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  • Hilary started the topic Recent agent experience in the forum Blogs 4 years, 1 month ago

    I’ve been thinking of posting something about this for a while, and have been prompted to do so by Sandra’s link to the Bookouture post about commercial fiction.

    I began submitting my novel to agents in July last year. I had my first full request the next day, even though it was the weekend, so you can imagine my excitement. I received two more full requests within the month, and later three more. One of those never replied. Four of them declined. I submitted to 28 agents altogether and had one or two personal rejections, many form rejections, and several no replies.

    The other full request resulted in an email asking for a meeting. Well, of course this agent (I’m not going to say who) was going to offer me representation. Why else would she want to meet me? A meeting is a really big deal, right? My book was going to be snapped up by a top publisher, and all my dreams would come true.

    Nervous, excited, hopeful, I scuttled off to London (via a rail replacement bus at 7.15 am…) and met the agent in a cafĂ© in Covent Garden. Beverages, chatting about this and that, and then – into the discussion about the book. It was so satisfying to hear this professional talking about my book like she knew it. She did! BUT… reader, she did not offer to represent me. She did not even say if you can make these revisions I will represent you. She did say if you revise I will look at it again.

    BUT do I want to make the revisions she suggested? I won’t go into detail but the gist of it was that the novel wasn’t commercial enough to be commercial and wasn’t literary enough to be literary. Which brings me back to the Bookouture post. It mentions Book Club fiction as being that crossover between the two. Many, many agents have book club fiction or reading group fiction on their wish list. I had been told by agents at the York Festival that this was what my novel was. Another term was ‘accessible literary fiction.’ But this agent said that as far as publishers are concerned there’s no such category. It has to be commercial OR literary. And if it’s commercial it has to be more ‘hooky’ than mine is.

    She must know what she’s talking about, I thought. She’s the professional. She has experience. She pointed me to the Bookseller, and someone else suggested looking at publishers’ catalogues. I haven’t gone all out on this research, not yet, but I’ve put that novel aside for now and am writing another one. It’s book club fiction! I can’t help it – but maybe I’ll have to research the market a bit harder.

    One other thing – my age was mentioned. And there is so much positive stuff out there (eg on twitter) about older writers and how it’s the actual writing that counts, that I found that rather disconcerting, not to mention discouraging, even upsetting. Are we an underrepresented or disadvantaged group now?

    Anyway, I keep going.

    Interested to hear other opinions/experiences about book club / commercial / literary /submitting to agents.

    • Sorry – the spreadtheword post with bookouture editors.

    • Your post has made me rage! Well done on getting all those requests for the full. But why on God’s green earth would an agent drag you all the way to London for a chat, without first making it clear that she was not going to represent you. You may have wanted to take advantage of the rare opportunity for a face to face anyway, but could she not have offered Skype or FaceTime and saved you the journey? I thought book club fiction was a thing. I’ve certainly seen requests for it. Heck, I think Richard & Judy even have a book club fiction competition. And as for your age – good grief. You’re hardly in your dotage. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

      • Thanks for your rage! It was an expensive journey, too. Not off peak so I could not even use my SENIOR railcard!!

        • To be fair, she did say the meeting was to discuss suggested revisions and talk about how we might work together.

          • Thea replied 4 years ago

            Gosh @hilary, I am raging on your behalf too! This all sounds so demoralising, and I do admire your fortitude in picking yourself up and starting a new book. I hope you’ll focus on the fact that you had lots of requests for a full ms – even on a weekend!! – and take Raine’s advice and submit again. As you rightly say, many agents have book club fiction on their wish list – I’m sure there will be agents out there wishing for your book.