agent question

So. Many. Red. Flags.

firstly-- she's been shopping the first book for THREE YEARS, blames delays on hurricane sandy (yeah, slow for a few weeks. publishing has moved on), and she doesn't want to read your other books.

That last bolded bit is a serious problem in my opinion. In theory you grow as a writer with each book, and she should've hit all the high notes on submissions the first year. I can hit the majority of editors/publishers within six months. Yes, I do shop things for a whole year becuase the stragglers always are slow, but the vast majority of editors I shop to have read and replied in 2-3 months. So I can do a few rounds in one year.

A fresh sub is your absolute best bet, at this point, to getting a new sale. She should be evaluating everything you write to find the strongest projects, and then she should be shopping them.

That she doesn't even want to look at them? That's ridiculous.

Second red flag-- she's suggesting you rewrite this thing as YA after three years of shopping it? Does she rep YA and know the genre inside and out?

DO YOU read YA and know how to write an authentic teen voice and character?

Sci-Fi in YA, by the way, can present its own challenges. Just becuase it's YA doesn't mean its a hot market.

Hmm, have to agree that glibbly telling you to write YA makes me nervous. YA is its own creature, with different expectations and language and tone. It's about exploring boundaries and finding your place in the world and what have you. Have you ever written it? If so I'd be less nervous about the request. But even if you have, it's not a simple matter to take a book for adults and convert it to YA.

YA sci-fi being a tough sell or not (there's debate on that--I see a lot of agents asking for it and others saying no) aside, I'm more concerned that she doesn't seem to want your other works unless you go into a whole different age group. Is YA what you really want to write? If not, and she's insistent that's what she wants you to produce, it may be time to shop for new representation.

That's as strange and off-putting a request as I can imagine.

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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Yeah. I'd be pretty upset if my (hypothetical) agent suggested I rewrite a book in a genre/category I don't currently read, write or have an interest in.

Taking an adult SF and turning into a YA book is about as ridiculous as saying "Maybe if you rewrote this space-opera as a cozy mystery."

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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Rewriting your story as YA would not require you to "dumb down the story" -- and the fact that you think it would pretty much shows you shouldn't try to write YA.

But on topic, yes, red flags. If your initial contact was with the head of the agency, have you considered speaking with him or her about your concerns with your agent?

And if you are considering changing representation, you will need to read your contract with your ageny carefully and follow the termination provisions before contacting potential new agents. You will also want to get a complete list of all of the editors to whom your current agent subbed your work, and their responses.

good luck.

~suki

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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Ahem. YA is not a "dumb down" version of adult.

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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My bold.

Excuse me, greg?

That's a very dismissive attitude to take towards both readers and writers of YA. It's rude, and it displays a lamentable lack of knowledge and respect of that genre.

Old Hack said:

My bold.

Excuse me, greg?

That's a very dismissive attitude to take towards both readers and writers of YA. It's rude, and it displays a lamentable lack of knowledge and respect of that genre.

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All the more reason he shouldn't try to tackle the request.

She may be getting YA requests from publishers and sees the subject matter/characters of this book as something that could be re-worked into a YA manuscript. But, it's probably not a good idea to undertake such a transformation. If it's not your own vision for the book, chances are the attempt would fail.

I think you need to have a long, sincere conversation with her, get her to listen to (read?) your other ideas or move on. It doesn't sound like a good partnership if she really doesn't believe in the book she's been subbing.

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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Wow. Just....wow.

Anyone who thinks that teens require 'dumb' writing shouldn't even consider writing for teens.

Also, nice job insulting my work and the work of my fellow YA writers. Or did you think we'd be too dumb to notice? At least we know who not to bother replying to in future.

I agree with others. That your agent would tell you to rewrite to another genre doesn't sound very encouraging.

I haven't read YA for a while, but I don't think it is "dumber" than adult fiction. I don't write it either, I'm adult fiction all the way. Having written that, I'll point out YA is different, the challenges are significant - so is the upside.

If you aren't comfortable with a genre, don't go there. Write where you're happy.

Looking at your experiences from out here in the ether, it sounds as if you should be looking for another agent. Good luck!

52greg said:

No, I don't read YA, and I'm not particularly interested in writing it. I responded to her email by saying I'd consider it, but I didn't want to dumb down the story. She hasn't responded yet.

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Not going to blast you for an unfortunate turn of phrase, as your butt's already caught enough shot for that. However, yeah, if that's how you think of YA, trying to write it is probably not a good idea.

If someone asked me to change an "adult" novel to YA, I'd be assuming they meant to change the main character to someone between 16-18 years old, with all necessary changes in focus. That's about it.

I think changing to YA would require a major restructuring that would not appeal to me simply because of the workload involved.

52greg said:

Wow! Thanks for all the responses. There's a lot to respond to.

First, my agent has never told me she's top-notch, but other people have, and she reps a huge name in the genre she works, so I take those as good signs. Having said that, the owner of the agency accepted my novel and gave it to her, and I've never felt she was as enthusiastic about it as he was. Over the three years, she has submitted my novel to the top U.S. publishers in the genre, and that has eaten up time. She also told me Hurricane Sandy last year delayed things. When I email her with a question, she replies, but she rarely contacts me first.

I have six completed novels ready for submission, including two in her genre. I've tried to send her the second one to read, but she insists we must focus on selling the current one first. She's also told me, by the way, that it's fine if I seek other representation for the novels outside her genre, which I'm doing.

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The bolded items in your post strike me as clues that this agent may not be the right one for your work. I find the second item particularly odd, because usually if an agent can't sell a work within a couple of years, they're willing to try with something else. It's not unusual for an author's second work to sell when the first one didn't. It is unusual that the agent doesn't want to give it a try.

I heard from my agent yesterday. She wants me to consider rewriting my hard SF novel to make it YA. It's the first idea from her in a long time.

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Yet another warning sign. This does not sound like a sensible request.

My agent focuses on one thing at a time. I don't think there's anything wrong with that in and of itself. The problem here is that such a long period of time has passed that there isn't a good reason why the agent shouldn't have moved on to the next.

And I just want to add: Good Luck!

They could take a year to pitch your book to three publishers, or take a week to pitch 100. Rather than a fixed deadline, I'd be more interested in regular communication. Expect a report about monthly, or ask about once a month. Ultimately, the single most import ingredient to your success is YOU, and the story. The best agent in the world won't be able to sell a bad story, or a story with an uncooperative author.