Book Broker: an interview with Christopher Combemale

Agent: Christopher Combemale

Website: SLL.com

Preferred genres: literary and upmarket commercial fiction with an unexpected hook; narrative nonfiction, cultural criticism/essay, and expert-driven projects across subject areas with special attention to technology, food, pop-science, philosophy, and any book that asks big questions about forces of change.

Bio: Christopher joined Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. in 2019 and works with Peter Matson and Jim Rutman. As a Singaporean/French/American born and raised in London, Christopher is drawn to international voices and writers in translation. His clients include Carnegie Medal winner Manon Steffan Ros, James Beard winner Shane Mitchell, Polish firebrand Agnieszka Szpila, among others. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar and now lives in Brooklyn.

1) What stands out in a good submission?

A well written query letter: tight, concise, with lines that read like good flap copy for a published book. I find the quality of the query letter tends to say a lot about the quality of the manuscript. Of course, a good submission is always about the manuscript itself. Does it read like a book that could compete for attention on the front table at a bookstore? Great writing is everything.

2) What's a typical warning sign that a manuscript isn't ready for representation?

A murky or laborious beginning. A sense that the manuscript doesn’t have a strong sense of its characters or the story it is telling in the early pages. In literary fiction, prose that is self-indulgent—interested in its own beauty—rather than working in service of the novel.

3) What's at the top of your manuscript wish list right now?

I would love a literary campus novel right now.

4) For writers without prior publications, what can they say in their "about me" query paragraph to catch your attention? Does it help to know if the manuscript has gone through workshopping or developmental editing?

No it doesn’t. I am not very interested in what other people have to say about your manuscript or whether it has been edited by others. That benefit was for you: ideally to refine a superb manuscript to catch my attention. But since anyone with money can access a freelance editor, it doesn’t offer any insight into the quality of your book. In fiction, the biography is more to sate our curiosity than to contribute to the case for the book. On the other hand, in non-fiction the biography is critical when the author’s credentials lie at the heart of the case for the book.

5) Some people say that "agents hate prologues." Is that true for you? What is the most common reason that a prologue falls flat?

For me, yes. You have the most readerly capital on page 1—i.e. fresh optimism that I will enjoy what is to come and readiness to develop pathos with whomever we meet. Why waste that on characters or scenarios that often are not of much import until later? (Typical prologue behavior but not universal.) Some of that capital has then been spent by the time I turn to Chapter 1, typically meeting the protagonist for the first time, with diminished readerly energy/anticipation.

Sometimes writers suggest that the opening pages are about giving the reader critical information. I don’t believe that is the case. It presumes a willingness to continue that is only really true for your friends and family. Your opening pages are above all for establishing a relationship between reader and character, for making us care.

Make us care, and everything will follow.

6) If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be and why?

I think the collapse of the mid-list has made it more difficult to launch debut authors. It has always been difficult, maybe impossible, to put a true valuation on manuscripts, but a growing feast-or-famine mentality will further untether the value of book contracts from probable sales.

If I could add a second: the growing consolidation of the business means corporate executives accrue power at editors’ expense, generally speaking. The result is less risk taking, less creativity, and greater hegemony in the literature major publishers produce.

7) What red flags in a query letter are enough to cause you to pass on a project without looking at the writer's sample pages? What percentage of submissions would you say die with the query letter?

I always read at least the opening few paragraphs but my hopes are often diminished by the query letter. There is not much surprising to say here; it is the usual culprits: sloppy writing, overly casual, typos and obvious mistakes, grandiose positioning, etc etc. Follow the standard form of a query, don’t try to be too interesting. Let the manuscript do that for you.

8) What's the best (non-client) book you've read recently, and how did it hook you?

I absolutely adored VLADIMIR by Julia May Jonas. It is exquisite and propulsive. By the end you start over wondering "how on earth she managed it all." For this kind of book, voice is everything and Jonas has it in spades. She got her hooks into me on line one and never let go.

9) Can you tell us about an exciting author you're working with at the moment? 

It is too hard to single out one author! I am very excited about TAKE MY NAME BUT SAY IT SLOW by Thomas Dai, forthcoming from Norton in January. Spending time in Thomas’ pages is like luxuriating inside the mind of a genius, but one who feels as hard as he thinks. His essays are of a different spirit to the bulk of "trendy" literary writing out there. He is timeless, classic, and deeply affecting. I can’t wait to see how readers respond.

I’m also thrilled for the next book by Manon Steffan Ros out this fall, GRETA. Manon’s work is very successful abroad but her following has been slower to build in the US. She is a master at painting the complex dynamics of class and family in North Wales. This book is one of psychological suspense, thrilling and heartbreaking in equal measure.