I think one of the biggest current misconceptions about “Be An Agent for a Day” involves ignoring this little number in the rules and regulations:
6. For the purposes of this contest you are looking for queries that demonstrate publishable potential, not necessarily your genres of interest.
I was kind of surprised to see that people outright discounted certain genres that they weren’t interested in, on the grounds that agents do this as well.
Yes. We are allowed to specialize. To a certain extent. No agent I know limits themselves solely to genres they like to read for pleasure. You just can’t make a living that way. Every agent focuses on projects they are passionate about, but agents are passionate about selling. We take on things we strongly believe we can sell. Even if it’s not what we would read if we were civilians.
All that said, how do you think you did? If you had to bet, how many of the actually published books do you think you chose? Are you confident in your choices?
I chose #9, #13, #14, #29, and #48. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be. It took me about three hours and I left comments for some.
My first read through gave me 15 selections and then I went back and reread, whittled down, and reread the remaining again.
It didn’t matter to me how involved the premise was as long as it was explained clearly in the query.
I wanted to say something about the process.
Even though we were told to pay attention to rule number 6, choose according to the strength of the story/project and whether it would sell…
I have to say that genre does matter to me. I had a hard time choosing 5, not because I liked too many of them but because I DIDN’T like very many of them. I do not enjoy reading science fiction/fantasy as a general rule and saw so many of that type of book. If I happened to BE an agent, I would have to read the entire manuscript if I requested it which would be torture for someone who doesn’t like that genre.
As an example of what I DO like, I chose a non-fiction work, #29 I think it was. Medical stuff appeals to me and I think the public likes finding out about things doctors don’t want you to know.
Now, just to be clear, I’m sure that some of these writers are very good at what they do, but to be honest, I wouldn’t want to read the manuscripts because the subjects just don’t interest me.
I just posted something on another thread that probably belongs here: Trying not to accept or reject queries based on my genre interest is one thing; determining marketability is quite another.
Only two of my five requests were close to my preferred genre of SF&F, but were also YA, which I don't usually read. The others were a YA, thriller, and women's lit/literary fiction. I have no idea if any of these books are what that genre's market would buy.
However, I really enjoyed myself. I'm looking forward to the results!
Jim Duncan, read your revised query on Brennan’s site. That one I would have requested. I didn’t get enough of a sense of the story from the first person POV attempt.
I think this new one is a big improvement. (we can no longer comment on specific entries, which is too bad)