A nice rejection is always to be preferred to a generic one - a personal touch or comment helps. "I read it twice, before Christmas and again just now" is comforting... talk about the market makes one feel that in happier times one might have got through... So TRF is now only with 2 agents - Wm Morris - which doesn't count, because they are just a giant slushpile who never acknowledge or reply... and Aitken Alexander - which I don't think counts either, since I think it has been eaten by a troll there. I sent it in July, then enquired in December - the reply to my enquiry was "send it to me and I'll get it back to you by the end of the week.... I duly did so - and never heard another thing... then "reception" got in touch advising me to re-submit it... I replied but "the troll" has run off with it - so what do you advise?" - Nada.
Anyway, since this agent seemed agreeable, I thanked her and sent her TAG instead...
Looking back over this blog and its various agenty travails I wonder if this is just Me being inefficient and ineffectual - or are all English writers like this? When I occasionally read US writers' blogs I am amazed by the bright-eyed efficiency they seem to apply to the task "I researched the agents and sent off my query letters".... I still don't really understand how you "research" agents - you look at their websites, you see which ones represent "quality women's fiction" or some such phrase - and then you see who their writers are - and if you haven't heard of any of them (150,000 titles published a year - so is it likely?) try and look at some of their books on Amazon - decide that none of the writers are anything like you - but have never managed to work out which writers are like me and then have to guess which writers might be similar enough for the agent to like you. Is that how you research agents? That's what I've been doing - and looking at Tweets from Literary Rejections to see who's up for submissions.
If of course, one knew which writer one was like - let's say, for the sake of argument, it was Hilary Mantel - it would be plain sailing, you would of course submit to her agent - and then she would reject you, and then what? So perhaps it's as well not to follow that rule, but I feel I should make an assault on some of the more trad. agents - the scarey ones who run Julian Barnes and people like that.
Anyway, since this agent seemed agreeable, I thanked her and sent her TAG instead...
Looking back over this blog and its various agenty travails I wonder if this is just Me being inefficient and ineffectual - or are all English writers like this? When I occasionally read US writers' blogs I am amazed by the bright-eyed efficiency they seem to apply to the task "I researched the agents and sent off my query letters".... I still don't really understand how you "research" agents - you look at their websites, you see which ones represent "quality women's fiction" or some such phrase - and then you see who their writers are - and if you haven't heard of any of them (150,000 titles published a year - so is it likely?) try and look at some of their books on Amazon - decide that none of the writers are anything like you - but have never managed to work out which writers are like me and then have to guess which writers might be similar enough for the agent to like you. Is that how you research agents? That's what I've been doing - and looking at Tweets from Literary Rejections to see who's up for submissions.
If of course, one knew which writer one was like - let's say, for the sake of argument, it was Hilary Mantel - it would be plain sailing, you would of course submit to her agent - and then she would reject you, and then what? So perhaps it's as well not to follow that rule, but I feel I should make an assault on some of the more trad. agents - the scarey ones who run Julian Barnes and people like that.
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