Blumer Literary Agency (Liv & Bill Blumer)

Kept book I sent, kept return 1.29 postage for book and rejection letter, claimed they sent a rejection letter "weeks ago" (um, on who's postage, then?) and when I pressed them on why the first 100 pages got rejected, what she said had *nothing* to do with the writing. totally out there. never heard that one. scary! mom & pop agency, never again. They're not highly rated on Preds & Eds, wonder why...

No. The complaint is they didn't return a BOOK I had sent in my dollar twenty nine envelope, nor did they send a rejection. Never got BOOK or LETTER or MY POSTAGE back. Clear? The book was my first book I published, not the partial. The partial I did not need back.

Also, people do get partials back, fyi, if they want them. Generally, people do get back things in envelopes if they want them back. When I emailed them, they claimed to have sent it out "weeks" ago. As far as the reason for rejection, as I said, it was way out there. So beware or not, I'm just posting my experience!

Hi Nomad,

The whole thing felt unprofessional. Rather than defend why I even sent the book, you know, these people get 15%- agents- and I would hope they would be OBSERVANT enough to return materials. Stuff can get separated, of course, but when CONTACTED, which happened last week when I didn't get the book back from another agency, the agent apologized and got it out right away. I guess when faced with a large manilla envelope that has way more postage than needed for a single sheet of paper, I have to wonder at their intelligence. I was an editor at 2 lit mags and the cascade of paper can get ridiculous. But if you stay organized! Really, it's back to the unprofessionalism and out-there reason for rejection. Probably what happened is they recycled everything and just didn't bother and when I contacted them they said something generic.

What gets my back up in this process is it's a HUMAN BEING- you, me, whomever, on the other end of those pages they're holding in their hand. Someone who has spent years, on most cases, on the work, who has gone thru god knows what in terms of sacrifices to get the work on the page- financial, time-wise, a zillion hours on research, on and on- we as writers have lived it, and they have it there in their hand and then disrespect it because they can't get their 15% cut? Most agents I've dealt with have been fine. Don't get me wrong. But like any profession, there's stinkers. Only when they stink, the stench really carries, you know? (a cliche, ouch!) Last, like any workshop etiquette, when you reject a work, you say something positive about what you have in your hands, following it with the reason for rejection. That's as basic as putting stuff in an envelope.

Done ranting!