Comments on: Reaching out

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:20:40 +0000

I came across your blog via Twitter and must say I am shocked by the above comment. Although prettily dressed up in all sorts of fancy words, the message is rude. Basically, s/he is calling you narrow-minded and boring. Sounds like blog wanderer is someone you turned down at some stage? I think it is great you spend time actively looking for diverse writers. Thank you for taking an interest. No brown-nosing on my part, btw, I write in another language entirely and for a different market, I just do not like it when people lash out unfairly at someone. Hope you find some wonderful writers via PitMad.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 20:25:27 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, but I don’t think that’s quite the issue. My preferences are now and always have been for a wide range of representation, both within the books that I work on and in the clients on my list. But this is not something publishing has been good at (historically or now, though it does seem to be improving). And I have to admit that an author looking at my client list for the first several years I was agenting might not have guessed that I was actively looking for diverse voices. There are also longstanding systemic and socioeconomic forces bigger than publishing that influence who believes there is a seat at the table for them–and who is in a position to pursue that seat. So while I do need to be vocal about my preferences (and do everything I can to back those preferences up in terms of my track record), it’s not enough to say that I’m actively seeking diverse voices if I’m only saying that to people who were already headed my way. That’s why I need to be proactive, to specifically seek out a wide range of clients, in addition to considering the unsolicited queries I receive.

By: blog wanderer

blog wanderer — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:31:50 +0000

After rereading this post several times, I’ve isolated the problem here. If your e-query box is skewing to a narrow range of voices, isn’t that because you yourself have a narrow range of preferences? And so, regardless of whatever query bells and whistles anyone out there is blowing and ringing, you’re going to end up with the same uninteresting stuff in your in-box (I assume it’s not so exciting or you wouldn’t be worrying about it) that you had originally. Sort of like, if I’m bored with my local grocery store and go to a supposedly better one in the next town, I won’t find my dinner much more exciting because all I like to eat is artisonal organic rutabagas and that’s all I’ll bring home from the new store.