![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shalannaOkay. I'm only typing this because I've built up this agent thing (as I always do) so much, and I have so many people waiting to hear the next development in the saga. If I don't sound properly excited, well, "so be it."*
* {As Harry says in "Pump Up the Volume." Quoting many greats.]
SO the agent did call me around noon, as promised. She started to discuss a few changes that she thought I needed to make in the book, because she sees it quite clearly as a young adult novel. I really never set out to write a YA, and I still don't believe that all novels with a teenaged protagonist are necessarily YA . . . and I think that many YA novels are too shallow and not interesting to adults, whereas I think my story would appeal to a certain kind of grown-up. (I have adults whose points of view are seen later in the book.) I mentioned this, and she pointed out that YA books sell pretty well now, so it's not a stigma or a problem.
However . . . as always, my mouth shoots off and the bullets hit my own feet. The very mention that I wished the book didn't have to have a limit put on it by being classified as "YA" (which would chase away most adult readers, I think--they make an exception for Harry Potter, but not for anyone else) made her feel reluctant to offer representation (apparently). She said that she would e-mail me her comments on the book and that if I'd make the changes and show that I can follow editorial direction, she'd commit to calling me back NEXT Friday and we'd discuss possible representation.
There goes another week chasing the carrot on the stick.
Why does the Universe hate me? Why must I always jump through hoops and take extra tests and get the "maybe, we'll see" answer EVERY time? I mean . . . don't agents usually call because they're ready to say that they want to work with you, say that they're sending an agreement, and *then* have you make changes? It's as if I always have to prove something, must do twice as much and twice as well to be seen as half as good.
But the Universe can't *hate* me, or else I'd already be dead, would have gone blind those two times, surely would have already sewn it up. I suppose it likes to keep me the way that we like to keep aquariums, or it wants someone whom it can make dance on the end of a string for its own amusement. We certainly wouldn't want anyone up there to be bored!
ANYhow . . . so that's where we left it. She did talk for about an hour, and I did describe some of my other books, and she said I could send her the first three chapters of any of them that I thought might have this same voice. She reaffirmed that she fell in love with my voice, and that she believes that she can find an editor who will do the same. She says she really does like the novel, but it needs to be modified a bit so that it's YA enough.
The examples she gave, though, were things that I see as fairly trivial and easy to fix. She didn't like the name "Dabney" for my grocery store security guard. I had changed it from "David" because that's my brother-in-law's name, but, heck, who gives a crap, because we almost never hear from my brother-in-law in the first place . . . she suggested "Lance," but that name doesn't fit the dude that I see when I am "in" the book. We can go back to "David." She also wants him to be eighteen instead of twenty-one so he'll be closer to Camille's age. There are a few places where he seemed inconsistent to her (as to whether he believed in magic for real, or not), but that can be fixed. She wanted him to try to rescue Camille in the final scene and show some remorse. These are good suggestions. I don't see any problem doing them, although it'll probably be Monday before I'm happy with the tweaking.
I don't understand why she didn't want to go ahead and make an offer of representation today. It's disappointing. It's especially disappointing because pretty much everyone on my e-mail lists and on LJ and in my critique group has been so convinced that this is what will happen. Once again, I don't measure up. And I can't see where I have fallen short. It's not good for my inferiority complex . . . rather, it feeds that inferiority complex. The inferiority complex is supposed to be on a diet, and I wish people wouldn't be so eager to feed it.
However, I understand that she has no way of knowing that I am such an old hand at revision. I've revised to order before and I am sure I will again. The only thing that bugs me is that we really have no commitment, and here I am making these changes that'll theoretically make the YA editors happier. Still . . . it's fine, I'll do it happily. I just wish that someone would ever trust me to be worth a shit, that I wasn't always seen as the one who is lacking and who probably won't work out and needs to take a ten-page exam first.
Luckily . . . I've always been exceedingly good at exams and tests. Didn't I win the National Merit scholarship? Didn't I ace the GRE? Didn't I ace the Mensa test? Okay, we're not talking about that kind of exam, but heck, I know how to revise. I've had to rewrite papers for college courses, rewrite short stories to send out again, rewrite novels at the suggestion of various critique partners. I've never actually had anyone with *power* who gave specific suggestions. If they want to see that I am easy to work with and can revise to spec, they'll see that I can, and that the book won't be ruined in the process. These are not changes that would alter the artistic integrity of the work in the first place.
At least I hope they won't. That's happened before, but that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.
* {As Harry says in "Pump Up the Volume." Quoting many greats.]
SO the agent did call me around noon, as promised. She started to discuss a few changes that she thought I needed to make in the book, because she sees it quite clearly as a young adult novel. I really never set out to write a YA, and I still don't believe that all novels with a teenaged protagonist are necessarily YA . . . and I think that many YA novels are too shallow and not interesting to adults, whereas I think my story would appeal to a certain kind of grown-up. (I have adults whose points of view are seen later in the book.) I mentioned this, and she pointed out that YA books sell pretty well now, so it's not a stigma or a problem.
However . . . as always, my mouth shoots off and the bullets hit my own feet. The very mention that I wished the book didn't have to have a limit put on it by being classified as "YA" (which would chase away most adult readers, I think--they make an exception for Harry Potter, but not for anyone else) made her feel reluctant to offer representation (apparently). She said that she would e-mail me her comments on the book and that if I'd make the changes and show that I can follow editorial direction, she'd commit to calling me back NEXT Friday and we'd discuss possible representation.
There goes another week chasing the carrot on the stick.
Why does the Universe hate me? Why must I always jump through hoops and take extra tests and get the "maybe, we'll see" answer EVERY time? I mean . . . don't agents usually call because they're ready to say that they want to work with you, say that they're sending an agreement, and *then* have you make changes? It's as if I always have to prove something, must do twice as much and twice as well to be seen as half as good.
But the Universe can't *hate* me, or else I'd already be dead, would have gone blind those two times, surely would have already sewn it up. I suppose it likes to keep me the way that we like to keep aquariums, or it wants someone whom it can make dance on the end of a string for its own amusement. We certainly wouldn't want anyone up there to be bored!
ANYhow . . . so that's where we left it. She did talk for about an hour, and I did describe some of my other books, and she said I could send her the first three chapters of any of them that I thought might have this same voice. She reaffirmed that she fell in love with my voice, and that she believes that she can find an editor who will do the same. She says she really does like the novel, but it needs to be modified a bit so that it's YA enough.
The examples she gave, though, were things that I see as fairly trivial and easy to fix. She didn't like the name "Dabney" for my grocery store security guard. I had changed it from "David" because that's my brother-in-law's name, but, heck, who gives a crap, because we almost never hear from my brother-in-law in the first place . . . she suggested "Lance," but that name doesn't fit the dude that I see when I am "in" the book. We can go back to "David." She also wants him to be eighteen instead of twenty-one so he'll be closer to Camille's age. There are a few places where he seemed inconsistent to her (as to whether he believed in magic for real, or not), but that can be fixed. She wanted him to try to rescue Camille in the final scene and show some remorse. These are good suggestions. I don't see any problem doing them, although it'll probably be Monday before I'm happy with the tweaking.
I don't understand why she didn't want to go ahead and make an offer of representation today. It's disappointing. It's especially disappointing because pretty much everyone on my e-mail lists and on LJ and in my critique group has been so convinced that this is what will happen. Once again, I don't measure up. And I can't see where I have fallen short. It's not good for my inferiority complex . . . rather, it feeds that inferiority complex. The inferiority complex is supposed to be on a diet, and I wish people wouldn't be so eager to feed it.
However, I understand that she has no way of knowing that I am such an old hand at revision. I've revised to order before and I am sure I will again. The only thing that bugs me is that we really have no commitment, and here I am making these changes that'll theoretically make the YA editors happier. Still . . . it's fine, I'll do it happily. I just wish that someone would ever trust me to be worth a shit, that I wasn't always seen as the one who is lacking and who probably won't work out and needs to take a ten-page exam first.
Luckily . . . I've always been exceedingly good at exams and tests. Didn't I win the National Merit scholarship? Didn't I ace the GRE? Didn't I ace the Mensa test? Okay, we're not talking about that kind of exam, but heck, I know how to revise. I've had to rewrite papers for college courses, rewrite short stories to send out again, rewrite novels at the suggestion of various critique partners. I've never actually had anyone with *power* who gave specific suggestions. If they want to see that I am easy to work with and can revise to spec, they'll see that I can, and that the book won't be ruined in the process. These are not changes that would alter the artistic integrity of the work in the first place.
At least I hope they won't. That's happened before, but that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 06:52 pm (UTC)You're looking at the negative sides, try and find the bright side. She likes the voice. She likes the novel. She thinks she can see a market for it.
Now it's up to you to knuckle down and do what she asked you to do. Chances are, it'll make it a stronger book. (If you don't believe she has a clue, she's not the right agent for you)
So go for it.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 06:58 pm (UTC)Don't worry! She called you 'cause you're just THAT GOOD!!! :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 07:54 pm (UTC)And [Bad username or site: green knight @ livejournal.com] is right: the fact she sees a market is a good thing. Think of it this way: you may think most YA novels are shallow, but that has nothing to do with your book specifically. If it appeals to teenagers instead of adults, what's the harm? You're just collecting a readership with more book-buying years in front of them!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 08:27 pm (UTC)Whereas I would say that many adult fantasy novels are much shallower than a fair number of YA fantasy novels: any by Peter Dickinson, Cynthia Voight, or Virginia Hamilton, to begin with.
Heck, I'd say anything by David Eddings is shallow compared to the Redwall series.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-25 08:39 pm (UTC)(Take this for what it's worth, and forgive me for being a butt-insky... BUT... think maybe this should be a friends-locked entry? To riff off Mark Twain, think about who you'd be fencing in and fencing out.)
((HUGS))
no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 04:02 pm (UTC)Make the changes. I know it is hard to pick up something that you put to bed, but the goal is getting published. This agent thinks you can do that. Follow their lead.
Coming very late to the game...
Date: 2006-09-01 04:24 am (UTC)GOOD LUCK!