| Re: "So what genre are you writing in?"
There is a difference between "taking against" a book and simply declining to publish it or represent it because it's outside their field of expertise or it doesn't fit in with their line of books. Publishers (or imprints within a publishing house) and agents often specialize. They focus their energies on one or several particular area(s) in order to become better at what they do. They are business people, after all, while we, the writers are the artists. And if we give our work into their hands, don't we want them to be good at what they are doing? Don't we want to be represented by an agent who knows the houses and editors who are most likely to be interested? And if an editor buys our book, wouldn't we rather that editor be someone who knows the genre we are writing in and the best ways to reach readers in that genre? Or would we rather (for instance) have someone whose real area of expertise is the romance novel telling us how to revise our hard SF novels, and choosing the cover art? |