Agent Q&A - Michael Carr, Veritas Literary

bleustock said:

Here's a question I haven't seen asked here that I'm hoping you can help me with...

Lately, as I've been reading the blogs of various authors, even those who are newer and not-yet-successful, I'm struck by how much time they seem to spend being sent on book tours. It seems like many of them are gone for weeks at a time, and many successful writers seem to be travelling multiple times each year.

So here's my question... what if you can't do this? What if you have professional or familiy obligations that simply can't be met if you're gone for extended periods? When you sign with a publisher, are you contractually obligated to tour, and, if so, how much control do you have over how much you are gone?

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There are writers who do constant publicity and there are writers whose own agents and editors have never met, barely even know where they live. Don't stress too much about self-promotion. In most cases, I think a writer is better served writing another book than spending a zillion hours doing interviews, blogging, etc.

dgaughran said:

Hi Michael,

There are more women working in the industry than ever before, whether as writers, agents, booksellers or editors (albeit with some serious underrepresentation in certain areas, particularly at the higher end of the corporate structures). And there are more women reading than ever before. I don't know the exact figures, but I have heard that women purchase far more books than men, and in terms of fiction (which I write), some surveys have women purchasing five times more novels than men - figures which seem to hold up across the US, Canada, and the UK.

Do you think that men purchase far less novels because they are that much less interested in fiction (for whatever reason)? Or is there perhaps an element of their market being under-served?

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Is this new? I think women have been better represented as writers, editors, etc., for generations, relative to most other careers. And it's no coincidence that the rise of the novel as an art form corresponds with the rise of universal female literacy.

I understand perfectly well why women love books and reading so much, but what I can't figure out is why so many boys and men abandon reading as they get older. As a dedicated amateur thespian, I ask the same thing about the theater, as well. It's not like men don't love stories, movies, TV. At least in the case of the theater, I'm the beneficiary, as I can get almost any role I want, while there are always a dozen talented women for every good female part.

I guess this is all a roundabout way of asking you what you think the market is like at the moment for adventure fiction.

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I think you can successfully write adventure fiction while not cutting off a large part of your audience. Think of how Hollywood has learned to put strong female characters, romantic interests, and other character developments into even the schlockiest special effects extravaganzas. And its not like women don't like reading adventure and men don't like reading about strong female characters. Or writing about them, for that matter.

Doobie Cantrip said:

Hi Michael,
just had my rejection from you today (ouch, cause you seem like a great agent!)

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Rejections are the worst part of my job and there are times when I sit down to answer queries and I simply can't bring myself to do it and have to go work on something else for awhile because I can't stand the thought of sending off all those small bits of disappointment one after another.

I don't know if you feel able to answer this but, would you tell someone outright (in not so many words) if you thought their query was a pile of poo?????

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No, I don't. There are times when I see a terrible or simply wrong query and then glance at the first page (I always do this) and realize that the writer is a better writer than her query and I will give one small bit of advice. I've probably included a link to SYW queries on this site twenty or thirty times. Some writers simply have not learned that there is a standard query format.

Other times, I'll add at the end, "Your query was not bad, although it was not for me. As a small bit of advice, I suggest including the first five pages of the manuscript (not as an attachment) to the bottom of your query. This will give you a second chance with agents who may otherwise be on the fence. I suspect you are currently missing out on some requests you might otherwise earn."

In general, though, I don't have time to give writing advice to 20-30 people each and every day, so I save most of my personalized comments for requested partials and fulls.

Cinzia8 said:

Hello Michael,

I attended a "Pitch and Sell" writers conference in NYC and before I arrived I was asked to find three different book jacket synopses that I liked and fashion three different queries around these, which I did. From these, I built one. Would you agree with this approach? I also have room for my pitch and platform all on one page.

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Seems like it could work, although there's no way to tell without looking at the query that resulted. Have you tried to put your query in the SYW section to get some feedback? I almost always agree with the group consensus in the forum on whether or not queries work.

bleustock said:

Thanks, Michael! That's a huge relief to me. I've been wondering about this since I signed with my agent, but I was too afraid to ask her about it for fear of sending her running in the other direction.

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No, don't worry about that. Obviously, there comes a point where you can be too needy, but your agent will be happy to answer a simple question about career management. That's what she's there for.

CheyElizabeth said:

Is it better to flat out say I have no publishing credits, or better to leave it off? I figure if I say it, I'm bringing it to their attention that I've never been published. But if I leave it off and have a superb query (thanks to AW and QLH) then the query should speak for itself, yes?

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Let the query speak for itself. I reject people all the time with interesting credits because the query and pages simply don't grab me. Of course, if I see someone with a great credit, my attention focuses at a slightly higher magnification, but that's it. A great query and pages are more important than anything else, and nothing else can compensate if those are lacking.

ROF said:

I understand that emails are copyrighted, but if the email was sent directly to me, the intended recipient, can I quote those emails in my book?

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I'd get a signed waiver if it were me.

milly said:

1. If an author has queried you and you rejected based on a query only, would you consider a revised query from the same author some months later or would you reject it outright? Is there some sort of "rule" that authors should abide by in order to not seem pushy or rude in this regard?

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I prefer not to see another query for the same project unless I explicitly ask for a R&R.

2. If an author has queried you for one novel and you rejected it, how much time should he or she wait before querying you on an entirely separate novel? Is this your preference or likely an industry norm?

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Use your judgment, but the main problem with a submission that follows too closely on the heels of a reject is that I see it and immediately think trunk novel. About once a day I'll see a followup query to a rejection I sent out somewhere between 10 minutes and 10 days earlier. Ninety percent of the time these are weaker than the original submission.

Whether or not this is true in your case, you don't want me to enter your query with this expectation. I would assume you'll face the same thing when submitting to other agents.

JSSchley said:

Hi Michael,
I often hear that awards often should be left out of a query because often they don't mean much beyond the taste of the judges, but is this the kind of award that would be an exception and should be included?

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If you think there's a decent chance the agent has heard of it, I don't suppose it would hurt, space permitting. You have to realize that there are hundreds of awards out there that have some prestige within a specific community. I'm judging one of them right now, but I'd never heard of it before the contest administrators approached me to ask if I'd be the judge.

GreaterGatsby said:

I hear over and over that the publishing world is small. Do agents talk to each other about their experience with other agents' clients? As in, "Oh, I see your client published X book - I considered it and he was too prima donna for me to take on. hope it's going better for you." Or, "I really thought that book sucked, good for you for making it work."

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I'm sure some do, but we're not based in NY, so I don't actually see other agents all that often. When I go to NY it's to meet editors. On the rare occasion that I see other agents, we don't usually talk business.