I'm starting to get it. Really. I'm starting to understand just where agents are coming from and why authors receive so many rejections.
I've read a lot of books lately. Like- ALOT. The main reason is because I'm reading mostly YA now and YA is just faster and easier to read than adult books. Also I've been reading a lot because I've simply lost patience for TV unless it's one of the few shows I watch. But that's a post for another day.
With all this reading comes a loss of the WOW factor. Wait, did I sound like Simon Cowell just then? (Shudder). Most of the books I've read have been GOOD. There have been very few I haven't liked and most of those because they just weren't my thing. Example: I'm not into the whole zombie apocalypse thing for books (or movies or anything at all for that matter). I don't think I've read a really TERRIBLE book. But have I been WOWED lately? Ummm, welll... maybe. Sometimes. Not really.
Ok, so I was wowed by Laurie Halse Anderson. But those weren't books that I'd read again. I want to read something that I just LOVE, like Harry Potter. I want to read about a world that I wish to lose myself in over and over again. I want a book that I have to force myself to wait to reread but all the while I can't wait to pick it up again. Holy Moley- I sound like an agent!
Hence my inner glimpse into an agents job. They get piles and piles of books to read- books that haven't gone through the extensive editing that happens before a book is published. They probably spend countless hours reading and reading and reading, just waiting to be wowed. It's not wonder that with all that reading, the wow-ing doesn't happen that often. I mean, if it doesn't happen for me that often and I'm reading books that have already been published (and therefore wowed others before me), why would it happen that often for an agent?
So I get it. I know I will never fully understand what it's like unless I was an agent myself, but I'm starting to understand. The thing is, I'm already TOTALLY WOWED by my own book. I mean, duh- it's awesome. So I guess I've gotta find someone else who is wowed by it as well!
Hey, my book is awesome, too! But I wrote what I wanted to read, so of course I'm gonna like it. Maybe it's a matter of finding someone with the same taste, now.
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