What taste means in publishing

The best and worst kind of rejection in publishing is always the same. It’s any variation on, “I thought this was really impressive, but it’s just not for me.”

It’s the best possible rejection: you were close!

It’s the worst possible rejection: you have absolutely no idea of what you need to fix.

So it’s worth laying out a couple of things here.

The first is that there are meaningful and broadly objective standards of excellence.

Those standards look different as applied to, say, historical romance than to literary fiction, but the standards are pretty clear, nevertheless.

If you give the same manuscript to any two Jericho editors (and it’s happened now and again, either by accident or because a client has specifically asked for it), the two editors will say broadly the same thing. Yes, there’ll be a roughly 20% margin of variance. Yes, there will be some different emphases or ways of explaining things. But you could look at each report and realise that it wouldn’t be all that hard to create a single unified document on which both editors would basically agree.

It’s the same at the agency level. It’s not that hard for agents to weed out the ‘definitely not’ manuscripts (some of which may be Really Pretty Good, but this is a world where RPG is not enough.)

It’s also not that hard for agents to pick out the blindingly good manuscripts. Yes, there are famous exceptions, but they’re famous precisely because they’re relatively rare. It’s also true that agents can reject a book for a million totally innocuous reasons (“I’m just too busy”, “I’m trying to move away from this kind of fiction” “I represent an author who’s just too similar.”, etc)

On the whole, it’s fair to say that if you produce a really excellent manuscript, in line with what the market for that kind of book is at the time, agents will generally (and subject to the kind of reasons just noted) grab the book with both hands.

Same too at the publisher level. Here the reasons for rejection can be more complex. Does the proposed new title fit on the list? Have they already made an acquisition which would fill that hole? Does the editor have the level of authority and persuasion to build in-house support for a title?

Some of the reasons for rejection are worrying, not innocuous. In the good old days, editors had a fair amount of autonomy in terms of which books to acquire. The marketing folk were there to sell the books the editors had bought. These days, and for good reasons, it’s not like that. Everyone chips in. Marketers are more inclined to play safe. If a book looks risky, they’ll maybe prefer something else. It doesn’t help that, while the editor will have read the whole book, others on the acquisition committee may have read no more than 50 pages (plus the editor’s summary, setting out the case.)

But in summary:

• Yes, there are broadly objective standards on which most competent pros would agree;
• Yes, there are, at every stage, local factors which will influence whether you get a yes or a no.

Broadly speaking, if you get your manuscript out to 10-12 agents, you’ll override any temporary, local factors and get a proper read of the market as a whole. When it comes to publishers, there just aren’t that many big publishers, so you have to go to the ones who look just about right for your book. Quality does normally win out.

All that said, there’s another factor in play here.

Does someone actually like your book?

An editor doesn’t have a shortage of books to choose from. It’s not enough that they admire your book and rate it as excellent. This person is actually going to have to spend time with it – and with you – and with your next book – and maybe a number of books after that. Do they want to do that?

With agents, it’s the same but even more so. Lots more manuscripts to choose from. Generally, much longer relationships too.

Now, yes, everyone wants to make money and do well in their careers. So, in a good way, not a bad one, agents and editors tend to bend their definition of “Books I actually like” to conform, more or less, to the set of “Books that will actually sell.”

But that’s only a partial bending. If an agent admires your book, but it doesn’t really hit their own personal tastes – well, that agent may not be right for you.

And all of this just ends up telling us two things:

This game is hard.

Spread your bets. Approach 10-12 agents. Get those agents to pitch to multiple publishers (which is, any event, their default choice, almost always.)

Oh yes, and one more thing:

Write well, edit hard.

FEEDBACK FRIDAY / Together and apart

Two FFs this week, one for those taking the Plot Your Romance Novel video course, one not.

Plot Your Romance Novel video course version: Write a short concept (300–400 words) describing your idea for a potential romance story. Who are the characters? What brings them together? What keeps them apart? Share in the forum.

General version: Most books have got some kind of romance in them – or at least a deep bonding experience of some sort. So: let’s see a key scene between your pair (250-300 words). It could be falling in love, or rejecting each other, or first meeting, or any other key moment. As always, provide us with title, genre and any context we need to make sense of things. Upload your stuff here.

Til soon. 

Harry