’ll have another look”.
fwiw My sense is that the game has massively changed post internet and email. It used to be hard (and expensive) to query (mailing physical stuff etc), now it is free– so of course literary agents who have not adapted (almost all of them? #thisishard) are completely overwhelmed with unsaleable ****.