Dear Max: Short Stories, LGBTQ+, Unrepresented Authors
Dear Max,
How do you suggest I find an agent to represent a collection of short stories?
My first book, a memoir, will be published in October. I have published short stories and essays. Now, my focus is on my collection. All of the stories feature a female protagonist but are not connected. One of them was the Story of the Week at Narrative Magazine.
I studied creative writing at UCLA and have an MFA from Antioch University.
- Short and Sweet
Dear Short and Sweet,
Oof. This is a tough one. You have fantastic credentials, but I’m going to be honest with you, without an established name, you’re looking at smaller literary and university presses—and there’s nothing wrong with that! Short story collections, although fantastic, just aren’t commercially successful, so your pond of agents and publishers looking for this content is a relatively small one. There are a bunch of short fiction publishers out there, depending on your genre—Google is your friend here.
I’d also make sure that you’re taking as much advantage of your MFA program as you can. Your degree got you advisors and connections, make sure you’re using them!
Max
Hi, Max,
I am so curious why the top publishers want books with LGBQ+, when they make up such a small part of the population.
Also why so many books feature coming-of-age sexually, and pushing LGBQ topics when kids today need help understanding their soul.
It is disturbing to me, and keeping the majority of todays youth from embracing reading books.
This was told to me from a top agent at (REDACTED).
Please help me understand or guide me to a publisher who wants to sell to the majority of the population.
Thank you.
Maybe Soulless in Seattle
Dear Maybe Soulless,
This is a little early in my advice-giving career to be tackling the big questions, but I’ll give it a go. First, agents and publishers are looking for representation because so many grew up reading and watching protagonists who didn’t look like, act like, or, well, represent what was in the mirror. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen to the next generation when we have a say in the matter.
Second, and to just be blunt about it, love is love. It doesn’t matter to me what the gender or sexual orientation of a protagonist is, if it’s well-written, I’m going to relate. Like, I get Batman’s quest for justice despite the fact there’s literally nothing about being a billionaire or a secret super hero that I can relate to (I mean, at least until this column takes off). And these topics have nothing to do with youth reading statistics, that’s all down to failures of the Department of Education (only 31% of fourth-graders and 30% of eighth-grade students performed at or above NAEP Proficient level) and racial and socio-economic disparities. And I’m not blaming teachers—they’ve got enough on their plates—but parents need to prioritize reading … and making reading fun. I’m not advocating that parents not instill a moral or religious compass in their children—you do you—but I can almost guarantee assigning a teenager something to “understand their soul” is going to have the opposite intended effect. Just like a kid who loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe probably didn’t spend five years living in a closet (yeah, I did that on purpose) waiting to find Narnia and also didn’t immediately become a born-again Christian despite the strong religious themes in the book.
To your next point, “coming of age” doesn’t always mean sexually. “Coming of age” is one of the oldest types of novels in existence, To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, Great Expectations, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Anne of Green Gables are all classic literature, and all classified as “coming of age.” Sometimes, coming of age includes a component of sexuality, but mostly it means exploring the change from childhood to adulthood, which can take on many forms. These types of stories (as illustrated by the just very short list I provided above) are not only relatable, but relatable through the ages.
What’s important is writing a book that resonates, telling a tale as old as time, despite the specifics of the protagonist (I always related to Beth, not Jo), not the protagonist’s stats. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
Also, there are agents and publishers out there who feel the same way you do, and are looking for books with messages, I’m guessing, just like the one you’ve got. Several major traditional publishers have Christian-focused imprints. They’re out there, and not hard to find, and reach large audiences.
Max
Dear Max,
It has become impossible, even for well-established authors like myself, to access an agent.
Isn’t there some way that editors could provide a path for established authors whose work has been well-received, to reach likeminded editors without an agent?
My books, fiction and non-fiction, are still in print and have won awards. I’ve been sent around the country by the Jewish Book Council with one book. Another mss was recently shortlisted in an important contest.
It seems to all go for nought.
I would welcome advice and counsel.
Thank you,
AKA Established but Agentless
Dear Established,
There’s a lot to unpack here. A lot of publishers do accept unagented submissions (and major traditional publishers, too). So that’s very possible. But I’m afraid the issue that you’re facing is possibly being stuck in midlist hell.
You’ve had some successes, you’ve won some awards—and all of that is great—but the sales numbers (especially recently) aren’t stellar. So what an agent (or publisher) is thinking is “if the author is doing the same thing again, why would it get more readers than before?” And, to be honest, the answer is “it won’t.” And the agent knows it, and the editor knows it.
If you want my advice (you wrote in, so you’re getting it either way), what you want to do now is the “genre pivot.” Were you writing mysteries? Maybe you pivot to romantic suspense. Something where your agent (or you) can show a publisher that you can bring your existing readers, but you’re doing something different that will bring new readers in.
Think of it from the publisher’s POV. It’s kind of the definition of insanity, doing something over and over and expecting a different result. You’re not going to suddenly get more eyes on the thing you’ve been doing all along. Show how this book is going to be different and be the breakout.
Reinvention is the new black. You’ve got this!
Max