A friend just got a two-book YA deal shortly after landing an agent. The agent asked for a rewrite, and now the editor has as well.

I'm still a publishing outsider, but everything I've read has always emphasised that your work has to be practically perfect before an agent will take you on. So I'm not sure how this squares with something else I've heard more recently from actual authors, namely that agents and editors always want you to rewrite.

I have two questions. (1) In what way/s do you need to be perfect already, and in what ways might they accept imperfection and ask you to rewrite? Or do they just request rewrites so your book better fits some niche in the market? (That was the impression I got re. my friend's book.)

(2) Is the demand/supply ratio greater for YA, and is it thus easier to get an agent and/or publisher in that genre? (I'm not planning to switch, I'm just curious.)

Thanks in advance for any info.

PS These rewrites were very thoroughgoing, e.g., changing a vampire story into a story about plain old humans!

Writers need to get to a level of technical proficiency in their writing before an agent will take them on, but most don't learn how to structure a novel properly - often because they are looking at it from the stance of a writer not a reader - hence the necessity to rewrite parts of it under the instruction of an agent &/or publisher.
Currently in Childrens there are 3 members who have been asked for rewrites from their agents or publisher. It's a very common hurdle to have to jump through on the way to publication.

I couldn't tell you about supply & demand, except to say there are some very common themes sitting in Agents slush piles which sets the bar very high if you're submitting a similar mss, eg, vampires & werewolves in YA fiction. There are also a lot of writers writing Chick-lit and agents commonly say the market is saturated. What they mean is they see the same starylines over and over again, but an original storyline, while still keeping to the conventions of the Chick-lit genre, will stand out from the crowd.

It's worth spending time on Authonomy - Harper Collins' online slush pile - or YouWriteOn - and ploughing through the mss uploaded on there to see the common storylines in your genre.

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To add, rewrites are often necessary where writers have gone beyond the boundaries of the genre. Simply calling it crossover isn't going to work.

PS These rewrites were very thoroughgoing, e.g., changing a vampire story into a story about plain old humans!

I'm not surprised. As I said above, vampire mss are two a penny in slush piles because everyone's been inspired by Twilight.

Thanks. Makes sense.

It's worth spending time on Authonomy - Harper Collins' online slush pile - or YouWriteOn - and ploughing through the mss uploaded on there to see the common storylines in your genre.

Good idea.

It's difficult to give prescriptive answers here, especially since you're talking about a friend's experiences, i.e. we don't know first hand for sure why these extensive re-writes were asked for. Changing the very nature of a book, as appears to be the case here, seems odd. But then it could be that your friend is working for hire more than they've let on; or that they were taken on because of writing ability rather than a specific book.

But looking at your general questions:

I have two questions. (1) In what way/s do you need to be perfect already, and in what ways might they accept imperfection and ask you to rewrite? Or do they just request rewrites so your book better fits some niche in the market? (That was the impression I got re. my friend's book.) (2) Is the demand/supply ratio greater for YA, and is it thus easier to get an agent and/or publisher in that genre? (I'm not planning to switch, I'm just curious.)

The publishing rules as such are in a state of flux at the moment, mainly because of the rapid rise of e-readers and self-published novels. Generally speaking, if I had an agent and a publisher, I would only make changes that the editor suggests. She, after all, is the one investing money in your book; your agent is someone who works for you, primarily to help you get better deals. It may seem obvious, but an agent is not an editor or a writer, even if she used to be one or both.

It's very possible that publishers are trying to force authors' to fit their work more closely into identifiable markets, given how the market for traditionally published books is under threat. Then again, for some time it's been the case that an editor who loves a book has to sell it to her various teams, and she does that largely by showing how it's just like books by X Y and Z but also unique ("we want the same but different").

If you're brave enough, and serious about learning how publishing really works from a self-motivated author's point of view, check out the blogs of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

I doubt that YA is no easier than any other genre; probably more difficult if anything at the moment, since everyone's at it. It's worth keeping up to date with what's hot in YA (dystopian future-based stories seem all the rage at the moment, following the huge success of 'The Hunger Games', e.g. 'Divergent' but chasing the market is a dodgy business, given that writing, selling and getting a book published can take 3 years.

Terry