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One of my favourite bloggers Jody Hedlund wrote a rather insightful piece on Is The Query System Dying? a week ago.I do query the trend in literary circles to insist on such emotive language though. The novel is not dead, it's simply evolving with the times. The delivery mechanism is altering, not the content. The query system is not dead, it just has massive holes in it. It's a system. Not a living entity.
Fundamentally, the system as it stands can no longer meet demand. Simple as. In fact, it never really had longevity. Agents are social creatures. They're good with people, good at negotiating, passionate about people and ideas. Sitting isolated in a room reading thousands of query letters was never going to work. Agents are out and about. They're at conferences, literary events, publishing houses.
So what are you to do if you're on of the 10,000 cold calling? Give up now?! Of course not.
If writers can't think outside the box and find ways around this, then who can?
But why is the onus all on you? Haven't you done enough?
The real question now is how to flip all this? The real debate is whose going to come up with the new system that serves the 10,000?
Signing Off,
Nicola
(Editorial Manager)
Phil Parker on May 12, 2011
Very interesting. At least I feel better about the rejections I've got so far since that's what everyone else is getting ! Looks like it's time to knock it on the head, concentraite on the blog and other publicity then accept that print-on-demand is almost certainly the future.
Either that or try and get drunk at the same event as someone influential in publishing. I suppose there is a logic that like all other branches of the media, publishing is a very insular world which doesn't welcome outsiders except as paying customers.
I recently commented that I had been told that the only way to get a book published was to be a celebrity. At the time I was told this wasn't true but the blog above would suggest that while it might not be entirely true, it very nearly is. Very nearly indeed.
Neil Ansell on May 13, 2011
Phil, this is absolutely not true. I was a complete unknown with no platform at all and I got signed by the first agent I approached and my book then went to auction. I had no contacts in the industry whatsoever. Just keep writing and writing, get better and better at what you do and you will get there in the end. You will not be rejected by an agent or a publisher if they think they can make money out of your work.
Phil Parker on May 13, 2011
Kushti - you are the exception that proves the rule. In the main piece 10,000 query letters and not 1 new author on the books would tend to suggest that agents are so reluctant to risk anyone new they are probably ignoring people who would be excellent. After all, several people turned down a little band called the Beatles before someone signed them so it can happen.
I'm with the main idea on this blog. You need to stand out from the crowd. A query letter on its own is very unlikely to get you through.
Neil Ansell on May 13, 2011
I do take your point Phil, and I'm sure there are people who get missed. along the way, but I think it is possible to stand out not by having a gimmick or having contacts or being famous but by the quality of your writing.
I was shocked when my agent told me that 99% of submissions her agency receives are from people who can't write. As writers all we can do is hone our craft so that we fall into the honourable 1% - after that perhaps luck begins to play its part, in terms of whether the agent likes your particular style, whether she feels there is a gap in the market for what we are doing and so on and so forth.
Neil Ansell on May 15, 2011
As regards thinking outside the box, I thought there were some rather helpful tips on here;
http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2011/04/editors-and-literary-agents-not-that-into-you/