Comments on: Missed boats http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 By: Lance Parkin http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/comment-page-1/#comment-18996 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:53:42 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/#comment-18996 I think, yes, it's easy to imagine a parallel universe where agents were number-crunchers who looked to maximise sales and left their own feelings out of their cold, cruel equations. They don't like what they're selling, but they know who'll publish it and how to get those people to buy it.

]]> By: Clix http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/comment-page-1/#comment-18992 Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:03:14 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/#comment-18992 Hm. But would the project have been as successful without an agent/editor who DID "fall in love" with what was submitted?

]]> By: Lance Parkin http://www.dystel.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/comment-page-1/#comment-18981 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:02:29 +0000 http://032453b.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/08/missed-boats/#comment-18981 It does seem to be an interesting distinction between agenting and a lot of other jobs, though – there are plenty of people in retail and the service industries who quite happily push products they haven't 'fallen in love' with. I'd go as far as to say that's the norm.

Agents don't seem to be anything like as cynical. It does seem to be quite common for an agent to turn down something they can see selling simply because it's not their cup of tea.

It's maddeningly unscientific. Particularly when modern publishing and bookselling seems to be almost purely driven by numbers. Do Amazon 'love' everything they sell? No. Could a small bookseller survive if they decided not to stock every big name author they don't personally love? Of course not.

So why are agents allowed to? I can think of a cynical explanation: the 'I fell in love' line can only work so many times. To preserve the value of books imbued with agent love, an agent has to limit the number of times they declare that love.

But I can think of a more Darwinian reason, too. Why do we buy a particular novel? Because we think we're going to like it, maybe even love it. So one of the selection criteria is that a book has to be lovable. So if one person, the agent, loves the book, that's a start.

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