Reality Bypass

Searching for… October 6, 2009

Today one of the agents put up a call for “Searching For” giving a list of the type of books she’d like to see.  Rachel Gardner has put out a Twitter requesting a female Christian Private Eye, such as the protagonists of Sue Grafton or Janet Evanovich’s novels.

I like seeing the various suggestions many agents have on their blogs, it definitely generates ideas for stories, but at the same time I know I run into some frustration too. I love the ideas! And it’s great to know what agents want, but at the same time I also want to say “Yes! I can write that!” But it’s so rare that you have such a thing in hand, for what the agents are asking for, or sometimes you’ve already queried it 6 months ago when it wasn’t in vogue. It would be nice if you could send along something else to give a writing style/feel and then get a list of books agents would be willing to contract you for, as a work in progress.

But hey, it’s also a good reason to just keep writing, because one day you may open up those lists and see /exactly/ the book you wrote a year ago, and spent time polishing. So the lists are good! I like seeing them, but it certainly does make me wish there was room for both sides: calls for “Already done” books and calls for books you could get under contract with through showing a good writing sample, somewhat like my Academic conferences. In Academia you send a proposal of a paper you WILL right, and they accept your premise.

Anyway if you have a Christian Female P.I… go check out Rachel Gardner’s query guidelines.,<< RACHEL GARDNER>>

I have one…. but it’s a work in progress still, about 50% complete alas. Here’s hoping there’s still openings in 6 months!