Ask the Agent

What's Jack up to? Just being Jack on this fine spring day. He's checking out the scenery and seeing what sort of trouble he can get into.

Welcome to ask the agent for this week with Fab agent Elaine Spencer from The Knight Agency. Thanks for joining us again this week . Here goes...

I'm curious as to what makes a manuscript you like turn into a "pass" instead of asking the author to rework the whatever portions don't quite click with you?

This was a left over question from an answer that I gave last week and I thought it really had some merit so I figured I would revisit.

The above situation always involves a gamble, usually one on a couple of different levels. When I’m reading a partial (or a full) I have to give it my own personal rating system. If it’s something I’m enjoying and I see potential in and I think to myself “ok, so you like this, now how much do you like it”. I start to weight the merits of the manuscript on every level from the page that it hooks me forward. I look at the quality of the idea, the development of the plot, the evolution of the characters, the authenticity and readability to the voice, the world, the strength of the writing, the skill of the story-teller, and the list goes on and on and on . . .

Then I stop and I look at my pros and cons. When I start to realize that yes there are a lot of things I really like, but also there are a lot of cons, that is when your question really comes into play.

I stop and evaluate these cons and try to figure out if they are all related to one another. I try to figure out if we can go in and fix this and that, or if once we do that it’s going to be like a giant thread and once you tug, the entire story will unravel. I look at what these fixes will take. I try to figure out if it’s something simple like working on a certain writing “tick” or if it’s something greater that shows the author just isn’t there quite yet in their potential.

When I have a story that I really love but isn’t quite there I always strike up a dialogue with the author in question. I figure out where they are in their querying process and where they are in their writing career. If they have another idea that they are working on I’ll take a look at that too to see exactly how much I love the writing of the author.

Basically I try to figure out how serious the errors are in a partial. If they are substantial but fixable I’ll offer suggestions and see how the author does with the editorial process. If they are errors that show me the craft just isn’t there yet, there is no amount of revision that can really expedite that process so I will most likely just say, “Until next time, good luck” and pass.

Hope that clears that up.

Thanks Elaine and thanks to everyone for stopping by. Please be sure to post your comments and questions.

best,
Kwana