Granted, there's little to no chance that I'd ever got Molly Friedrich's attention.
She's one of the most high-powered literary agents around, but there's no point in not trying at all. Even the longest odds suggest that a winner will eventually crop up.
In my ongoing search of debut fiction for study, I found Elizabeth Kelly's Apologize, Apologize! Could I claim that her readers would become my readers?
Ms. Kelly is a magazine editor and a journalist with a collection of awards to her credit. Right there I see that my lack of credentials is going to get me nowhere with Ms. Friedrich. It's all about platform, even for writers of fiction.
Could I get past that major roadblock and make a case for sharing the market?
No, not even close.
Apologize, Apologize isn't my cuppa. I struggled to read the first fifty pages, in imitation of a literary agent's initial request, but there was nothing there that caught my interest.
I'm as fond of cartoons as the next person, but sometimes I'm simply not in the mood for cartoon characters. This is supposed to be a coming-of-age tale about a young man from a highly dysfunctional family, but the dialogue was forced in an attempt at over-the-top zaniness.
The book will head back to the library for someone else to tackle, and I'll get back to my fun-filled hobby of finding literary agents who are a good match for my style of writing.
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