I’m very nervous. Look at my hand. Look at the pulse racing in my neck.
I’m talking to an agent on Monday. She’s a very curt, relatively cold, no nonsense agent. I suspect she may tap a pen on the desk while she talks to me. We are scheduled to discuss my first novel. A novel that I’ve literally thrown my life into for two years. Some may recall that I was crying about it two weeks ago.
I’m worried because she says that she has some “ideas” on how to “polish” it and make it “marketable”. My question is this; at what point am I able to say, “no no no NO! I worked my ASS off coming up with this story! I’m not going to make the main character a thin Paris model when she’s supposed to be a hooker.” “I will not alter the plot to give it a Hollywood ending!” “I will NOT cut out the incestuous sex!”
Do they really suggest these things, or have I watched too many movies? And how difficult can I be before she just sighs and says, “forget it”? I don’t want to blow it. It’s my one big chance.
I’m nervous. I’m swallowing a lot and my tongue is dry.
Good luck on the meeting! She may be a hardass, but she liked your novel enough to ask you in. Take comfort in that.
Okay, this advice is coming from a screenwriter’s perspective (where they absolutely DO ask you to give the plot a more Hollywood ending! :)), but I’m sure these aspects of the agent game aren’t all that different.
Yes, it can be nerveracking going in to meet an agent for the first time, particularly one such as you describe. But always remember this: an agent is YOUR employee, not the other way around. YOU pay THEM. They work for you. Don’t let her fool you. This is coming from someone who has fired an agent.
No, you haven’t watched too many movies. Some agents really do ask for these silly changes. But if she does, you know she’s not the right agent for you.
Ask yourself if you can live with the changes she suggests. They might be good changes; there may be a good reason why she has gotten to where she is. Don’t kneejerk response (in your head or out loud) that you don’t want to change a thing. On the other hand, of course, she might ask you to insert a talking monkey. Will you still be proud of the novel if you make these changes? If not, don’t make them. You’ll never be happy with them; they won’t grow on you. In fact, you’ll hate them more and more every time you read them or think about them. Again, I’m speaking from experience here! It certainly isn’t worth it for an agent. There are a lot of agents around; if this one doesn’t share your vision, there is another one somewhere that does.
Now of course, if a PUBLISHER offers to publish your novel if you make the changes, then the answer becomes a bit more difficult. But I’d still say the same thing.
Well, what I’ve done is gone through the book again and made little notes of what I’m willing to alter and what I’m absolutely steadfast on ahead of time. I mean, there are definitely things that I KNOW need polishing, and I’d love to hear if she knows how to fix them. But then there are things that I think are spot on perfect and i just couldn’t imagine handing the book over if one aspect of them were going to be changed.
I guess we’ll have to just wait and see.
thanks for the advice. And good luck to you as well!
I’m not ignoring you . . . It’s just that I have no experience with agents; and as a biographer, there’s only SO many changes that can be suggested . . .
If this agent agrees to represent jar’s manuscript, and sells it to Knopf for one million dollars, the agent will keep somewhere between one hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in her coffers.
All the Knopf money will be routed through her office. She will deposit the publisher’s checks and cut new checks for jar which will reflect her percentage.
Hence the slang term “ten-percenter” for literary agent…although many get up to fifteen percent these days.
Some agents charge a reader’s fee for considering a manuscript. The less said about these scamsters, the better.
Yes, she told me right up front that she DOES NOT charge reading fees. I think she’s on the level.
MoonGazer, I’m not paying her anything yet. I’m just groveling at her feet to represent my book.
Anamorphic said,
This is the advice everyone is giving me when I get all worked up, but what I get stuck on is that until she’s my employee, I’m basically her bitch. She’s got 40 billion manuscripts on her desk. If I don’t say the right thing, she tosses mine out. That’s why I’m trying to plan ahead of time.
The best advice I’ve seen, which I think may have been posted by someone else here before, is to remember, and make sure she remembers that it’s YOUR name that goes on the cover. You pretty much have some sort of right to a line that you will not cross, because it’s your ass that’s going on the line. Of course, I’ve never written a book or anything.
