by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
There’s a great scene in Ocean’s 11 where someone goes through a list of crucial parts of making the heist a success to Matt Damon’s character and when he gets to the last thing, he doesn’t tell Damon what it is.
I feel that way as I work my way towards being in a position to attempt to sell my first novel. I read all these different how-to books that give you all this advice that you absolutely have to follow to sell your novel. But, I think, really, a lot mean to just remind you that it’s really difficult to get a novel published the traditional route and for people to adjust their expectations accordingly. The people who give all their advice about how to write a novel mean well, but the net effect is to try to discourage as many people as possible from writing a novel in the first place.
Anyway, as I continue my march towards querying, I again and again find myself uneasy about what is going to happen when literary agents do “due diligence” on me. Repeatedly, literary types — who I’m willing to pay! — have dismissed me as a crank and aren’t even willing to work with me at all.
It makes me wonder if there some sort of unspoken culture clash that I just won’t be able to overcome. Do I, by definition, come across as too bonkers for your average literary type?
This is extremely aggravating for a number of reasons, chief among them being creative people tend to be “problematic,” weird” and “different.” It also doesn’t help that I’m a CIS white middle age man who writes from the POV throughout the novel of someone who is not that, but rather an Amerasian woman. (Among other different types of people.)
But, in the end, being delusional got me this far and being delusional is going to get me as far as I can possibly get before I learn one way or another if what I fear is true or not.
