Foreigners writing in English--a turnoff to agents?

Ladyfab said:

My question is: do you believe American agents respond better to American authors than to someone like me, who doesn't write in her mother tongue?

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From your post, I'd never guess English wasn't your native language, so I doubt that the problem is your writing. It's really hard to say why an agent rejects a work if they don't explicitly say.

I have a hard time believing that a substantial percentage of agents would have the concern that the one did about the nationalities of the characters. I mean, c'mon.... HARRY freaking POTTER???? And that only tops the list of bestselling YA in which the characters aren't American.

Since you're not getting a good response from your query, it could be that the query falls flat. I'd suggest you post it in Share Your Work (password: vista) to see if you get suggestions for improving the query letter.

Also, have you tried the UK market?

Ladyfab said:

Hi everyone,

I'm from France and have been trying to sell my realistic YA novels for a few years now. I should be getting a higher response than I'm getting (average: 1 in 50)--according to most who've critiqued both my queries and manuscripts. Trust me, I've workshopped them both to death, but rarely anyone wants to take a look at even a chapter of my book when I query. The two beta readers for my last book are both very surprised this one especially is getting such a poor reponse rate.

My question is: do you believe American agents respond better to American authors than to someone like me, who doesn't write in her mother tongue?

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The 2% response rate you're getting is average, and the problem is most likely your query. Why don't you post it in the SYW area and see what people think?

Ladyfab said:

Julie, thanks for replying. I have posted several times in SYW (under different username. Changed it b/c i find it too revealing). In fact, I posted for my last three books. Number one, one which got through the amazon novel contest (in other words, they liked my query) got maybe one in a hundred when I queried agents. The second did get about one in 15, so it wasn't bad--despite that about 50 percent of SYWers didn't like it. But my last one--which got the blessing of about 80 percent in SYW and other writer friends--is getting zero requests.

So posting in SYW doesn't seem to be the answer.

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You can't go by the Amazon contest. They take the top 20%, but agents are taking the top 2%. Also, a smartly written bio has a big influence on agents, yet that isn't part of the contest. I used to collect successful queries, and I'd say one of the keys to a good query is making your bio sound great and tying it in nicely to the story you're pitching.

From reading your posts, I wouldn't rule out that the query and/or initial pages aren't as effective as they could be, but I'm wondering more if you just haven't yet queried something commerically viable for a first novel.

It seems from your posts that the books you've queried haven't been rejected because of the writing, but because of the plot elements. And it could be that agents are diagnosing those issues from the query and sample pages, too.

So, it could be that you just haven't yet queried something that clearly fits in the genre you are querying, and has the level of marketability a first novel needs.

The MG sounds like it was off the mark, and I'd guess some, if not a lot, of the passing agents got that from the query and pages.

The gossip-girls-esque book sounds like it also had plot elements that make it a harder sell - it is true that some believe foreign characters are a harder sell in the US market, but more importantly, it sounds like in this book the inclusion of a foreign character was seen as unnecessary or disjointed.

So, if it's not your writing - and I can't rule that out, but I'm relying on your posts saying the passes were for plot, not writing - then I say keep trying, but maybe with your next focus clearly on the expectations of the book's genre and maybe aim for a little more marketability to break through.

~suki

Ladyfab said:

My question is: do you believe American agents respond better to American authors than to someone like me, who doesn't write in her mother tongue?

I appreciate all takes on my dilemma

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There are huge numbers of writers from countries all over the world who have American agents and publishers. Agents and editor both respond to anything they believe will sell, no matter where it's from, or who it's from.

One in fifty is a ridiculously low request rate, and means you're doing something seriously wrong. Good queries always have a much, much higher request rate.

Now, simply put, it doesn't matter a damn how many people like your query, whether at Amazon, or here on AW, it's no indication of whether agents will like it, and in your case, they do not. So your query needs reworked.

Base your new query on what agents like, not on what anyone, anywhere, who isn't an agent likes. To do this, you have to find, by hook, by crook, or by magic, if need be, queries that agents in question have said yes to, figure out why they said yes, and write your query accordingly.

But having said all of this, it is one heck of a lot easier to move a novel into the American market if it has first been published in the writers native country, and has had a measure of success in that market. There is often the mindset that says, "If the book can't do well in its own country, why should I believe that it will do well here?"

Ladyfab said:

. Am reading tons of YA books and my fourth will be super-commercial! Congratulations on PERSONAL EFFECTS, by the way.

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Reading a ton of YA and getting to know the genre better is great! And thank you

Jamesaritchie said:

There are huge numbers of writers from countries all over the world who have American agents and publishers. Agents and editor both respond to anything they believe will sell, no matter where it's from, or who it's from.

One in fifty is a ridiculously low request rate, and means you're doing something seriously wrong. Good queries always have a much, much higher request rate.

Now, simply put, it doesn't matter a damn how many people like your query, whether at Amazon, or here on AW, it's no indication of whether agents will like it, and in your case, they do not. So your query needs reworked.

Base your new query on what agents like, not on what anyone, anywhere, who isn't an agent likes. To do this, you have to find, by hook, by crook, or by magic, if need be, queries that agents in question have said yes to, figure out why they said yes, and write your query accordingly.

But having said all of this, it is one heck of a lot easier to move a novel into the American market if it has first been published in the writers native country, and has had a measure of success in that market. There is often the mindset that says, "If the book can't do well in its own country, why should I believe that it will do well here?"

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I don't necessarily disagree, but I also don't totally agree.

Even a kickass query is going to have a poor request rate if the book is clearly not very comemrcially viable - so, while I agree that the queries probably could be stronger, I also think it's possible that the books are just not marketable enough conceptually to draft an effective query for them - ie, the queries are clear and well-written and engaging, but for concepts the agent knows from the query is not for them/going to be too hard a sell. Some books just have a very low request rate if they are on the fringes of marketable or very niche/hard sell markets.

~suki

Not having seen your query, and not being all that well-versed in your genre, there's not much I can say - but if it helps, I'm also European (Dutch) querying US agents, and there doesn't seem to be any bias looking at my request rate.

Good luck!

Terie said:

From your post, I'd never guess English wasn't your native language, so I doubt that the problem is your writing. It's really hard to say why an agent rejects a work if they don't explicitly say.

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Me neither. I'd never have picked you out as non-native english speaker

suki said:

Reading a ton of YA and getting to know the genre better is great! And thank you



I don't necessarily disagree, but I also don't totally agree.

Even a kickass query is going to have a poor request rate if the book is clearly not very comemrcially viable - so, while I agree that the queries probably could be stronger, I also think it's possible that the books are just not marketable enough conceptually to draft an effective query for them - ie, the queries are clear and well-written and engaging, but for concepts the agent knows from the query is not for them/going to be too hard a sell. Some books just have a very low request rate if they are on the fringes of marketable or very niche/hard sell markets.

~suki

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If an agent can tell from your query that the book is not commercially viable, you've written a lousy query.

Jamesaritchie said:

If an agent can tell from your query that the book is not commercially viable, you've written a lousy query.

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That's not true. A query can still be kickass even if the book isn't commercial. But, to be fair, I think what you're trying to say is that a writer ought to write a commercially viable book and then query it. So the problem essentially lies with the manuscript, not with the actual query. Am I correct?

Although your letter doesn't earmark you as a foreign writer, your manuscript may give you away. I had a wonderful query from an Israeli author, and her letters to me were strictly in American idiom. But her manuscript, translated Hebrew-to-English, lacked a true understanding of the syntax. She was good for short pieces but failed in a long one.