Tough Love

While a respectable agent's opinion is very valuable, it's still just one opinion. Try not to obsess over it yet and wait to see what others offer as feedback. It's not an issue until there's a consensus.

You need more data points before you can take this seriously.

More data points, I agree. I corresponded with one agent who liked aspects of my book but found one character too snarky. While I respected her opinion and would keep it in mind while revising, I think that's a fairly subjective matter. Some readers are always going to like a snarky tone, and some are not.

But it could prompt you to ask, "Why would someone perceive my heroine as unlikable?" Does she make off-hand comments that might be perceived as insensitive, but that you intended as humorous? (It's so easy to misjudge how these will be read.) Does she take disturbing actions without their mitigating circumstances being spelled out? Is she reticent about showing her emotions? (I often have this problem, and have "warmed up" characters and made them more expressive.) Is she "too perfect"? (I remember Miss Snark, on her blog, being very down on any submission with a Mary Sue-ish heroine.)

That kind of probing can be helpful. When it comes down to it, though, there are readers who prefer universally "relatable" protagonists with generically likable personalities, and books with such protagonists often do sell well. You just need to decide whether you want to write (and read!) that kind of book. I don't, and I've accepted that this gives me a smaller audience.

But plenty of books with "difficult," snarky, morally questionable protagonists are published every year, too. And some of them, like Dexter Morgan, go on to become fixtures of the culture.

listen to this feedback! I say this as someone who was told that over and over and over again about the MC in my current book. It took a while to get her likeable and some people are still turned off by her.

It's a subjective thing. Only pay attention if you hear it repeatedly that they couldn't connect to her, that she isn't easy to relate to, etc. And for the record, yes, it is possible to get an agent even if the heroine is a tough love. The book that got me my agent had one of those heroines. I heard plenty of "didn't connect to the MC" from agents and editors alike, but I also got a lot of feedback that indicated that was why they liked her.

that's surprising feedback to get from just the query...if she had read pages that's one thing, but how can she know the character is likeable or not from the query...

You do need more data points, but this is a common criticism, and one that's often right on the money. A hero/heroine does not have to be likable, but they must be empathetic.

The other big criticism of main characters is, "I just don't care what happens to him/her" which runs along the same lines, but is also a killer.

Yeah, wait and see what other people think. I had one agent pass because she just didn't like my character "as much as I wanted her to"--and five other agents ask for fulls because my characters were "wonderful" and "charming."

Don't do anything until you hear it from another agent or two. Then sit up and pay very close attention.

I've also received a handful of "didn't connect with the MC because of reasons" criticisms, and several contrasting "MC is sympathetic/brave/engaging" comments as well. It is so, so very subjective. I would wait until the "too unsympathetic" comments start outweighing the positive comments. Even then, intentionally unlikable MCs have still been known to make it through the ringer.

Like everyone says, wait until you start hearing the same criticism from multiple people before pouncing on it. Unless it happens to really resonate with you for some reason.

Hmmmm . . . does this mean your MC has to be cute and cuddly and maybe sparkly, even if she is a vampire?

Are agents these days actually looking for Mary Sues?

caw

blacbird said:

Hmmmm . . . does this mean your MC has to be cute and cuddly and maybe sparkly, even if she is a vampire?

Are agents these days actually looking for Mary Sues?

caw

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No, but as always, it means the MC must be empathetic. An MC can cheat, lie, steal, use drugs, kill, or whatever, but you have to make the reader care what happens to the MC, and you way you do this is with empathy.

I read somewhere (can't recall where, but I think research was backing it) that readers tend to empathize with main characters who want something so badly they will go through hell to get it. That's true even if the character has wrong-headed goals — we empathize with strong motivation. (Shakespeare's Richard III is a good example of an evil character we still care about for that reason.)

Whereas characters who are sort of drifting through life, depressed or at loose ends, are harder to like. Or characters whose motives aren't clear to us, or to them. That said, there have certainly been great novels written about characters who aren't even sure what they want...

Fuchsia Groan said:

I read somewhere (can't recall where, but I think research was backing it) that readers tend to empathize with main characters who want something so badly they will go through hell to get it. That's true even if the character has wrong-headed goals — we empathize with strong motivation. (Shakespeare's Richard III is a good example of an evil character we still care about for that reason.)

Whereas characters who are sort of drifting through life, depressed or at loose ends, are harder to like. Or characters whose motives aren't clear to us, or to them. That said, there have certainly been great novels written about characters who aren't even sure what they want...

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Empathy really means that under the same circumstances, had I gone through the same things, I might well react the same way. It means I would try as hard, or it means, Yes, I might use drugs, too, or you know what, give the same conditions, I'd probably start killing people, just like that character.

It means, yes, that character is a thief, but you know what, I understand why that character is a thief. Stealing might be wrong, but in his case, I can't rally blame him for doing it.

It means that if I were raised the same way, if the same things happened to me, I can see myself being just like him. I might not agree with what he does, but I understand it.

Very often, it also means, yeah, he's doing bad things, but I can tell he doesn't want to. That's not really the kind of guy he is down inside.

Even with a character like Dexter, empathy plays a huge part is his success. He's a serial killer, for crying out loud, but since he kills other serial killers, we tend to root for him.

It's all about characters we care about, and can relate to in some way, on some level. But the character must be worth caring about, and we have to be able to say, "Yes, I might well do the same things he does."