Reasons to write: from Sara Crowe's blog

Sara's client Rachel Greer writes this post (sent our way by Liz Mills):

I’ve heard other writers say that when they get a rejection letter, they post it on the wall of their office. A well-known poet I know says his walls are just plastered in them. I have never understood this; it’s one of those things that fly over my head and I’m too ashamed to admit I don’t get it. My own office has hand-painted cards from people I love, art books and poetry books open and propped up. Do the rejection-plasterers find punishment inspiring? Maybe it proves to them that they exist, that at least they’re trying, seeing their name written over and over in print like that, on letterhead from coveted presses and magazines. I assume, maybe incorrectly, that writers who plaster their walls in rejections actually do so because they are in the what-doesn’t-kill-you-makes-you-stronger camp. It makes you stronger like a callus makes your hands stronger when you’ve worked with them awhile. But a callus of the soul or heart isn’t supposed to be a good thing.

When I receive a bunch of rejections (an inevitability as a writer) I am always left facing the reasons I’m writing in the first place, so I can know why to keep going. And I’m faced over and over again with the somewhat uncomfortable fact that one of the reasons I write is to get approval. But the reasons I write change, depending on which one I need. I’ve written them out below, and I’d love to know if anyone has anything to add to this list, especially those writers on who are further along in their careers, and know the feeling of holding their own book in their hands.

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Sara Crowe: My Favorite First Pages (or How to Make an Agent Fall in Love with You in Four Pages or Less)

Reported by Angelina C. Hansen

Sara Crowe, literary agent with Harvey Klinger Inc, a full-service literary agency in New York, shared with us examples of first pages that caught her eye and then explained why. Of the projects she represents, most of those first pages haven’t changed.

Sara loves to see first pages that establish voice. Voice includes an engaging emotional truth and sets a tone for the rest of the novel. For Sara, it must be endearing and honest.

The second element she looks for is the character. She wants to meet the main character by means of a description that shows who they are. She looks for word choice and again, the voice. She warned, though, that too much description is “not good”.

After character, Sara looks for the hook. This is the element that makes the reader ask, why?

The fourth element that will make her fall in love with your first pages is authenticity. She recalled spending teen summers in Nantucket when the police would send out decoys to find out where the party would be that night. They could always spot the fakes by what they wore (touristy T-shirts) and how they spoke. “Dude, where’s the party?” Not authentic. Teens will easily detect a fraud.

Sara concluded by warning her audience of three first-pages turnoffs: clichés, lots of dialogue in the opening, and prologues that aren’t really prologues.

Secrets of Landing an Agent, Part II: The Agent!

Yesterday we interviewed Katherine Grace Bond, newly agented and still giddy with happiness, about recently signing with Awesome Agent Sara Crow of Harvey Klinger.

Today we hear from Sara herself about why Katherine's query stood out, and how you can make your query more interesting to the agents you hope to work with - welcome, Sara, and thank you for sharing your wisdom!

*****

SARA CROWE: I am thrilled to be working with Katherine on her debut YA novel. I just looked back at her emailed query to attempt to pinpoint what made me request it, and noticed that she did not describe the book at all in the body of the query, which is not standard, and not usually a good idea! But she had a great opening line:

"I’m querying because you are a friend to poets (don’t worry; this isn’t a poetry collection), seem to like theatre-types, and represent the fabulous Randy Powell, who once trekked from Seattle to visit and critique my teenage writing group, even though I was too poor to even buy him a cup of coffee..."

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Secrets of Landing an Agent, Part I: The Author!

My friend Katherine Grace Bond, poet and YA author and teacher and terrific critiquer, recently heard the words that writers long to hear: "May I represent you?"

*sound of crowd cheering!*

That's right, Katherine is now represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger!

So I invited Katherine to spill some of her secrets to landing an agent right here. Welcome, Katherine!

*****

HOLLY: The actual event of receiving an agent offer is kind of a momentous and memorable event in any case, but yours is particularly hilarious. Tell us how it went down!

KATHERINE: Now you’ll find out what an awful wife and mother I am!

My husband was having sinus surgery on the day I had scheduled to talk with Sara. He thought this wouldn’t be a problem because I was to simply drop him off at the hospital at 5:45 in the morning and then spend the day at my mom’s, which was ten minutes away. I planned to take the call at Mom’s, where I would have a quiet room to talk. As it happened, he got out surgery an hour earlier than we’d anticipated. And I couldn’t bring myself to stay away from the hospital. I had to see him and know he was okay. So I went, phone in hand, and found him just about to transfer out of recovery. He was having an adverse reaction to the anesthesia and was very nauseated. But they got him settled into his room and I asked him if I should reschedule the phone call. “No,” he said bravely. “This is important.”

I was to hear from Sara at noon and every few seconds I looked at my phone for the time. Andrew was more and more miserable and began throwing up blood. I was patting him and nurses were going in and out and checking on him. I kept checking the phone: Two minutes to twelve…one minute to twelve… At 12:03 the phone rang...

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Get to know Sara Crowe

Laurie Thompson interviewed Sara Crowe, one of our conference faculty. Here's a sneak peek:

Welcome, Sara! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions for me! Let’s jump right in at the top of my list… with a rather tricky one. Your various bios and listings say you accept nonfiction, but I don’t see any nonfiction for kids among your titles. Am I missing it? If not, what do you suppose are the reasons? Do you just not get many nonfiction submissions, are they harder to sell, is it just harder to find one that grabs you personally, or some combination of those? Give us some insight on the juvenile nonfiction market from an agent’s perspective.

S: Hi Laurie! Thanks for having me! What my website says about what I represent is this: I am an agent with Harvey Klinger, Inc., a full service boutique literary agency in New York where I represent both adult and children’s titles. On the adult side, I represent commercial and literary fiction and a range of nonfiction. On the children’s side, my list includes YA and middle grade fiction, as well as picture books.

S: So, I am upfront about my lack of nonfiction on the children’s side. However, I am very open to queries for children’s nonfiction, and do hope to find more. Many of my favorite books as a child were nonfiction, and it is something I remain interested in reading. My client Erin Vincent’s debut YA, GRIEF GIRL (Delacorte, 2007) is a memoir, and I would love to see more YA memoir. I am also working on two nonfiction projects at the moment—one picture book and one biography for children.

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