I'm sorry. I forgot about this entry. According to someone up there, the fact I didn't want to post openly smacks of sneaky. All right. I've been called worse than sneaky, and by better people who actually know me.
You know what it is, not everybody likes to say bad things about people in public, even if the things are true. Ineffective agents tell on themselves though.
Six years ago, when I was new to writing books, Arnold offered me rep after reading only half my YA manuscript. He never did read the entire thing and wasn't afraid to say so. He said the work didn't need editing in his opinion, but if it did, an editor would do it all after acquisition. He had me write a non-fiction book proposal for a work of fiction. He didn't read that either. He submitted the book to a publisher of how-to manuals. I know that from the list he sent me when we parted ways. He submitted to the same editor twice. He sent me the second rejection shortly after the first. The editor was as confused about the repeat sub as I was. When Arnold ran out of first and second tier publishers, he asked me to start looking, and send him the names. I did.
It goes on, but you get it, you can see the signs of an inexperienced agent.
I'm not saying "don't trust Arnold he's a very very bad man." I'm saying that for me, he wasn't great. Maybe other people will have better luck with him than I did. I hope so.
And if after I post this it has huge spaces between my paragraphs, I don't know why. :-(
I'll likely forget about this now again. I'm not being sneaky. I just get around so many places I forget where I've been. And I've been called that. Lol.