Subjectivity Just Means You're Wrong

By Barbara Poelle

Last week Husband and I went to a highly-lauded Broadway show which boasted Tony winners and a captivating story. The house was full and so was my belly, so I settled happily in my chair to enjoy an evening on the town with some high quality entertainment seated next to my handsome life partner.

Now,  there are several different ways to say “love”. You can love your new Kate Spades, you can love Mexican food, you can love your nephews and you can love your spouse and they are all different versions of love, yet they fall under the simple umbrella of the word without any true qualifiers. Like you can’t loveest something the most, or love squared something, but it is generally accepted that the surrounding phrase will allow the listener to understand which type of love you mean. The same could go for “hate” I guess. So I want to make sure that I am absolutely clear on this, as the surrounding phrase may be a bit ambiguous in meaning: I hated this show with the white hot super nova hatred of a thousand pillaging Norsemen. I hated this show with the kind of visceral hate that quite possibly created a rage goiter in my neck. I hated it to the point where I wished I would have brought a helmet full of bees to wear as that would have been more enjoyable to experience than this show.

This is the point where you think I am going to tell you the title, right? Ooohhh, nooo. No way. Uh-uh. Because people LOVE this show. And not just Jimmy Choo love, but Grandma and kittens love. Hold hands and cry a little love. So trust me when I say I am in the minority here, and I will zip my lip in order to avoid the fall out that would rain upon my head like a piñata filled with needles and cockroaches. (Wow, that may be the creepiest thing I have ever said.  I actually got a little light headed at the thought of that one.)  

Which brings me to the reviews, because, for the love of Blake Lively, why are people flocking to this show? I feel like the emperor is nude, preening and prancing through the streets of Manhattan while everyone oooh’s and ahhhh’s about his astounding new robes and I am like this dirty little street urchin standing on the dung wagon pointing and yelling, “Uhh, you guys, HE IS NAKED!”

Apparently, as Husband has tried to explain to me on several occasions, not everyone has the same opinion as I do. And FURTHERMORE, sometimes I can be wr-….wro…less right than other times. Now I know this. I get rejected so often by editors that I have a permanent dent on the surface my desk from dropping my head in anguish. This ain’t my first time at the Shame Rodeo.

Clearly I am involved in a truly subjective business. I have seen some bru-TAL reviews on some of my client’s works. I have been on the phone with clients who are making a high pitched keening sound heard only by hamsters and Dakota Fanning over some review, and I am able to completely ride it out and shut down the angst.  But my favorite example of subjectivity in publishing is among the agents. I was giving a talk in California recently and someone asked me, “Do you ever refer manuscripts to other agents in your agency?” and I was like, “Not only other agents in my agency, but in publishing. And I get referrals all the time from other agents.” This is the version of subjectivity that makes publishing ROCK.

Good writing will out. Maybe the story or the protagonist isn’t ringing my bells, but I if I think I can make a love connection for you with Janet Reid or Jen Schober I am absolutely going to send you their way. And they do the same for me. I always feel a sense of pride when someone signs or sells one of my referrals.  And it comes with a free gift of booze, too, as you know they are paying for drinks next time we go out.

So, I guess, all things considered, keeping a little subjectivity around is a good thing.

Subjectivity and a helmet full of bees.

 

 

Comments

[Jersey Jack]

Billy Elliott. Go ahead and say it.

[Barbara Poelle]

Hahhahaaah ahahhaaaa. I saw Billy and his dancing was stunning! Very deserving of the Tri-Tony nod. But even if it was Billy I wouldn't say it...

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmgbl4Trql_4eUfWTWD6R23Y89bDJchCUQ]

My guess is God Of Carnage, which I found dreadfully disappointing last month.

[Josie Brown]

As as always, great post, Barbara.

Perched oh so prettily as I am on the other side of the fence, my only caveat is that you somehow explain this referral to the writer first, perhaps this way:

"The writing here is tight, but this isn't my cuppa/I've up to my professionally plucked eyebrows in (manuscripts, authors, what ev)/ This doesn't hit my hot button, however I think I know an agent who is looking for something along these lines. Would you mind if I passed it to him/her?"

I'm just sayin' that a pass-along, without the author's understanding as to why, can be taken the wrong way. I know of one situation where a manuscript was passed from one well-respected agent to another in the same shop, but the referral was not as highly thought of, by writer-types. Needless to say, the author in question was miffed, since he wasn't asked first.

Of course there is the opposite example, where authors have not followed up on an agent's "Hey, I'm passing, but I suggest you query So-and-So because s/he is looking for exactly this book and her list is open right now..." only for said author to wander through the publishing desert for another year--

Before ending up with the savvy matchmaker's recommendation.

And in this day and age, every agent referral is an oasis.

–Josie Brown
The DILF (in bookstores Summer '10)

PS: I'm guessin' the musical was LEGALLY BLONDE? 'Coz -- my 2 cents, and I know FIRST HAND -- there's only one little blonde who can do those songs justice, and she's making her name in publishing... (I'm just sayin'...)

[Barbara Poelle]

HAhhahaha...That's me. The Elle Woods of publishing hahahha. I'm more like Bruiser Woods.
and let me second that: THE DILF in bookstores Summer '10, that Molly Boot sure did you right, eh?

[Janet Reid]

Less right! Yea, baby, that's me! I'm less right about six times a day.

I"m guessing WICKED. Am I less-right?