Sunday, May 12, 2013

Irritating Query Research

I'm going to paraphrase a quote from an agent bio found tonight as I was trying to work on queries.

She wants stories told with an honesty that can only come from the heart of the storyteller. 

Apart from being a bit purply-prosaic, this agent's blurb is maddeningly non-specific as to genres she represents.  It does, however, wax not-at-all-helpful with the encouragement to excite her with the following undefined requirements:  "artful" storytelling, a "unique" voice, and "a new perspective" ...

How is an author supposed to know what this agent finds "new", "unique", or "artful" (something I'd prefer to stay away from, as "artful" is to me a term limited to the coy romantic stylings of young Victorian heroines I find repellant)?  My voice as expressed through Clovis is without question unique - but I get the sense from the schmoop here it would hardly appeal to an agent hunting through her submittors' hearts.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  we as writers owe a great deal of work and research to our submissions, and gratitude to agents, along with a modicum of respect for submission guidelines.  But agents and agencies owe us the courtesy of *clarity* in those guidelines.

Sheesh.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Honesty? Heart? The heart is a notorious liar, often reeling the brain into the act.
Sheesh, indeed.

DLM said...

True - but, more to the point, these terms are so nebulous as to be 100% useless as a guide to "here is what I want to read" for someone to figure out whether to submit. For me their only use was their very uselessness. The lack of specificity told me here is an agent who can't communicate in a way I could possibly hope to tolerate.