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"This agent does not accept email queries."
- Thread starter ccarver30
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With the cost to mail a query letter still under 50 cents, I can't see how it would weed out too many people. Perhaps it just weeds out spam.
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Well you'll miss out on some great agents then. Mine only took snail mail submissions, as do most agents in the UK. And I adore my agency like crazy.
To each his own I guess.
To each his own I guess.
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It's not much to mail a query, but what if the shmuck asks for a hard-copy full and fizzles out? That's a lot of trees and bucks 
Agents orta get with it.
Agents orta get with it.
It's not much to mail a query, but what if the shmuck asks for a hard-copy full and fizzles out? That's a lot of trees and bucks
Agents orta get with it.
Like others have said, it's most likely a way to weed out impulsive writers who will blast queries to any agent's e-mail without thinking twice.
I bet the majority of these agents, if they ask you for a full or partial, would then ask you e-mail it.
I suspect most agents have solid reasons for setting up their submission guidelines that do not include being uncaring assholes, purposeful writer-hasslers, non-caring resource-wasters, and power-drunk ego-hefts who enjoy watching peons jump through hoops. Any writer who thinks the cadre of agents is the enemy should not only save their stamps and SASEs but also quit sending the e-mails. Just go straight for the publishing company editors. Of course they may have their own submission guidelines that could be equally torturous for us poor put-upon folks who, after all, represent the creative engine that drives this whole enterprise, and who therefore should have everything done at our damn convenience.
I recall several places where agents gave their reasons for their specific submission guidelines, but I don't remember any of the places or links. Maybe someone can help find some.
I recall several places where agents gave their reasons for their specific submission guidelines, but I don't remember any of the places or links. Maybe someone can help find some.
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I just go ahead and email them with "Hi, I'm on the other side of the planet from you, how about considering letting me send you an emailed query?"
Sounds dumb to email asking if you can email, but I think it's only polite and agents are human, they get what a hassle and cost it is for us Antipodeans...
When they request a partial I post it, though, if they insist! No point in being precious about it
I agree with the comment that agents don't want to be spammed with every "I are a writer" query... I also think it has A LOT to do with viruses in the email attachments.
Sounds dumb to email asking if you can email, but I think it's only polite and agents are human, they get what a hassle and cost it is for us Antipodeans...
When they request a partial I post it, though, if they insist! No point in being precious about it
I agree with the comment that agents don't want to be spammed with every "I are a writer" query... I also think it has A LOT to do with viruses in the email attachments.
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My agent deals only in hard copy, and tells me a fair number of the editors she works with also want hard copy sent to them. My daughter is also a subeditor at a large NYC publishing house, and much of her work is on dead trees. I get the feeling it's not all that uncommon.
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If it's a great agent you want to represent your work, it's worth the cost and effort.
If not, who cares, then?
You want something for nothing? Just remember, the best agents don't need you. You need them.
If not, who cares, then?
You want something for nothing? Just remember, the best agents don't need you. You need them.
My biggest concern with snail mail only is the idea that the agent might dislike emailed communication in general, whereas I prefer it, having a phone phobia and all. D:
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And I hate it when restaurants wont take third party, post-dated checks...commies.
If I were an agent, I'd likely throw out the biggest possible net and accept all means of query. But if equeries were 99.99% crap, and wading through them caused me to neglect more promising snail queries, then I'd climb right back into the 20th century...
But if I started hearing from peers about all the awesome signings from equeries I was missing, then I'd go back to...well...
Eh, whatever Toothpaste says. She rules.
If I were an agent, I'd likely throw out the biggest possible net and accept all means of query. But if equeries were 99.99% crap, and wading through them caused me to neglect more promising snail queries, then I'd climb right back into the 20th century...
But if I started hearing from peers about all the awesome signings from equeries I was missing, then I'd go back to...well...
Eh, whatever Toothpaste says. She rules.
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Agreed. Snail mail partials are one thing; fulls are quite another.It's not much to mail a query, but what if the shmuck asks for a hard-copy full and fizzles out? That's a lot of trees and bucks
Agents orta get with it.
That's what happened to me. She read a (snail-mailed) full last year, liked it but asked for changes. I made teh changes; meanwhile she had read two other partials of mine and aksed me to send all three fulls; on an exclusive.
I sent two fulls in December. That's a lot of paper, ink, postage. She said I'd hear from her in January, but she is very very busy etc etc etc.
Never heard from her again. Neither did I contact her again as I don't want an agent who is so unreliable and wastful of other people's time/money, and doesn't keep agreements. What if I had kept the "exclusive" agreement? (I didn't, post-January).
I won't print her name here but anyone who cares to know can PM me. It's a UK agent.
That wasn't the case. She told me she "really loved" my work and that's why she would read it slowly and carefully. I think she just wanted to save her own printing costs, as we had an excellent email relationship. She's a single agent, working on her own without an assistant; a good pedigree (came from a top-notch agency), but VERY slow.
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... and remember, youngsters, ten years ago almost all agencies requested snail mail subs. So count yer blessings that so many accept e-subs, now ;-)
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True although I will add this is a two way street. A writer isn't going to get very far without an agent just as agents don't get far without writers.
And did you have to hand deliver them, barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways?
... nope. The Pony Express took care of the delivery ;-)
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It is a business relationship, but it's a matter of supply and demand. An agent could only represent so many writers, but there are way far many more writers who want his or her representation. If you have seen the amount of queries and slush they receive, you'll understand that dynamic.
Anyway, someone had a point. Email is too convenient and that would mean an agent could get thousands of email a day. It would be almost impossible to weed through them. But snail mail could deter at least some of the people who are not serious, or who don't know how to construct a query, etc. etc.
They also have more time to deal with the mail queue -- usually an agent would specify how long it'd take them to reply to queries (two weeks, for example). With email, most people expect instant response, and if they don't hear from the agent in two days, they send an inquiry or resend the query, and that just further jams the agent's inbox. The convenience of email could become the headache of the agent.
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...and no agent knows WHO is going to be The Next Big Thing! I believe that the best agents are usually the quickest, ready to snap; and I've noticed that the biggest and busiest agencies -- WMA, Writers House, Donald Maass -- do get back almost instantly when they want more.
Recently, I sent a snail mail submission to an agent AND an email, introducing myself and letting him know I had sent a postal submission according to their website -- it was an agency with which I had had previous dealings, and I wanted to make personal contact first.
He mailed me back to send him the material via email, because "submissions by post sometimes go into the
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That happened to me. An agent asked for a full and exclusive, but then I didn't hear from her from months! I decided to write an inquiry and she snapped back and said she was really busy and if I couldn't wait, then she would just reject me outright. How rude! So of course I withdrew.
You just don't ask someone to spend the money to print and ship out the ms., and offer EXCLUSIVITY, then not get back to them for months. I would never work with that agent anyway.
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