How do I know that I really love it?
by literary agent Sara Crowe
I know pretty quickly if I am going to keep reading a submission, usually after just a few pages. The hard part comes after I have finished something great and I have to ask myself the big questions:
Do I love it so much that I cannot let it go? Do I love it as much as I love the super awesome books I already have on my list? Enough to want to work with the author on all their future books? Enough that I am confident that I can sell it to editors?
Publishing people all throw around the word love because we are passionate about books. Editors respond that they did not fall in love with it when they reject things; every agent has a book that they’ve taken on as “a labor of love”. Falling in love with a book is what we are all looking to do, readers, too.
For me, at least at first, it is a kind of high school love or infatuation. Usually, I read a manuscript in one sitting if that is possible– and if it is not possible, I am looking forward to my commute to keep reading. I am excited and giddy and talk about the book to everyone in my office, to my husband, to my babysitter. I can’t stop thinking about it, and I really, really, hope that the book will pick me! It has to pick me!
But the love I have for it cannot only be infatuation. It can’t be fleeting. It has to be a love that keeps growing. I am going to be with this book for a long time, and will probably read it five more times at least.
Sometimes talking about the book shows me that I do not love it enough, even though I think it is a great read. I see something wrong, but I can’t see a way to fix it. I hear myself describing it and I realize I do not have the enthusiasm I thought I did. When it is true love, I have ideas about what needs work, and I know exactly why I love it and how I will relate that love to editors.
Surprise also plays a large part in whether or not I fall in love with something. I read a lot of books each week. If your book does not have anything that surprises me, true love will not happen. My clients surprise me all the time, with each new project and that’s what I look for in new authors.
Like actual love, timing is everything. Sometimes I have to say no because I just sold something similar, or one of my clients is writing something that I think is too close, or it is simply not what I feel I need to add to my list at that moment.
And sometimes, as much as I love something, I have to let it go. It is my job to sell books to editors, and if at least a few editors are not coming to mind as I am reading, it can be a sign that I might not be the one who can sell it. Knowing what books to say yes to, and sometimes having the courage to say no to something that you know will sell, and that might even sell big, is a huge part of an agent’s job. Both yes and no are complicated and hard decisions.
Also, I should say that just because I think I can sell it does not equal I love it. Love has to come first, because without it, it’s not likely I will love this writer’s other projects any more than this one, and so we should not be working together.
Writing this post is reminding me that I have a giant submissions-to-read folder right now, after a very busy summer, and a few great conferences, and though it is overwhelming to be faced with a pile-up, I truly cannot wait to open each one. Something in those query letters caught my eye, made me eager to read, and each one has the potential to make me fall in love again, one more time.
Sara Crowe is an agent at Harvey Klinger, Inc. where she represents adult fiction and nonfiction and children’s fiction. Her clients include NYT Bestselling authors Leslie Banks and Jonathan Maberry, Ben Dolnick, Nina LaCour, Michael Northrop, Lisa Schroeder, Kristen Tracy and Dan Wells. Her authors have been nominated for Edgars and the Morris Award and have been on the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults list and in the Top Ten. I am consistently ranked among the top three YA agents in Publishers Marketplace.
After attending the Radcliffe Publishing Course, she started her career at The Wylie Agency in New York, and after two years, moved to their London office as a foreign rights agent. At Trident Media Group in New York, she was a Foreign rights manager and represented rights for Louis Sachar, Michael Ondaatje and Russell Banks. Sara joined Harvey Klinger in 2005 to build her own list and to develop a children’s list for the agency.
Sara Crowe, you are my dream agent!
Heehee, I love that you want a book to say “pick me! Pick me!” I think that’s what all of us writer’s want you to say about our manuscripts too.
Thanks for the post!
Thank you for sharing your love of books with us! This was a great read. It’s helped me learn more about you, the process, and that it means to be an agent. Good luck plowing the pile!
I am going to print this out and hang it next to my computer. You have perfectly described that ephemiral “it” factor that writers are desperate to include and agents and editors are desperately seeking. Wonderful post.!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us, Sara. Great post!
Your post is both daunting and inspiring … fearful that my work can’t possibly break the surface enough to draw that kind of love and driven to gut and tweak and sculpt something so miraculous that it does. Thanks.
*Brainstorms ways to “surprise” you*
You sound very passionate about what you do, lucky the writer whose work you fall in love with.
You said something key in there that new authors forget or don’t yet know: You’ll read a manuscript 5+ times.
Your agent will read it five or six times.
Your editor will read it three or four times.
You as the writer may read it a dozen times.
That’s a big deal, because every person reading it must re-fall in love with the piece with each new read, not just the original.
So really it’s not about being satisfied once. It’s about being satisfied over and over again.
You fell in love with the rough cut, the first and fourth and fifth polish.
Then, in the end, you’re happy and proud of the final product!
As a writer, it’s about surprising the reader — and remember your agent/editor is a reader — with every revision.
Personally, I cannot re-read my own piece if I do not love it, much less submit it.
– Eric
Thank you for explaining this. It’s great to know you can love something, but also know the love isn’t deep enough to rep it.
I LOVE THIS POST! And as a client of Sara’s, her words really ring true. Her enthusiasm shines through in every e-mail and call. It always gives me the warm fuzzier knowing my agent is so invested and passionate about selling our projects and putting her faith in our careers. Cool stuff.
I loved this. As hard as it is to hear ‘no,’ it’s worth it to know that when an agent does finally say ‘yes,’ they love it this much.
Thank you for sharing your process!
Thanks for this post. It reinforces how important the long term relationship is between the author and agent. Also the difficult choices an agent must make too.
A great post, thanks so much! I liked the way you compared your love of a manuscript to a love that keeps growing, and not a high school infatuation!
I think what struck me the most was what you said about having to say “no” to something you believe WILL sell, and possibly sell big. It gives me a better insight as to how agents consider manuscripts, and how saying “no” can be as big a decision as saying “yes.”
Thanks so much!
Sara, your passion for your work comes across in this post. We writers want to write books that agents, editors, and readers will love. If I haven’t yet, I’ll keep trying.
This post is so amazing. I can tell it’s written from the heart as well as from the mind, and makes me want to respond in kind with my writing.
I have been learning so much lately, first with SCBWI and then here at WriteOnCon (as well as in Emma Walton Hamilton’s Children’s Book Hub) that is inspiring me to dig far more deeply into myself to create my books. I hope that will result in something that will make an agent fall in love!
Thank you.
Thanks for sharing all that goes into your decision when you read a manuscript. It’s interesting to see how many factors can be involved.
That was SO good! Love, passion, timing, ability to sell it, love, passion, oh, I already mentioned the last two. But so very important. Thanks for explaining it so well. I think it makes it easier for a writer to accept the wait time by understanding what goes on in an agent’s head, and heart. Thanks, again.
Great post, Sara! Thank you for sharing the inner thought process of being an agent. I love that you want a book to, “pick you!”
Love the insights here, especially in regards to agent motivation. Hope that love and luck shine on my own writing some day. Keep up the great blogs at The Crowe’s Nest and thanks so much for the many helpful tweets. Best wishes and happy reading!
Eye-opening: “Both yes and no are complicated and hard decisions.”
With much respect and thanks for this thoughtful post.