The Book Isn't Ready

by Kasie Whitener

 

Last week I had the longest conversation I’ve had with my agent since she said she wanted to sign me. We spoke for nearly two hours about the first 100 pages of my manuscript. After reading them for the second time, she wanted to share her thoughts.

 

I took four pages of notes in a separate Google document while we spoke. Everything she said was spot on. She had questions I couldn’t answer about the world I’ve built. She found contradictions and inconsistencies. She found confusing motivations and no motivations and inconsistent motivations.

 

She found out the book isn’t ready.

 

And this creates a lot of work for both of us. Me on revision, her on reminding herself that I will make her money someday. Just not today.

 

I knew Being Blue wasn’t ready for an agent or a publisher. I knew it even as I sent it to her. But I also didn’t know exactly what to fix. The exchange went like this:

 

Me: You rep vampire novels? I have one of those.

Her: Send it to me.

Me: It’s not ready. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it.

Her: Send it to me.

 

And here we are, eight months later, talking about what it needs to make it ready. To make it irresistible to any editor she shares it with. She didn’t drop me. She told me to revise it.

 

I’m not discouraged. In fact, Amy was so supportive of the work – and continually said she loves it – that I felt excited to jump back in. I felt like I stood in front of Gordon Ramsey while he tasted my dish and he said, while rubbing his lips together, “So savory. For anyone else, this would be great. But it’s not your best.”

 

Fresh eyes on your work can be transformational. Being Blue has been workshopped through Columbia II for years. I mean, years. Every scene has been in front of other writers. But Amy isn’t looking at this like a writer. She’s a reader. Even better, she’s a salesperson. She knows what readers buy.

 

I’ve been given painful feedback before. Everything from dismissing vampires as a misdiagnosis of rabies to being accused of being a Twilight wannabe. My vampire pages have been in front of readers who wanted to love it but didn’t and readers who wanted to hate it but couldn’t.

 

“It’s well written,” some reluctant readers say, not liking the sex, the cussing, or the killing. “But vampires aren’t really my thing.”

 

I’ve received painful feedback before, but Amy’s was like the day after a 120-squat workout. It’s a good hurt. You know it took effort. You know it built muscle. You know it’s the next stage that will get you to the next stage.

 

And since Tuesday, I’ve been working on the key fixes she identified for me so that the next time we talk, we can address a different set of fixes. Again and again. Until it’s ready.