Another Theme Question...

[queenoftheskies]

Have you ever had an agent/editor/publisher/etc. ask you to identify the theme of your work?

Have they ever discussed it with you? Made comment that it needed to be strenghtened? Or was too strong?

Back when I was pitching screenplays, that was one of the questions production company execs liked to ask. "What's the theme of your screenplay?"

So, I was curious.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This happened to me in December.
Agent asked me and we sat down for a while hammering out what the theme was from the story we had.
Came up with something good as well, so I don't think it was a waste of time.
She needed it to market the book, to write up a sales proposal. I'm guessing publishers aren't likely to buy books with similar themes around the same period. Or something.

Tade

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

it's a question agents, publishers, etc. use for marketing purposes ~ both for th reasons the poster above stated as well as determining whether the book has a strong appeal.

and it's important that writers can answer the question coherently (and specifically) because it can make the diff between a sale and a pass.

[graygirl.livejournal.com]

No one has ever asked me that. :p

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

agents and publishers believe (rightly, IMHO) that if you don't know what you've just written well enough to tell them what the theme is (and all stories have a "theme" whether they were put there intentionally or not) then you can't possibly have written something readable. that, or (more likely) you haven't actually written/finished even the first draft yet. and if you're a "new" author, they especially don't want to talk to you if you haven't finished it yet.

every agent/publisher i've heard (and i've been to many writing conventions and attended many panels) has made it clear: before pitching to an agent/publisher, you really must have actually finished the manuscript in question, and you absolutely must be able to summarize what it is "about" in a sentence or two--seperately from describing the plot, which should be done in one medium sized paragraph. when they ask for a "treatment," that's when you give them the three-pager.

[ts5000.livejournal.com]

Yes. This seems to be a standard question. This is different to the synopsis, as this has to be only about 1 or 2 lines and has to be the core of the story.

[andelku.livejournal.com]

no.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

As of yet, I've never had the pleasure. :-)

[mmarques.livejournal.com]

Not yet that far along in my career. But before starting my current round of revisions on Mysterious Paris I wrote out the theme and sub-themes at the start of my revisions notebook.