Goldilocks and the Three Literary Agents
Imagine Goldilocks representing all the aspiring writers out there trying to shop their very first book to literary agents. Then imagine three literary agents sitting before an audience critiquing Goldilocks' query letters. This actually happened in Austin, Texas last weekend at the Writer's League of Texas Agents Conference.
All weekend long, hopeful writers dropped their pitches into a box and at the Closing Session, the pitches were read out loud for the agents to pass judgement on.
I entered the room a little late and the first thing I heard was the agent on the left saying, "I wish the pitch had included a comparative title." Oh, the old comparative title dilemma! Including comparative titles in a query can give the agent a hint about tone, but it can also be pretty dicey for the author. However, both of the other agents nodded their heads in agreement with the first agent, so maybe I this was what my query letter was missing.
The next Goldilocks included comparative titles in her pitch. The potential Young Adult novel was compared to two books that even an oldster like myself recognized and it sounded to me as if a book borrowing elements from these two best sellers could be a real winner. Well, she didn't win with any of the agents. The agent in the middle subjected us to a spirited harangue that convinced me never to use any book from any best seller list in a query letter. All the while, the bobble-heads on either side of him nodded in unison.
A few more Goldilocks were fed to the sharks before another query with comparative titles was read. "Think Title One meets Title Two," read the hopeful author's first line. I didn't recognize either title, but it didn't matter because the agent on the right threw up her hand and said, "Stop right there, I don't even want to imagine a novel that has elements from those two books." The agent in the middle meekly admitted that he'd heard about the book during the weekend and he thought it had merit.
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