If the Internet is like high school, and we held a popularity contest for literary agents, I’m sure that Nathan Bransford would win. He’d get homecoming king, student council president and be editor of the literary journal, too.
Is it possible that he’s really this genuinely and consistently smart, helpful and talented? By all accounts, yes he is. And I say this even as he has (very politely) turned down several requests to be interviewed by Editor Unleashed.
Nathan has a genius idea in the wake of the whole queryfail/agentfail shakeup (see my post below). He’s holding this contest/ challenge on his blog: Writers get a chance to be an agent for a day. Read all about it here.
Starting Monday, April 13, he’ll be posting 50 queries and participants have to narrow it down to just five and respond to each query within a week’s time.
I think this is a valuable exercise that all writers should participate in.
Go ahead and walk a mile in an agent’s shoes via Nathan Bransford. What you learn from the slush pile will give you amazing insight into the behind-the-scenes of publishing and you’ll see what it really takes to stand out in the crowd.
-Maria Schneider
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I can only imagine the sheer crap an agent must go through.
Thanks for the link, Maria. I enjoyed hearing and reading about it. Sounds like a great idea. Don’t think I’ll be able to participate next week but sure sounds interesting.
I saw this over at his blog. After the whole agentfail/queryfail debacle it will be very interesting to see this “experiment.”
George
Thanks Maria. I don’t think I have enough pain medications on hand to be an Agent for a Day, but I did send in a book query, just to be in the mix.
I’m in. Looking forward to reading some of the submissions. Thanks for the heads up. I hope Nathan obliges you on the interview some day.
–John
Eh. I get it that agents have a tough job weeding through ’slush’ to find that one monumental best seller that their buddies in the five publishing houses will be able to, in turn, sell to their bean counters. NB’s idea is an interesting permutation of queryfail, which I thought horrifying on so many levels. Not that I don’t have thick skin – I do, like armor – but I found many of the comments on queryfail mean-spirited and without constructive merit. I can only imagine how horrified some writers must have been to see snippets of his/her query – posted without his/her permission – ridiculed on the twitter waves. Myself, I try to remember that everyone starts somewhere, and usually with a modicum of ignorance and naivete.
Frankly, I’d like to see some agents be Writer for a Week. Walk a mile in our shoes. Get the flash of an idea, write it out at odd hours of the day, go through revisions, get feedback from crit group, try to pitch the thing, wait for a response from agents and editors (if ever), and then get soundly rejected.
Good luck to those who throw their pitches in the hat. Myself, not participating this go round with NB, he has enough Anon snarkers who will likely have a field day with this – and to what end? Besides, this month is too, too busy between trying to keep my graduate students afloat with funding and, well, writing. Peace, Linda
Ugh! I’d never want to be an agent – you get abuse heaped on you by writers, rejections by the editors and your success depends on your passion and ability to sell someone else. No thank you!