Advice: what agents want
Yesterday I taught my first Guardian Masterclass of the year on how to pitch your book. The next is on 23rd February (click Guardian Masterclass for details). A question students always ask is: what exactly do agents want? It is easier to answer than you might think.
Of course everyone in publishing would say ‘voice’, by which they mean the character and personality of the writing. Agents want a voice that is unique, fresh and engaging. If you remain unclear what that means, the best way to understand is to read, read and read contemporary books. The narration – whether first or third person – will have a unique and distinct feel. From the opening paragraph it will engage you in a way that makes you want to read on and respond to the story and characters.
In every course I have taught people complain: ‘They say they want a unique voice, but all the books on sale look the same.’ Really? The comment reveals that the person speaking needs to read more, especially contemporary work within their chosen genre, if a novelist, or subject area, if writing non-fiction.
If you think voice doesn’t apply to non-fiction you should read cookery books. Isn’t a recipe book just a recipe book? No it is not. Jamie Oliver sounds nothing like Nigel Slater or Joanna Weinberg and none of them sound like Nigella. In another section of non-fiction, historians of the Second World War Ben MacIntyre and Anthony Beevor are completely different. The same is true of two biographers of Queen Victoria, Kate Williams and Helen Rappaport.
The misunderstanding about voice is in part because packaging is often confused with voice. Take a handful of writers of women’s commercial fiction – say Adele Parks, Jojo Moyes, Santa Sebag Montefiore and Rachel Hore. Each sounds different to the other. They may have covers that position them firmly in the same section of the supermarket, but they differ in subject and theme and in the way they approach characters, plot and the tone of their writing. That is what readers engage with and that is what makes them unique – it is also why three of them are represented by the same agent: there is no overlap, they just happen to appeal to a similar market.
What else do agents want? High on the list, especially in genre fiction, is a writer who knows instinctively how to tell a story. When I was at university there was a student called Baz who was a master of the shaggy dog story. These tales would go on for a long time and invariably have a terrible ending that left everybody groaning, but that didn’t matter. Why? Because it was the way Baz told them. He would have us hanging onto every word, usually in stiches
Now think of the people you know and how you respond when they start to tell a story. Do you engage or do you tune out or find yourself trying to cut them short? Unlike Baz, they have no instinct for storytelling. Now think about the novels you read and how they engage you and carry you through from first page to last. Does your manuscript do the same? It is an important question to answer, because the answer will help an agent determine whether to represent you or not. And don’t ask this question of your family and friends. They will probably lie. Get people you trust and who read widely to read your book and let them be completely honest,
Of course a good novel is more than just plot. Equally important when assessing a manuscript’s worth is whether the writer knows how to create characters readers will like and whether the dialogue is convincing.
Readers make an emotional investment in authors’ characters. It may be that they identify with them or that they aspire to be like them or that they want a character to redeem themselves. But, if a character is simply unpleasant to be around, unless you have rare skill – think Tom Wolfe or Patricia Highsmith – you risk alienating your reader. Not only will they close the book early, they will tell others they hated the book too
This is why the psychopathic killers who inhabit crime fiction rarely narrate entire novels. Those that do are engaging in some way: Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter is killing nastier psychos than himself and doing it with great humour and a degree of humanity absent from most psycho killers. When a perpetrator’s point of view is given it is almost always as a plot device to ramp up the tension and place the protagonist in peril. Val McDermid’s Jacko Vance is rendered even more threatening when we see his point of view, as is the perpetrator in Mari Hannah’s The Murder Wall.
As for convincing dialogue…well, can anything kill a good read faster than clunky dialogue? It kills any sense one has of the character or action. I think one way to test dialogue is to read it aloud or, better still, get a friend to read it. How does it sound? Does it sound natural? Are there pauses for breath? Is it appropriate to the action? I am not the only one for whom the final scene of Ian McEwan’s Saturday was rendered risible when the protagonist’s naked and pregnant daughter recites from memory Dover Beach while under threat of violent rape. I would love to hear your own examples.
And finally, the fifth element agents and publishers look for is whether the writer is clear about the genre in which he or she writes, whether crime, romance, thriller or women’s fiction and whether they are clear about what the book is about. ‘But’ – you may protest – ‘my book defies genre.’ Let’s get this straight: nothing defies genre. Even literary fiction is a genre – in fact much of it fits snugly into the classier end of crime or romance. Agents and publishers ask this question because they want to know if a book fits their list and how easy it will be to place in retail outlets.
And if you still don’t understand what an agent or publisher wants, here is my final bit of advice: get reading. It really is the only way to understand what constitutes successful writing. Read like an author: read critically; read to understand aspects of character, dialogue and voice; and read to understand the taste of the agent to whom you are pitching. Agents with websites usually feature client lists, go out and buy the latest books by those clients. Read around the genre – always contemporary work, not books published years ago. By doing this you will learn an enormous amount that should help when pitching your book.
© Danuta Kean 2013
14 Responses to “Advice: what agents want”
Great article – thanks for the sound advice. And I would add that even when you are published, you should still read, read, read. You learn as much from bad writing as good. Your masterclasses sound brilliant!
Very good advice. Makes a lot of sense reading contemporary fiction. I’ve also thought that reading books by new authors are an indication of what the agents are looking for too. What do you think?
I completely agree. And for another reason: established writers can get away with things not always allowed début writers. Reading début fiction or non-fiction helps one understand what is expected and how high the bar is for débuts.
A brilliant article Danuta. Thanks for always helping to keep my stretched, working-Mummy’s mind focussed on the bits that count!
“Is it appropriate to the action? I am not the only one for whom the final scene of Ian McEwan’s Saturday was rendered risible when the protagonist’s naked and pregnant daughter recites from memory Dover Beach while under threat of violent rape. I would love to hear your own examples.”
My example is this: in The Time-Traveller’s Wife, the protagonist and his wife recite Rilke’s poetry to each other while she is in the throes of labour. In German. I know the book is immensely popular but that scene (among others!) completely threw me off.
I’d forgotten about that. Isn’t that what all women and their partners do when giving birth?
What a brilliant post Danuta. Thank you. I’ve been on a near-exclusive diet of young adult fiction for the last couple of years since I started writing in this genre, and I would agree – reading around contemporary YA is probably the best thing I’ve done to improve my writing.
Some very helpful and insightful tips, thanks Danuta. I definitely engage with the characters in my book emotionally, but even more with the way they engage with each other. When an author succeeds in creating complex and intriguing relationships I can stay awake til the early hours of the morning promising I’ll put it down after the next page! Thanks for your article.
“Agents want a voice that is unique, fresh and engaging.”
Shouldn’t a writer be able to adapt his voice, to change his narrative style – to cut the fat – to fit his form?
When people say “find your voice”, some writers clench. I’m one of them.
Great summary, Danuta. I kept nodding and saying ‘Yes’.
I was also delighted to hear an authoritative figure like yourself insisting that literary fiction is a genre. I’ve been saying that for years, but people throw hissy fits and pour scorn upon me for saying it. (Not that I let that stop me.)
And of course no book ‘defies genre’. If any story was so original it couldn’t relate to humanity and we’d not understand a word of it, let alone enjoy it.
As for voice, my husband says I could write a shopping list and it’d show my voice.
I’d like to quote a couple of sentences from your article at my own writing workshops, if you don’t mind – giving you credit, of course.
Anna Jacobs, with 60 novels published as of today and still reading three novels a week by other authors, and still learning a lot
Of course you may, Anna, so long as you cite references and put in a link to the original I shall be very happy! dx
Hi Danuta
Thanks for such a useful post. The course sounds excellent. Your description of the ‘Baz factor’ made me laugh. I’d imagine we’ve all known someone like him who captivates when they start telling a story. It was reassuring to hear you mention factors which ‘make sense’ and which aren’t mysterious. That doesn’t, of course, make them easy to achieve! For me, contemporary crime authors with distinctive voices are Gillian Flynn, Tana French and Sophie Hannah. I met Sophie on a Faber course and saw immediately that she’s a natural storyteller, and is curious and very funny. I think these characteristics come across in the way she writes. Tana French’s voice is steeped in her culture, and Gillian Flynn’s detail, language and observations seem very fresh. Regarding dialogue, my main turn-off is speech which becomes a lo-o-ong paragraph. I read a book the other day in which a character’s speech item went on for a whole page. It bugs me most when speech is used to convey a lump of theory as, then, I feel like I’m being ‘taught’ and ‘told about stuff’ rather than reading a book for pleasure. I wanted to ask about one point you made in your blogpiece. I can see that agents want authors to be clear about what genre their work falls into. However, it seems that cross-genres novels are (becoming?) popular. The numerous sub-categories of crime, for example, are a case in point. I understand that ‘thrillers’ and ‘crime fiction’ used to be completely separate genres. On my course, we had a lecture telling us all the ways in which they are completely different, and that one could never be the other. But, increasingly, I’m seeing people referring to their books as ‘crime thrillers’. Psychological thrillers – which is what I write – come under the umbrella of crime fiction. So, your point that ‘nothing defies genre’ intrigued me. Can you say a bit more about what you mean? I don’t know if I am right in this, but from writers I know, who’ve approached agents, some (agents) seem to like the idea of a genre-busting or mixed genre novel, and some want authors who write straight crime, sci fi etc. Do you think that’s right? Regards, Vicky.
Hi Vicky thanks for your feedback. Those a great examples of distinctive crime writers – and ones who defy the old fashioned idea of genre. And yep, I agree completely about long speeches or dialogue being used to highlight a plot point or theory. But that is what people mean by show not tell, which is another thing I shall blog about at some point as it seems mired in mystery, but is really quite simple. As for your question about genre, publishers and agents are not asking you where exactly your book would sit on a shelf, but where it sits broadly in a wide market. It may be a literary thriller or a psychological mystery or time slip romantic comedy. What they want to know is that you have a broad understanding about what your book is about and what it aims to do. Too often people say to me: ‘My book is literary and really doesn’t fit a genre.’ It isn’t helpful, because, apart from anything else, literary fiction is increasingly hard to sell in a market dominated by supermarkets I always ask people to tell me a bit about the plot, invariably they tell me it starts with a mystery (psychological mystery or thriller) or centres on the relationship between three members of a family from different generations (family saga) or tells the story of a two people torn apart by war/events etc (romance). It may be well written, but it fits into an identifiable genre. the best way to understand this is to look at the category into which a book is publisher (printed on the back above the RRP). The publisher may not even cite it within that genre, but it gives everyone a clear idea of your writing, which will help place it with a publisher and show its sales potential. The more you read, the more you will feel confident in your judgement (you clearly read and do get it, so be confident!). I hope that makes sense. Yours on a deadline Dx
And if you want to read a great voice in prose, who better than Joyce, Beckett, Bellow and Roth – the translations of Louis Ferdinand Celine take some beating as well for voice.
I’m trying to be a writer, but I can’t read many modern authors. JM Coetzee, Banville, DF Wallace, for sure – but I find life too short to read work by people barely older than myself. Instead of reading Joe Stretch I could be reading the King James Bible.
Does that mean I’ll never get published? I really don’t know.
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