In last week’s newsletter, I sort of circled around the idea of writers developing a salesman mindset in order to find an agent. In effect, selling someone on the idea that they can sell your work. I should preface this week’s musings by stressing that this is not going to be “one weird trick that will get you an agent.” If I knew that trick, I’d use it myself! Rather, this is my attempt at organizing my thoughts on the matter as I get closer to the point where I’ll be querying again (probably this summer).
The goal here is not simply finding an agent who will take you on as a client, but finding one who can sell what you write. This may sound obvious, and it should be, but in the early days of shopping Charlesgate Confidential I had an agent with a track record of high-dollar sales and thought I was off to the races. The problem was that most of the books he sold were celebrity memoirs and the like. Once five editors from the biggest publishing houses had passed on Charlesgate, he not only gave up on trying to sell it, he told me he was getting out of the fiction game altogether because he just didn’t understand it anymore. That was a little demoralizing! Thankfully it all worked out for the best in the end, but it certainly made me more careful about trying to find the right fit next time around.
That means asking myself “What other books are sort of like this one, and who represents the people who wrote those books?” By now I definitely have a list of dream agents in my head, and it’s not a long list. I’m not going to name them here, but it’s not hard to figure out who they are. If you look at the field of agents who represent crime fiction, you’ll find the vast majority of them are interested in “domestic suspense.” That’s no mystery! The audience for that stuff is vast, but unfortunately I don’t write it. (Or I haven’t written it yet, anyway. I suppose it’s not outside the realm of possibility that someday I’ll get an irresistable idea that fits into that slot.)
So what is the category that encompasses what I write? “Noir” is close, but it doesn’t seem quite right, and anyway I’ve heard that it’s become an undesirable term in publishing of late. (I’m not sure how accurate that is, since “rural noir” seems to be doing well, and a few recent successes I’ve read haven’t shied away from using the word “noir” on their jackets.) I’ve been thinking of my work-in-progress as an “L.A. noir,” which is maybe its own thing, but I’m not sure that’s the label I want to pin on it. Perhaps we need a new term entirely. How about “undomesticated suspense”? Just spitballing here.
One thing I haven’t done before that I’ll definitely be doing the next time I query is using the “THIS VERY POPULAR THING meets THIS THING THAT SOLD A SHITLOAD” construction. If there really is a hack to getting an agent and selling a book, that must be it, because I can’t think of the last time I saw a successful pitch that didn’t use it. I don’t know which two comps I’m going to use for my WIP yet, but you can bet I’m already thinking about it.
News and Notes
Congratulations to all the Edgar Awards nominees! Some of them made my own year-end list, and I’m pulling for The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias to take the top prize.
Fingers crossed that this time next week I’ll have physical ARCs of Lowdown Road in my grasp. Once I do, I’ll be doing a giveaway via this newsletter, so now is the time to subscribe if you haven’t already done so!
Last weekend, my wife Robin and I visited the remote West Texas town of Marfa, a very special place for us. In addition to the personal connection, it’s also the setting of my story “Mystery Lights,” published in the GONE anthology. In particular, the story takes place at the Lost Horse Saloon, and I think this shot Robin snapped there has to be my new author photo, don’t you?
Scott, I've really appreciated your last two e-mails. I'm trying to get published now. I have a nibble from a small press and I'm trying to finesse them to the finish line. Your writings have really helped me and put things in perspective. It's a brutal business for writers.
I'm glad to see book two is coming out soon; I've already got it preordered! And I'm excited to read your future LA tale. These days, as there are so many subgeneres and as noir is vastly overstated in most, I tend to use the general term "crime fiction." My own is hardboiled with shades of noir, depending on how you interpret the endings, I guess. Either way, keep up the good work.
Yes, nice author photo! I read a couple of "domestic suspense" books recently and they don't do it for me. They always make me think of Hallmark movies with a nasty twist. Remind me of that Farrah Fawcett made-for-TV movie, The Burning Bed. Not bad at all but 2 hours of it is more than enough. Book length? Nah. Same with another crime genre I slink away from: cozy mysteries. I doubt I could write one if I tried. You say Noir has gone out of fashion, so have PI novels too (judging from my attempts to get an agent), or procedurals (cops as heroes, oh dear!). Where does that leave us? Basically where we started: writing what the hell we want to write and sticking to hit like a dog with a bone.