The Agent

A great new series from Guardian Books online - five live webchats with book industry insiders.

The first happened last Friday as Karolina Sutton, an agent at Curtis Brown, braved the live session. Questions came from hopeful first-timers and from one literary star - tweny years ago much published and famous - who could no longer get the attention of the industry.  Plus all shades of writer in between.

It's worth trawling through the whole thread. Fascinating! Yes, we know this already but reading it confirms:

a. how very subjective it all is

b. there is a huge amount of luck involved

c. being able to write well is no guarantee of publication

As Karolina says, "Rejection is not a condemnation but an opinion ... I wouldn’t want to represent every book that has a potential to be published. A single agent can only take on a limited number of clients."

As long as it is such a lottery, isn't it worth buying a ticket?

Next in the series is Canongate Editor, Francis Bickmore.

 

Comments

[Pam Johnson]

Thanks for posting that, Kellie. The Garner quote was one I almost chose! Something to pin above the desk?

[Kellie Jackson]

Great Link. Amongst other comments it was helpful to read Karolina Sutton's definition of a synopsis.

"A good synopsis doesn't make any claims about the quality of the work. That's what a publisher's blurb is for. It is a simple summary of the plot. The simpler, the better. I rarely read synopses because writers are notoriously bad at writing them. I prefer to judge the manuscript itself."

Also I liked her response to this comment;

I see you represent Alan Garner. On another website he’s quoted, from 1987 -- "When you start, the world of publishing seems like a great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more difficult now, and take longer than when I started to write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there looking for simple talent."
I knew I should have asked my clients to handle this task for me. They might not have got everything right, but they sure would have known how to phrase it better than I would. ‘A great, empty warehouse looking for simple talent’ is the best description of publishing I have read. Hats off to @alkibiades for quoting it. Publishing is more mundane and more approachable than most think and the only sacred space within it is the author’s imagination. We truly want nothing more than simple talent, put to good use.