I have reached some sort of blog milestone in that I was halfway through writing a blog post about some writers focusing too much on the themes of their book in queries before I realized….. something felt a little familiar.
Then I realized: I’d written the exact same post before. Right down to the blog title. Whoops! Luckily I remembered before I unconsciously plagiarized myself.
Here is the original post, from March 29, 2007, which most definitely still applies, this time with feeling:
So you know how you spent four or more years in college learning about what books mean and how to analyze novels for hidden meaning, and where you learned that the best books are the ones with subtext upon which you can write a twenty page paper on the use of metaphor as an elucidation of the philosophical constructs of the protagonist’s society?
Yeah. Forget all that.
I get quite a few query letters that sound like this (btw this is made up, I will never make fun of your query letter in this space, agent’s honor):
“My novel explores themes of love and themes of passion. The protagonist fights against the evils inherent in our society and must come to terms with his inner sense of frustration and futility. But ultimately the novel is about how we as human beings must develop a sense of self and prevail in the face of society’s obstacles.”
No offense to myself for writing that, but that does not exactly make me want to read more of my own writing.
It’s really the oldest writing advice in the book: Show don’t tell. College teaches you to tell. It teaches you to look for subtext and it conditions you think you should pack your novel full of references and themes so future scholars will have a job. And then people write their query like it’s a term paper.
I’m not (praise Tyra) planning on writing a twenty page paper on your novel, so don’t tell me what your novel is about. Tell me what happens. And hopefully you’ve written a novel in which things actually do happen. Because I like novels where things happen. Happening is good.
To expand further on this topic, I recently attended a football game, (chronicled hilariously here by my friend Holly), and we were talking about how much some aspiring authors want to leave behind books with artistic integrity that they’re proud of even if they don’t sell, and I definitely respect this. (What else would you talk about on the way to a football game??).
At the same time, it got me to thinking: are writers artists or artisans?
I think the drive to write Literature/art sometimes leads some very talented writers, especially young ones, to write books that as an agent I can’t sell because there’s too much attention paid to the themes and the subtext and the meaning and other English-class-type concerns, rather than the narrative and the plot and the craft and other sausagemaking-type concerns. And this is reflected in how they think of and describe the work: these types of novels tend to correlate with queries that read like the aforementioned college papers.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with artistic integrity and thinking deeply about the meaning in your book and writing books that are dense, weighty, and/or wildly experimental. But particularly in this day and age, the audience for novels where too little attention is paid to narrative and plot and storytelling was already small and seems to be shrinking by the moment. There are definitely a few places that still are open to this type of writing, but they tend to be small presses/collectives and you don’t necessarily need an agent to find them.
I also think that some of these writers have a bit of a mistaken belief about the books that are published these days that are instant Literature, like GILEAD and ATONEMENT and OSCAR WAO. These books have plots. They are not impenetrable. The narratives are complex and they flow. Yes, the writing is beautiful and meaningful and there’s so much to take away, but Robinson and McEwan and Diaz also not only prose artists, they are fantastic storytellers and craftsmen who keep their readers spellbound.
Please know that I’m not making value judgments about writers as artists vs. artisans – I love all types of books and they all have their place. But as an agent, I have to follow the market. If you want to write Literature and also be published by a major publisher, these days it’s rare to find a book that just has deep themes in an otherwise impenetrable book. It also takes a story that people can’t put down. While there are some exceptions, for better or worse mainstream literary fiction is increasingly found at the intersection of quality and accessibility.
Title of an MFA CRW thesis: It's a wooden leg, Ishmael, get the literal meaning down and the figurative will follow. Ahab's peg leg is a whale bone.
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Not all that long ago the Big Six publishers still accepted unsolicited manuscripts. Agents weren't gatekeepers. (The Six Sisters, transnational publishing corporations, Bertelsmann, CBS Corporation, Hachette, News Corporation, Pearson and Verlagsgruppe. The Big Six U.S. conglomerates, Random House, Inc., Penguin Putnam, Inc.,
HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings, Time Warner,
Simon & Schuster, Inc., circa 2008) Not all that long before the big houses stopped accepting unsolicited manuscripts, literary agents were few and far between. Thousands now. It wasn't all that far in the distant past that writing workshops didn't exist. And not too terribly long ago, there weren't any book publishers as we know them today, just job shop book printers and binders. The advent of mass market and trade paperbacks in the early 20th Century changed the literature landscape. Technology changed the process markedly in the 20th Century. The one certainty of the future is change.
1947 357 publishers
2009 90,000 publishers with active ISBNs.
All very interesting. As often happens with me, I find myself on the fence. I would like to sell a million copies but I would also like to be remembered a hundred or two years from now. Which want is wrong? Either? Neither? This could give a guy a headache.
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo (first time, wheeee!) and the novel I have in mind could easily lend itself to dense and inaccessable(?) but I hope the speed at which I will have to write it will force me to take a lighter and, hopefully, more readable path.
Anyway, good thread. I'm off to lay in provisions for next month. Must have coffee and munchies.
Word Ver: wignoc – Is that anything like a Gibbs slap to the back of the head?
The publication marketplace is diffusing toward digital delivery of literature, but I think that's just a passing fascination trend with prestige and convenience appeal. The real strength of paper publication is it delivers the most personal, intimate, individual reading experience available, what makes reading meaningful to begin with. Digital publication technology creates an added degree or two of reader alienation from a text.
Correct. I should use the term "agents" and "publisher" interchangeably, given that they are really cut from the same cloth. I actually wonder how many agents came out of a background in the pub houses originally. 50+% at least I bet, so what's the difference, really? I mean you're basically selling a colleague who is like minded.
And no, I am not Gordon. Obviously he has no problem posting his very candid opinions under his own name, so it makes no sense to assume that anything I have said is anymore candid requiring anonymity were I him. Grief! Seems you would do well to read something a bit more demanding intellectually yourself.
Anon at 9:24:
You are assuming that I refer only to digitally available media.
Quite to the contrary, there will come a day when one can peruse, sample, and choose online one's own tastes directly from authors and consortiums of authors, then if one chooses, order and instantly on demand printed hardcopy book be sent directly to you, all sans agents and trad. pub houses.
That will be a blissful day!
anon@9:26-
I'm not sure why you keep denigrating my tastes since they run toward the literary, and all of my upcoming titles skew literary, even the ones that are genre fiction.
As I said further up in the thread, my intent wasn't to celebrate mass appeal over everything else. All I'm saying is that the current trend in culture and in the industry is moving toward accessibility over the esoteric. Don't conflate that with my own likes and dislikes.
Authors, lets all imagine what exactly I have envisioned as actually occurring:
What it would mean is that you would "query" and "pitch" your work directly to the consumer. You'd provide a query and sample and still be blurbed by others, basically all self marketed totally. Authors would be categorized and combined by genre etc etc etc. Just imagine it.
The success of your work would be purely a function of the quality and appeal of your own writing and your own efforts to market it.
Talk about "democratization"!
Oh, BTW – I am a current "traditionally" pubbed author sick of pub house BS.
By 'BS' I mean that the industry's narrow mindedness has become so pervasive at all levels that it now has a bizarre personality cult feel to it.
Its revolting and totally counter to an environment where artists and art can thrive.
So my final advice to aspiring artists is ignore the admonitions of agents. Read prolifically first and decide what you like and want to write, then write what YOU want and write everyday.
If you desire to write commercial, fine, then do that, but don't let anyone tell you that's your only option if you desire otherwise.
good luck
Anon 9:51,
I feel your pain, but… what you're talking about is a massive, unregulated slushpile full of millions of titles, much of which will be terrible. And the general customer (who is not a hardcore bookperson) does not want to wade through millions of titles trying to find one good book to take on vacation… they want to snag a book off a bestseller's table on the way to the local GAP store.
I mean, who's scanning through all the Lulu titles looking for their next read?
Just my take.
Hey, so I was sort of skimming the Anons above. It all started running together in terms of: angry person who thinks publishing sucks and isn't really interested in what anyone else is saying. But then I noticed something important:
I'm a minion.
Awesome. That is so cool.
I've always wanted to be a minion. I don't know exactly what a minion does, but whatever it is, I want to do it.
So, what are my job duties? What's my first minion-like assignment. I'm ready to be brain-washed, bring it on.
Also, sorry to bring this up so early in my new minion job, but do minions have health insurance? Because I have this weird feeling in my toe. I think I need to have it looked at.
(Note: If this post is deleted, I shall accept it like a good little minion, who is feeling playful.)
If you didn't give a ____ what people thought, you wouldn't respond to them or post at all.
I have observed some interesting responses in my crit group.
The group is eclectic and all are smart, educated, well read, informed, and open minded.
The esoteric writing is admired in pieces and rarely understood as a whole. The typical response is that it makes the reader work too hard.
The enthusiasm in the group for someone's writing seems to escalate when there is a fast moving, followable plot AND the writing is delicious, conveys the writer's voice well, AND–like the plot should be–is also followable.
i.e., If it reads like a beautifully filmed well-timed, strongly plotted movie.
Do you lose yourself in it and come away breathless?
The theme is the juicy stuff you take to the coffee house afterwards. I love the underlying levels, but the plot is what carries everything. (I have been learning how not to hide the plot!!)
Wow, I was debating just this thing in my head. Thanks!
Holy Bejesus! Did I ever miss a fun debate yesterday?!
That'll teach me to have work to do.
The first thing I write every morning, before working on my novel or a short story or whatever, is a message on my whiteboard: "Artisan at work." May seem corny, but it helps put me in mind to create something that others can also appreciate.
I guess I don't see it at odds with "literary fiction"–but neither is it "artsy."
I'd love to print your blog out and give it to all the English teachers my kids have now and have ever had. They can easily kill the love of reading for kids.
Was talking to my son's tutor this summer. My son will read To Kill a Mockingbird this year. The tutor went on and on and about the symbolism of it. I loved that book, but only because it was a good story. And I identified with Scout.
And yes, I'd rather write something people want to read.
Hmmm. Great question: Artist or craftsman?
Artists create. Writers create.
Artists' creations are self-expression. So are writers' creations.
Artists' work may only take a moment to experience, but writers require a commitment of time from those who would experience the work. Writers have to hone and plane down their work to the point where it will hold the reader and involve them on a much deeper level than the work of visual artists.
On the other hand, owning a fine set of tools and skilled hands may not guarantee good results when the medium is words. The finish may be smooth and clean, the design may be attractive, but if it doesn't do anything, it might as well be … craft.
There is a range of skill and application in writing as there is in any of the human arts, with hacks on one end, and artists on the other. It takes skillful manipulation and handling to turn a story into art, but it also takes spirit, which is the spark that may or may not be learned. In the exact same way that not every stroke of color from a brush is art, or even creative work. Some is just paint.
Is this where I admit that what I secretly want is to write an extraordinary novel which will only be discovered and appreciated as it deserves to be after my death? I just think that is the epitome of the Great Artist's Journey – to be misunderstood, overlooked and rejected, only for people to recognise your genius when it is too late. Plus at least that way you never have to go on any daytime TV talk shows.
I aspire to write literary fiction. I love reading works that leave me thinking about them for years to come, works that teach me something or show me a world unknown until that moment. Sometimes, I do like to veg out in front of something mindlessly entertaining, but my mind needs to be engaged to remain sharp. I am so grateful to authors who write literary fiction. Thank you.