Hello all,
I've been a lurker here for a couple of years, but haven't posted before.
So, here's my situation. I have written a novel that touches the genres of literary, mystery, thriller, fantasy and science fiction. I shopped it around as was picked up by a well-respected (both here and elsewhere) literary agency that only handles literary fiction. I worked with an agent doing revisions for two years. During that time the agent never showed the manuscript to any editors, though the agent did, informally, verbally pitch it to some editors at lunches, dinners, etc. (And the agent told me that the pitch had been well-received).
During the first 1.5 years, the revisions were along the lines of polishing things up: "please expand this", or "let's trim this back a bit", or "let's tone this down some," etc. Then, in the last 6 months, the newest requested revision had me fundamentally changing the nature of the book. When I asked for clarification on the sudden shift, I didn't get a satisfactory answer, though I asked several times. So, I took all the suggested revisions minus those that would have fundamentally changed the novel and implemented those. When I sent the manuscript back to the agent, the agent decided to drop the project (after, now, two years of revisions) -- still without ever having showed the manuscript to any editors.
This situation seems very odd to me. In case it isn't so strange, I have not named the agent or the agency, obviously. What are your experiences? Does this sort of thing happen from time to time?
For now, I'm back to the drawing board, looking for a new agent... :-(
I've been a lurker here for a couple of years, but haven't posted before.
So, here's my situation. I have written a novel that touches the genres of literary, mystery, thriller, fantasy and science fiction. I shopped it around as was picked up by a well-respected (both here and elsewhere) literary agency that only handles literary fiction. I worked with an agent doing revisions for two years. During that time the agent never showed the manuscript to any editors, though the agent did, informally, verbally pitch it to some editors at lunches, dinners, etc. (And the agent told me that the pitch had been well-received).
During the first 1.5 years, the revisions were along the lines of polishing things up: "please expand this", or "let's trim this back a bit", or "let's tone this down some," etc. Then, in the last 6 months, the newest requested revision had me fundamentally changing the nature of the book. When I asked for clarification on the sudden shift, I didn't get a satisfactory answer, though I asked several times. So, I took all the suggested revisions minus those that would have fundamentally changed the novel and implemented those. When I sent the manuscript back to the agent, the agent decided to drop the project (after, now, two years of revisions) -- still without ever having showed the manuscript to any editors.
This situation seems very odd to me. In case it isn't so strange, I have not named the agent or the agency, obviously. What are your experiences? Does this sort of thing happen from time to time?
For now, I'm back to the drawing board, looking for a new agent... :-(
Yes, I think this sometimes happens. But I certainly think you got a raw deal, too. Someone remind me to send my agent a nice fruit basket or something.