Stalking the Wild Agent

For new writers, finding an agent is one of the most difficult tasks. You’ve been working on your masterpiece for a year, maybe two. You’ve joined a writer’s critique group, you’ve gone to several writers conferences. Maybe you’ve taken a class or two.
You completed the first draft with immense satisfaction. You never thought you would write the words “The End.” Maybe you even wrote them first, then went back and filled in the parts you missed.

Then comes the re-writing. For months you slaved, marking up your manuscript. Getting input. Re-working scenes. Fixing broken plot lines. It seemed as if it would never end.

But finally you are there. You are ready to send your baby out into the world. But how do you sell it. How do you go from manuscript to the bookstore shelves?
I’m sorry, but I have hard news for you. Book selling is a business. Publishers print what they can sell, not what they like.

I have met two kinds of writers in my writing career. The hobbyist and the would-be author. The difference between a writer and an author is that an author has something published.

We all write with the hope that someday, our work may find print. That it will be on bookstore shelves and people will lay down their hard earned bucks to read our words. We’ll be on Larry King, Oprah. We’ll go on a book tour.

But, the hobbyist writes to please themselves. They have a story that has to be told, they can’t wait to get the words down on paper (or under glass in our modern world).

The would-be author writes to sell their work. There is a world of difference. The book business is not about art. The goal of the publisher and the book sellers is to sell books, to make a profit. They can do that only by publishing what sells. There is very little profit margin in the business and little room for experimental work.
There are small publishers who look more kindly on out of the mainstream work, but if your goal is to get a contract with a major publishing house, I am sorry to tell you that you will have to write by their rules.

I don’t want this to sound too depressing. There are lots of good books out there that meet the publishers’ requirements. I also see many books that break the rules. However, you must know what the rules are and have a good reason for breaking them, before you go off on your own tangent.

You must also be a successful author. Patricia Cornwell or Steven King can break any rules that they like. Whatever they write is guaranteed to be a best seller.

Me, I can’t break any rules, go out on any limbs, blaze any new trails. The publishers would not be willing to take a chance on my writing. Maybe someday, after I’ve sold a few million copies I can write some of the stories that are brimming up inside of me, but for now, I need to get that first book published. And that means, I need to write commercial fiction that fits the publisher’s perception of the market.

And that brings us back to the topic, Stalking the Wild agent. I’ve completed the ninth draft of my new thriller and am in the process of selling it. My focus since this spring has been on finding an agent. It’s hard, time consuming work. This is the marketing part of being an author that many writers do not or can not do. In order to sell your book, you must be a salesman. That is a job that I don't like and would never do, unless my writing life was at stake. Which it is.

In my next post, I’ll tell you about my method, the helpful books that I’ve read and clue you in on my progress. In the meantime, finish that book that you’re working on. Getting to “The End” is the first step in becoming an author.

--Penn