Can Literary Agents Change Literature?

Should we? Will we?

Hi friends,

Our Q&A today is a meaty one. And it’s Friday and not Thursday—apologies—it’s been a helluva week. In a good way! But I’ve also been chewing on this question and I have a lot to say. Here goes:

L asks: For a long time now, I have been interested in the process of creating American modern literature. I understand that a literary agent is the first one who opens a door to the future writer and actually helps to create American literature, which will exist centuries after us.

My question is, by what principle, logic, or rules are agents guided in their construction of our present and future literature, and how do they define who is talented enough to be published and become a writer?

I read that an agent receives a hundred or more Queries daily¹, and it’s hard to read them all. So, some of the queries blindly go to the slush piles², which will never be opened, ie, a trash. Mine, definitely, went to the trash. Why are some queries open and others not? And if they are read, how is the decision made regarding which manuscript deserves to be published? Do agents choose only by their personal taste in literature? But the taste can be very mediocre or very narrow in its field. Or is the agent afraid that a book can’t make a profit? Anyway, agents miss, I am afraid, many talented authors, who could be the pride of American Literature and help create a mediocre literature that flourishes in the present. Who are the best American writers now? How many?

There’s so much in here! More than I can probably get to in one newsletter, but let’s try. I’ll break it down into what the letter writer is mostly getting at here.

Do literary agents create American Literature?

I have several glib answers to this. 1. No, writers do. 2. No, readers do. 3. No, publishers do. But that may be me avoiding the real truth in this because yes, literary agents do have a hand in shaping literature, because we are a part of the publishing process and publishing is how literature is shared with the world. To pretend this is not true would be dishonest.

I do not believe, however, that agent’s decisions can be broken down into a rubric one can follow or come with grand specific intensions. Capital L Literature is not X pages, about X subject with X theme. And many agents, myself included, work to vary and broaden our lists and to pay close attention to the work and stories of marginalized people. I work with a great number of trans and non-binary clients. But I didn’t set out to do this 19 years ago when I joined the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. I found myself there after one of my clients transitioned and then I talked to and learned from and connected with those in that community and now I am proud to work on these books, and on all my books. I didn’t say I’m going to change American Literature by promoting queer stories. I could have! But in the beginning, I was just trying to pay rent. The shape of a career happens in the rearview mirror.

Agents alone do not create American Literature. It starts with writers. It ends with readers. In between are the forces of capitalism, publishing, bias, human error, and art.

How do literary agents choose books?

The glib answer here, too, is whatever I think I can sell, because I cannot force a publisher to publish a book. There is nothing I can say to an editor that will make them do what I want (/what the writer wants) unless they, too, want to do it.