Writers of all genres drop by here.

I have read a few ripped bodice type stories which, lets be honest, are basically female rape with “love” down the line to make it okay, but was surprised by your entry. Was it a childhood flashback–bad priest or evil uncle. Something like that?

To date, your agent’s agency has sent me the nicest rejection I’ve gotten. Made it a lot nicer to say, yeah I was rejected, but it wasn’t nasty!

Request, IMHO, is a certain obligation, especially if it is accompanied by an exclusive. You are not doing the writer any free favors. You are engaging in a business relationship, however temporary and fragile. If you mess up, lose the papers, trash your self-imposed time schedule, how can I be sure you won’t do the same when you are my official agent? Can I really believe that kind of business attitude is reserved solely for non-clients?

Obviously, query is a different animal. But it’s not the writers’ fault that an agency is unable to handle the rush of queries. If you do not have time to read queries and focus sufficiently on your clients’ material, my –actually professional– advice would be to cut down on whichever activity is less profitable. In short — close the door for submissions. Instant headache relief. Hire an assistant. Whatever. Being messy with the business matters doesn’t make a company look like they are very busy. It makes them look badly managed and disorganized. The only reason why the agencies are getting away quite smoothly with that is because in this industry, there is no balance of supply and demand. There will always be more writers. So the reputation of the agency gets no stains from the behavior targeted at non-clients. It simply doesn’t matter, because most of those playing in the sandbox are the same way.

But if I send a correctly addressed query, and the agent decides to request my book, it is not my fault that eight hundred writers who got it wrong sent their queries and made it difficult for the agent to treat me in a professional manner. It has nothing to do with what is going between me and the agent, business-wise. And I don’t understand why I should pay for that, with both my money and my time.

By the way, I agree with Diana on form rejections. I think query is such a small first step –and, more importantly, it is paid so little attention anyway —
that a personalized query is more confusing than clarifying. It is understandable that this personalized rejection will be not very thought out, so it might state things in a wrong or unclear way. In short — a simple no is better for everyone involved, IMHO.

No, really, you’re welcome to be anonymous. We’re fine with anonymous ’round here (well, Julie’s not, but I am, and it’s my blog). I get anonymous all over the place when the need arises. It’s kind of like a form letter, don’t you think? Necessary at times, just to keep the parts running smoothly.

Also, sometimes it’s as true as it can get. Not right for us, better luck elsewhere. Period, period, period.

Don’t feel flogged. It’s not open season on rejectors. We have reserved that right for Rachel

I’m so kidding, Rachel. Okay, I’m kind of kidding. A little bit. I save all of my tomatoes for bruschetta.

Pardon the pricklies. I’m bereft without Lancelot.

Anyways, in clarification to my above post, I was responding to the many comments left, and not really the original blog at all (poor form I know). As usual Diana’s multi-facted method of viewing situations was apparent in her clever observations and reflections. My apologies for the miscommunication.

I also apologize for taking the easy way out via my anonymity, but I’m chosing this method to keep my opinions seperated from the company I work for.

I’m with you on form rejections. There have been several posts on Miss Snark’s blog about contradictory rejections, like “too much description, not enough description, great plot but boring characters, great characters but boring plot ….. ” The result are confused writers who don’t know whether and what to edit.

I have to admit, I’m a bit mystified by your comment, since this whole post is about shrugging off rejection letters, not getting up in arms about forms, and realizing that there’s nothing personal involved. And I’m completely with you (as is Daria) witht he idea that the purpose of an agency is to concentrate on their clients, not the people they’re rejecting.

What did I miss? Was this somewhere in the mysterious flogging post?

This post, and especially the resulting comments, made me really think about the person on the other side.

As a part of an agency that uses form “passes”, I have that cowering in the corner feeling, as if someone just told me what a complete piece of garbage I am. However, in our defense (the evil editor/agents) and slightly along the lines of Daria’s post, do you realize that it ISN’T JUST ABOUT YOU?! This is a business, and when you are looking at the realities of receiving 50+ queries a day, not even considering partials~ there is only so much time. While personalized scripted notes would be ideal, it is in no way realistic, especially for an agency in high demand.

Also consider (and I suspect this is preaching to the choir), that 80% of the queries we receive are in poor form AND for areas we don’t even represent. In addition these queries are not the drive of any agency; in fact they are a small component. These queries do not yield us a penny.

Remember we exist with a specific purpose. First and foremost we are here for our existing clients.

And if that doesn’t make sense, here is another way of looking at it. There is an agency and it only has X amount of hours in a day; would you rather know that A) a large percentage of the day is used towards letting potential clients down gently, or B) that down the road, when your material is absolutely ready, that the time will be spent on you, and your project, and getting you the best deal imaginable? Your call.