Before we start this week, a brief announcement:
In the spirit of our earlier call to “become an influencer within your own circle of friends,” Claire W. Zhang—founding member of Beyond Craft—invites you to a Brooklyn reading she’s organizing on Sat, 8/16 at 1PM, part of a free indie music festival with a killer lineup.
We’re bringing together writers from across our literary and artistic communities to make space when no one hands us the mic—building our own platforms when institutions fall short, and gathering to share work that doesn’t explain itself, but insists on being heard.
Now, this week’s post:
Like many of you I have queried literary agents regarding my book length work. In my case probably 1000 or so queries over the last decade. But lately I’ve begun to think that I have been ignoring one aspect of querying that may have been hurting my chances.
While queries in general should reflect the jacket copy of your work should it be published, the way agents speak in the rest of their lives is also a factor.
Language changes. It evolves. Every generation wants to define itself, and one of the most powerful ways is through its vernacular. The way many of us spoke in our youth is not at all like how younger people speak now. And the fact that many of the literary agents who are seeking new clients are younger means we have to pay attention to how they communicate. Here’s some samples from Manuscript Wish List, a popular website on which agents list what they’re currently looking for, to illustrate what I mean. I entered the search term “literary” to find agents for the kind of fiction I write.[1]
Horror! Any kind truly. I want my electric bill to be astronomical because of all the scary manuscripts I’m reading. Literary fiction of any kind with a commercial hook (meaning descriptors like “lyrical” are not doing the heavy lifting in the pitch).
In fiction, I tend to gravitate toward a more upmarket or literary voice, though I will also look at commercial stories!
(agent) …is interested in reading commercial and upmarket contemporary fiction with a literary bent, horror, slipstream, creative nonfiction, and memoir—particularly projects that feature strong voice, experimental structure, bold risks, and big swings. …gravitates toward themes of adolescence, monstrosity, class, innocence, memory, healing, freakishness, community, otherness, identity, the body, the natural world, and the concept of home.
The casual, excited tone of these entries, as well as the emphasis on liberal themes, is common on MWL, and it seems to be directed toward writers who are from Gen Z, and perhaps Millennials—younger people who share that vernacular.
I don’t know if I can speak their language.
And the language is only part of the issue. Language is a product of a person’s culture and upbringing and philosophical mindset. Language alludes to their set of values, how they think about the way the world operates, how they view the motivations of other people. If you’re really going to make an impression on a literary agent, that is part of the equation as well.
Here are a few more:
… is a passionate writer and reader of stories that stretch the imagination and reveal important truths about the world around us. Trained as an attorney, … moved from the legal world into the literary one nearly a decade ago in search of stories less constrained by reality.
From hands-on editorial to career coaching to rights management, … believes in open communication, positive collaboration, and maintaining a long-term vision to help … clients achieve successful, sustainable writing careers. … is looking for character-driven stories with richly layered worldbuilding and original settings. Stories with intricate, immersive plotting and propulsive pacing. And … would love to see more stories that blend genres in ways that might surprise.[2]
My sweet spot in the market combines literary voice with commercial conception. Although my list is diverse, all of my projects have common threads: an original, unexpected point of view; a fresh, literary voice; a strong commercial hook; and conflicted characters who will win your heart (sometimes, against your will). I adore vivid, dynamic characters; an idiosyncratic, strong voice; and the ability to make readers both think and feel deeply.
That’s more my speed. The tone and vernacular of these returns indicate the agents are trying to reach a more mature audience, probably Gens X and Y.[3] The statements are less excited, but in my opinion more thoughtful and realistic. There is less reliance on casual, less specific terms.
The returns I listed above do not necessarily reflect a particular age group, despite the generation it appears they are speaking to. In other words, you can’t assume an agent is only interested in representing writers around their own age.[4]
Do you target agents when you query, or do you use the buckshot method (fire blindly and hope to hit something)?
Either way, when you query a book the tendency is to use the same letter for all literary agents. Or at best, to have two or three versions of the letter. That may not be enough. What would it take to spend fifteen or so minutes researching every literary agent you intend to query, to find out a little bit more about their personal tastes and background, which may in turn encourage you to include a sentence or two that might better resonate? Remember, querying a book is a buyer’s market—you need them a lot more than they need you. The competition is crushing. Any way you can stand out may help.
Granted, the extra work could be moot. There’s no guarantee a literary agent will respond favorably to your efforts, or even read the entire letter. Although pretty much every agent I have researched has said they pay close attention to all queries.
Some of us are getting a little older. Maybe we are of the Millennial or Gen X generations, or even Boomers. Agents can likely tell who we are from how we communicate, even if we try to hide it by avoiding mentioning our age, generation, or most importantly our cultural references. When you reference the Rolling Stones or Buddy Holly instead of Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, you are really dating yourselves.
And it’s also important to be authentic in your query, and not pander. Agents sometimes say you should point out if you have a previous encounter or connection to them. In your research you may discover that an agent once lived in Paris. But adding, “Paris is one of my favorite cities” is probably not going to help your cause. If you met the agent in Paris, or just at a U.S. conference, definitely mention it.
Speak the agent’s language. Don’t try to fake it. Get real. (OMG, that’s from the Sixties!) But you get the point.
If any of you have experience individualizing queries—and the responses you’ve received—we at Beyond Craft would love to hear about it.
– Joe Ponepinto
Image by Willi Heidelbach from Pixabay
[1] Interestingly, the returns for the term “literary” often seem to be anything but literary. But that’s another post that I will get to soon.
[2] A significant percentage of the agent wish lists that I thought might work for this article turned out to be agents located in the UK. I did not include them, since it is more difficult for US based writers to acquire a foreign agent to represent them. But I think it’s interesting that many of the agents I found to express more mature writing did not reside in the states. Is this a comment about American educational standards?
[3] And I think I may query some of them myself.
[4] However, I’m going to test this hypothesis in the coming months.
In the query process, I've come across a challenge with Query Tracker and the agents who use it. How can I take them seriously when they ask for a "one sentence pitch" for your submission and stress checking your work for errors—yet ignore compound modifier rules themselves? “One-sentence pitch” - enough said.
When I was an agent, briefly, in the 90's, my partner had come from publishing sales and I was "the writer/editor." We read queries and chapters with an eye on "Is there a market for this?" We didn't care what the genre, the age/gender of the writer, etc. We were very surprised to learn that most agents had to be "passionate" about a book to take it on. This turns out to be the general case. I kind of get it but not really. Example: if a book was a well written and compelling horror story and we didn't like horror, so what? It was a good product. We knew there was a market, period.
Maybe this sounds crass but let's face it, books ARE products. (As a writer, I own the PROCESS. But when it's done, I treat my book like a PRODUCT.) My partner and I weren't passionate about most of what we represented but we took them on anyway and sold several. So when agents ignore the markets they don't deal with or don't like, they are doing themselves a disservice. They will say that there is only a certain amt of time to read and why read what they don't like? And, they don't have the publishing contacts for every genre. Granted. But if you have a product that is worthwhile, then that's a good reason to develop the contacts! Those contacts will be useful throughout their agenting career.
A quick look at Google stats says that older people read A LOT! People with time on their hands join more groups including book groups. And my novel is really a perfect fit for book groups. I do mention book groups in my queries but I do NOT mention age groups. Actually, when I searched for agents, I looked for some with grey hair if there was a pic available.
Avoiding language and references that might date us when we query, well, you can do that I guess, but if the audience for your book is mostly people YOUR OWN AGE, then the agent might request a few chapters... and THEN reject it!