Get Published Series, Part 5 – What Agents and Editors are Really Looking For

Quick note — see my guest post today on Problogger.net.  And if you’ve come here from there… welcome!

Now back to getting you published.

I think I know what some of you are thinking.  Or at least I’m afraid I do. 

This is a series about how to get published.  Which is the literary (if not literal) equivalent of how to get rich or how to lose twenty pounds in ten days.

And you’re thinking, what’s up with all this stuff about how to write a story?  Where’s the super-secret insight about scoring an agent?  Finding a publisher?  Selling the movie rights?

Right.  As if there’s some magic formula for all that. 

Newsflash: the formulas for getting rich, for losing ten pounds and for getting published aren’t remotely magic.  Nor are there available shortcuts, or even new and never-before-released information about how to pull them off.

And yet, I fear you’ve come here looking for that shortcut. 

Which means you may be frustrated with yet one more slice of conventional wisdom – or what I like to think of as the new conventional wisdom – of writing a killer story.

If that’s you, allow me give you what you came for.

Here’s how you get published.  First, you get an agent.  They’ll sell it for you.

That’s it.  That’s how it’s done.

Easy, right?  A fair question here might be, how do you agent?  Well, I’ll answer you that, and in one paragraph:

Write a query letter and introduce your story with a tightly-crafted elevator pitch.  Take it to a conference and deliver it to an agent, or ambush one in a parking lot and do the same.  Or, if you like odds that compare to the powerball lottery, just submit it cold, after making sure that they do indeed read unsolicited manuscripts.

That’s how you get published.  At least in the mainstream.  You can always self-publish, or shoot for a small press (which still requires a query letter), but that’s not really what this is about, is it.

Because we all want that spot on the shelf at Borders.

Truth be told, getting an agent is hard.  Almost as hard as selling a book.

Why?  If the process is really that simple – and it is – why is it so hard?

Because you – make that we, I’ve been there, too – are all wrapped up in worrying about how to contact an agent, how to get their attention, how to separate yourself from the crowd, how to write that query letter, how to write that synopsis…

… that the inherent magic bullet of it all, the one thing that will work, is precisely what you think you already know.

And that’s how to write a story that takes their breath away.

And that’s the hardest thing of all.

Of course, there are caveats to that, and they’re frustrating as hell.

Not all agents and editors are created equal, and they don’t all have the same tastes.  Nonetheless, they all do share one thing in common – they’re looking for the next home run.  Something that’s inherently commercial.

They’re also looking for something that’s topical, that’s hot.  Remember, the novels being sold today are the ones that will be published a year from now. 

Which means the novel you are writing today, and will finish in a year, will be published two years from now, best case.

Do you think you know what will be hot two years from now?  One year from now?

Agents think they do.  And if you don’t have it, they won’t take it on.  Even if it’s bordering on brilliant.

Of course, you rationalize, there’s always a market for the next great thriller, mystery, romance, sci-fi or fantasy story, and hardly any of them are home runs.

True, but with a huge asterisk.  And with an emphasis on the word great.

Most of those books come from established authors, who don’t need a home run to get their next novel out there.  It’s already been sold under a multi-book contract, and the audience is already defined and ready.

Which brings us back, full circle, to what those agents and editors are looking for: the next home run.  Even within a genre.

The question then becomes, how do we give it to them?

You’ll be happy to hear that the answer isn’t simply to deliver greatness.  I can break it down for you.  In fact, I’ve done it many times here on Storyfix, and I’m happy to do it again now.

There are six aspects of your story – call them elements, attributes, processes and skill sets – that comprise the sum of your work.  That’s all you have to offer, but rest assured they are enough.  Because all six are rich with potential, criteria and infinite depth, enough to attain all the greatness you can muster.

And of course, the real X-factor in greatness is the fluid, seamless and genius way in which the six come together to melt into a story that is a sum in excess of those parts.

That’s the art of it, and it can’t be taught.

But for the most part, the six core competencies can be taught.

If you don’t know what they are, click here to read about them in greater depth.  You need to master them all, and deliver them all in your manuscript.

Quick refresher: they are – concept, character, theme, structure, scene execution and writing voice.  You could do a semester at a fine arts grad school in each of them, so don’t make the mistake of taking them for granted or trusting your own intuitive gift in the assumption that you know enough about them.  

Virtually every rejection slip ever issued came about because the writer didn’t.

With those six core competencies in your writerly toolbox, you are now in possession of everything you need to understand about how to write a great story.

So how do you write a home run story?

Well, that’s easy to define, too.  As easy as, say, advising someone who wants to get rich to start-up what will become a multi-national corporation in their garage.

Here it is: your story must deliver one, or preferably two, of the six core competencies in way that is completely original, off-the-charts compelling, timely as hell, dripping with commercial potential and, for reasons they can’t define, moves the agent or editor to risk their reputation and a huge percentage of their life to getting it out there. 

And also, in addition to that one or two other-worldly genius core competency, the other four or five (depending) need to be solid, professional and also commercially viable.

The latter distinction – commercially viable – is critical. 

Many writers argue that this approach disrespects the experimental, a story that reinvents the literary wheel, a story that becomes its own genre, with its own rules and, most likely, a very narrow audience that just might get it.

Good luck with that.  Because agents and editors, for the most part, won’t be interested, because stories like that aren’t commercial.

And – this being the make-or-break realization you need to internalize – they’re probably not interested in a story that simply nails all six core competencies, either.  That’s just a good, solid, well-told story.  They have plenty of authors under contract churning out those books, and they don’t need another one from you.

From you, they need a home run.

The most imporant question — out of a whole set of important questions — that you need to ask yourself if you’re one of those folks spending any time at all worrying about how to get your book published, is this: in what way in my story, and in which of the six core competencies, am I delivering a tape-measure home run?

So there it is.  You now know what agents and editors are looking for.  And where the bar is – look up – in writing a story that delivers it.

Does your story play at that level?  Do you know the criteria to determine if it does?   If not, stop worrying about how to find an agent, or even a publisher.

And start elevating your game to the level is must be to get there.

Photo credit: 2Eklectic

The most complex of the Six Core Competencies is story structure.  I cover it in depth in my ebook, Story Structure – Demystified.

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