Christine Kelly Reads and Writes

Hello querying authors, I’m here to help explain a bit about what I mean by my passes. Due to many different reasons, I’m unable to give everyone their own pass specific to their pitch package. Yes, sometimes you get something a bit more personal if I have a specific thing I can identify– those I will get to later.

But because this is the pass I use most, I wanted to share why it’s used the most and what it may mean.

Here is the pass:

Dear FIRST NAME,
Thank you so much for submitting TITLE to me. While there is a lot I admire here and it does touch on a few points from my MSWL, I don’t think I will be the best champion for this novel. This is subjective to me and not a reflection of your work. I’m sorry I don’t have better news!

Christine

So, while I feel like this one is pretty straight forward, I’d like to explain further. My MSWL calls for a lot of vague genres and ideas. I purposefully don’t get too nitty gritty into the weeds on what I’m looking for because I don’t want someone to say “Hey, she said this little thing so this book isn’t for me”, when maybe, I don’t know it’s exactly what I need!!

Thus, often I get so many submissions that have a great pitch package: the query is in good shape, the synopsis shows a well plotted story, and the first pages have voice, good line level writing, and exciting.

But.

Ugh! The but!

It just isn’t giving me that *oh I need to read what comes next!* vibe. These are hard, partially because they do happen so often, but also because the author isn’t at fault for anything I can say to make it better, which often leads to authors saying, “What is wrong? Why can’t I get an agent?!”

Thanks to the many resources out there and the willingness (and eagerness) for authors to improve their craft and pitches, I am seeing such good quality in my inbox. But sometimes the story just isn’t for me whether it be certain themes I’m not the best fit for, tropes that I usually don’t gravitate to, or generally understanding a vision for the project from the jump. And when you have taken the time to improve your writing and create a great story, you deserve an agent who is excited about your story. Who has that initial spark or vision.

Think about when you go to a bookstore. All those books got there because they are good stories, written by people who write well on a line level. But certain ones call for you. Take it one further level, and knowing that you have to buy a book for someone else, and think about how you can convince them to read it (that’s me as an agent knowing how to pitch a book and what editor to pitch it to).

So if you get this pass from me, know that it wasn’t you, it was me. I hate that this is the case. If I could rep all the books in the world, I would. But my time is limited and I can’t also need to be sure I’m a good publishing partner by being willing to fight for my authors– a passion that comes from my love of my author’s work.

Know that someone else has different taste than me and they will want your book. It’ll only be a matter of time until you find your right champion– just keep at it!