Back to the Platform (Again)

[ahunter3]

Got this reply from an agent*:

> Thanks so much for sending your heartfelt memoir. The big issue
> standing in the way of my taking you on is not editorial, since you
> write cleanly and smoothly. It's a matter of platform, that built-in
> audience who knows the author through some form of media. With the
> comparisons you gave, it's the authors and their reach beyond the book
> world that distinguishes them. Feinberg has long been a rights
> advocate in the spotlight, Boyle had a successful writing career as a
> man, and the Scholinkski was a case that got media coverage that led
> to a book deal, not the other ay around. Publishing is an industry
> that can ride a wave but is not so great at making them. It's a shame
> that a good book is no longer enough, but I see a tough road ahead
> without a really impressive platform. I appreciate the chance, though,
> and wish you luck connecting with an agent who doesn't share my
> reservations.


This is pretty much where I came in, the impetus for starting this blog.


On the one hand, it IS encouraging to get some occasional confirmation that the problem isn't that the book isn't good enough to be published, and QUITE encouraging to get some signal that the problem isn't with the quality of my query letter, either.

On the other hand, the platform isn't something I can easily do much about. I've been operating this blog for a little while now (it's one of the few platformy things that seems to be within my reach), but as much as I deeply appreciate you folks reading it, and commenting on it, I suspect that the agents who are looking for an author's platform won't be impressed with blogging unless there are hundreds of followers lapping it up, not the dozen or so that I have. And I have no clear idea what kind of magic tricks I need to do to drive people en masse over here to read my stuff.

I've been to more GLBT meetings and have found myself understood and accepted there, with reciprocity, but if being part of those structured organizations is going to morph into "a platform", it will take awhile.

I've spoken a couple times at open-mike events where performance artists and poets and comedians and other folks get 5 minutes at the mike, and will attempt to do more, but at the moment I don't see that growing into some kind of huge cult following.

As far as I can tell, my best bet is to just keep plugging away and accept that the lack of platform means I have to do this for a lot longer than if I were famous or had a built-in audience. That I have to believe it makes my road difficult, not impossible.


Current query status (The Story of Q):

total queries: 305
rejections: 193 (includes no reply > 3 months)
outstanding: 111 (no reply yet, < 3 months)
under consideration: 1


* agent's name and agency not included here due to lack of explicit permission. I don't really have permission to reprint the email, either, I'm just doing it anyhow. The references to Feinberg, Boyle, and Scholinski are from my query letter and proposal identifying "comparable books": Leslie Feinberg's STONE BUTCH BLUES, Daphne Scholinski's THE LAST TIME I WORE A DRESS, and Jennifer Boylan's SHE'S NOT THERE

————————

Index of all Blog Posts

Comments

[musicman.livejournal.com]

That agent is bad news. He wants a celebrity.

You want a publisher. You are not even on the same page.

Don't give up.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I disagree about the "bad news." :-)

Commercial publishing is a business, and business people want a return on investment.

If Allan just wanted a publisher, he could self-publish, no? :-)

[musicman.livejournal.com]

So, Allan wants to be a celebrity, and to publish his book?

Self-publishing used to carry a very negative stigma. Today, with publishing, it is less so - and yet, if one wants publicity, and advertising, it is difficult to do that with a self-published book.

Agents come in all kinds. The ones who are bad news are the ones who are always looking for that huge star, and don't help the likes of Allan to achieve success.

All publishing is a business, but from the comments the agent is making, he is not just looking at publishing. He wants someone who is already known to the world. I don't see how that is helpful to Allan. So - to me that agent is not only bad news, he's useless.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

We'll have to agree to disagree.

I think this agent was offering an astute, realistic analysis.

[ahunter3.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, that agent's attitude is apparently pretty mainstream these days. Not universal -- I just reacquainted myself with some more encouraging agent replies, wherein their inability to take me on at this time had to do with how busy THEY were, wherein they said specifically that otherwise they'd have requested a full manuscript, and asked me to re-query in a few months. But common nonetheless.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

I think this agent is giving you pretty solid feedback.

What could you do to build a fan base, I wonder?

I'm certain that you can. (If it's a priority for you.)

You're not the glad-handing type, so pressing flesh isn't gonna work for you. What about leveraging your technical talents? Creating a smartphone ap that would have some utility for the community that's your natural constituency? I have no idea what that ap would have to be (it's not my constituency), but something along those lines would get your name out there, no?

[ahunter3.livejournal.com]

Meh... if I created a good solid smartphone app, that would not make me famous. Not even within the community of people that used my app. Can you name one programmer of any of your smartphone apps? A long long time ago, Mac users (at least; don't know about PC users) did sort of know the names of some of the more prolific authors of shareware and freeware apps that they downloaded and installed, but I think that culture has long since gone.

Honestly, if I'm going to get my name out there in the genderqueer / trans / feminist-gender-theory communities, it will probably have to be my ideas that get me there, unless I can contrive to be at the right place and the right time to do a Rosa Parks kind of thing. (and that, btw, was scripted, not impromptu, as I'm sure you already know).

I could perhaps book a flight to Canada and show up in my skirt...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/are-transgender-canadians-being-banned-from-boarding-flights-1.1293810

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

You may want to start giving lectures and readings at the local BLT centers. If you'd like to set up a practice lecture for friends only, I will help. You'll want some printed material to give out that has your contact information on it.

[musicman.livejournal.com]

And don't forget YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and a serious, thoughtful Blog. If you don't have a serious blog, WordPress is good, and useful. Red can help advise you on setting one up, and on the SEO which is very important in being read and seen. You link them all, of course.

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

I know LJ is thought of as passé, and WordPress is Oh So Much More Respectable, but in terms of content, how is Allan's LJ not serious and thoughtful? But if you want really serious and thoughtful, there's always http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter/, but I don't quite think that will make him famous, either.

[musicman.livejournal.com]

I'm not of the opinion he will reach hundreds of thousands of readers on LJ.

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

I don't think Wordpress in and of itself will increase the number of readers by much. In other words, I don't think the URL matters as much as the content or gimmick or the generation of some internet viral meme or . . . something.