Before we get started, I advise you to ignore everything I say; I haven’t the foggiest idea how to write commercial books or get an agent. Sorry. But I do have a piece of advice I got from someone much smarter than me. A brilliant fantasy writer and wonderful person said something to me years ago that has stuck with me. It’s been helpful, and the fact that I’ve ignored it most of the time has been to my detriment. That’s why I bring it up now, in the discussion of getting an agent — because I think it might be the most important thing you can know in seeking an agent.
What she said was this: “Genre readers want 90% of the same stuff they’ve been reading, and 10% new.”
What she meant, obviously, is that people who have read Lord of the Rings want something like Lord of the Rings — but enough different from Lord of the Rings that it gives them a new experience. This doesn’t address the overall quality of the work, just its marketability over and above its being (hopefully) a damn good book.
I like the 90%-10% rule. You don’t have to accept it, obviously, and I’ve already admitted I don’t know what I’m talking about. Agree or disagree with me; the discussion is sure to prove interesting. I think plenty of people may yell and scream that I’m distilling genre writing down to product. I couldn’t agree with them more. It’s a highly dangerous enterprise to do so, because genre writing, to my mind, is where the true innovation in the literary world and in life actually comes from nowadays.
But if you accept that genre writing relies on such a rule (or something like it) then here’s why I bring it up: While it’s important in seeking a publisher, it’s even more important in seeking an agent. If you’re a brand-spanking-new author seeking an agent, I think it becomes critical.
Now, keep in mind that this all assumes that you’re looking to write highly commercial fiction principally for entertainment — the kind of thing where you publish a book a year for the rest of your life, and probably none of it gets taught in college classes.
I’m not saying it’s not important writing — I believe that in many ways commercial fiction is far more “important” than what they teach in college.
But I’m talking about the kind of writing that gets you an agent who can sell book after book after book for you, to commercial publishers. I think, in that context, the 90%-10% rule of thumb is brilliant. In seeking an agent for a first novel (or a first novel with a new agent), there’s an expectation that you will provide both.
Genre readers read because they enjoy it. They know they enjoy what they’ve always enjoyed. They want particular things from a book, and they want to know those things have a realistic chance of being in the book they’re about to pick up. That’s why every urban fantasy heroine has a back tattoo on the cover of her book. It’s a sign that says, “This is more of the same!”
But readers also want to know that they’re going to get something different. They don’t want a clone of the same old stuff — not quite. They want some new element that excites them. That’s why a book’s cover sells it — because the urban fantasy heroine has a black crow on her shoulder, or there’s an aircraft carrier in the background. It says “This is slightly different!”
In new writers, agents are looking for that 10% new, but they’re also looking for that 90% that means it fits into an existing genre. I’m not saying you can’t be innovative — but every percentage point of new stuff you add to your book risks pushing it to the point where an agent knows the publisher will say they “Just aren’t sure how we’d market it.”
If your book is 82% the same and 18% new? You’re pushing it, bubba — at least when you’re shopping for an agent.
Keep in mind that I’m talking about the perception of genre readers in the minds of agents. I think a lot of genre readers want something 40% new, not 10% — but agents have very little time at their disposal. I see this rule of thumb as being similar to the rule that you should not format your manuscript in a medieval-looking font, even if it’s a retelling of Beowulf.
There are a lot of writers out there writing the same old shit, and agents see a lot of it.
There are also lots of writers producing something that’s all over the place — borderline incomprehensible. Maybe it’s because they’re geniuses. Maybe it’s because they’re amateurish. If you’re an agent, it’s your job to sort that out, but the more “challenging” a writer makes it, the less likely you are to be able to make the right call.
Many agents will tell you they want innovative work. On some level, they’re telling the truth, because no book sells if it seems like the “same old shit.”
But if you’re an unrepresented author and you want an agent, what you need to do is present something with an appeal that is immediately obvious, because its points of departure are reasoned, manageable, and genuinely new.
The 10% of your genre novel that’s new needs to be brilliant and innovative. The 90% that’s the same needs to provide reliable human experience that your potential agent, your potential publisher, and your potential readers can connect with — and will know they’re going to connect with, on reading the first paragraph.
The end. Discuss?