For the time being, I'm focusing this blog on my agent search for my third novel, which is called Badge, which I just finished.
Week Two brought a low point, a few new ideas, and a new query submission.
The low point came when Agent 1, a referral, read and turned down my full manuscript. He had some very nice things to say about it, but he believed he couldn’t successfully sell a rock novel in this "VERY difficult market for fiction (dominated primarily by women’s bookclub reads)."
This sucks of course, but it's also the kind of reaction I expect to get here and there. Rock fiction is not the genre for anyone expecting to start a bidding war. I've always believed that rock lit's time is in the future, and that my work will have a place in it once we get there. Badge needs an agent who has that same vision.
The good news is that Agent 1 not only liked my book but offered me three recommendations for other agents. At some point, I'd planned to comb the appropriate places for agents who might fit the bill, and these three names were good jumping-off points. I've since combed the web and found at least four more agents who would be appropriate.
So there's hope.
One other thing this week: I sent a query to an altogether new and different agent: Agent 6. This agent has never read my work, but she offered me some guidance during my search for an agent for Ghost Notes, and I felt she might--if not request Badge--at least give me some feedback on my query. I love my query, but I need some validation from an agent or three if it's going out to any more folks.
So, to this point:
Number of Agents Queried-6
Number of Requests for MS-1
Number of Rejected Queries-1
Number of Rejected MSs-1
Number of Unanswered Queries-4
Onward,
Art
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4 comments:
art - thanks so much for writing about this. it's heartening to read a writer's real story, rather than some BS like, "i've never written before, and then i found an agent in one month and now i'm a best-selling douchebag!"
No problem, A. I wanted to keep track of it for my own records, and I thought others might be interested too.
Art, I've tried selling two Rock Novels, and garnered many dozens of rejections-- same as yours, they don't think they can sell these in a difficult market (so much for salesmanship). It seems that even the thought of using musicians as protagonists turns their cheeks red and their noses blue. I published through Amazon and Smashwords, so I am getting some readership. Who knows, maybe one day Smoking Jimi or Stealing Margo will pop up as a film. Keep trying, and keep writing!
You keep laying down the law too, Chad. What else are we gonna do?
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