Keeper of the key
A little on agents, authors and Hindu Gods
This week I have been thinking a lot about transparency and power. These are both quite abstract terms so let me explain, narrowing it down, being specific.
Any writer who has had their work out on submission will be aware of how powerless they feel during the big wait. It can be a matter of weeks, but more likely it is a month, more likely even longer than that. Most often there is deathly silence after an agent has sent a submission out, a void that is so easy to fill if you are anyone but the author. The agent will have plenty of books to represent, promotion to do, events to go to, general life and job stuff. An editor is probably simply feeling overwhelmed by the number of manuscripts they have vying for their attention, while they have real-life books in pre production, teams to manage, meetings to go to. (This is why, when they finally come to reading your manuscript they will be looking for reasons to say no!)
But that void is much bigger, much darker, much scarier for the author of the book that has been thrown out into the world.