Agents no longer giving feedback when rejecting fulls??

I'll simply add that just becuase an agent doesn't give you a personal response/specific reason for the rejection, it doesn't mean that s/he does that on all fulls. Only that s/he didn't feel strongly enough about the manuscript that s/he could articulate specific reasons.

There are plenty of times I send a very vague rejection to an author becuase I don't connect with the character/voice, but I don't specifically say that becuase it's not that there is something that is wrong with the character/voice, only that it didn't click for me. If I only read two chapters and don't feel that strongly, and send along a rejection saying I didn't connect with her character or the voice didn't work for me, I would hate for a writer to think, "crap! My character sucks, time for rewrites!"

Probably one or two out of every five full MS passes I send are vague, "didn't fall in love" types, and then the others are specific, sometimes quite long. I just sent one this morning that was 5-6 paragraphs.

no worries on my end, cornflake, and it is a business risk they'd take. One I would prefer to avoid if i was in their shoes for all the reasons you mention....but i also figure I don't know enough to say what their world is like, and yeah, if someone I really wanted didn't send feedback, i'd still chase them.

depends on the agent and the writer, but yeah, they would have to be winnowing their list at least partially by not giving feedback.....although i am not sure how much

cornflake said:

I don't disagree, but I meant it more in the bridge-burning way. If they were interested enough to request a full and then don't respond at all to those submissions if they're not offering representation, they may end up being requeried or even chasing someone who ends up a success one way or another.

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Honestly, I don't see an agent worrying about burning a bridge with a writer who's work they rejected. And the reasons for not giving feedback are many, from not having the time, not wanting blow back, to simply not having the interest.

A response of some kind is professional. Simply saying, "not for me" or some other form of "no thanks" is enough. Then you know you can move on.

As someone said earlier, I'm also pretty surprised to see this thread - it's been really rare for me not to get comments on fulls. Not massively extensive ones or anything, but I'm actually not sure I ever remember getting a form on a full.

That said, even just from working on contests like Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness, I know how incredibly time consuming it is to not only read through material but also to articulate why you're passing. If I got as much material as a successful agent... holy crap, I have no idea how they even function.

I am, however, in the camp of "using no response = no *on a full* is an agent I wouldn't query again." I know agents get swamped, but to me, that's just too much. Send a form. Acknowledge the author sent you something that means a lot to him/her and got his/her hopes up. I just can't see enjoying working with an agent who doesn't afford that level of humanity.

Elaine Margarett said:

Honestly, I don't see an agent worrying about burning a bridge with a writer who's work they rejected. And the reasons for not giving feedback are many, from not having the time, not wanting blow back, to simply not having the interest.

A response of some kind is professional. Simply saying, "not for me" or some other form of "no thanks" is enough. Then you know you can move on.

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I'm only saying I think some kind of response should be sent for a requested full. I think a few sentences is appropriate, even if they're the totally generic 'thank you for sending... while I ... it's just not right for me at this time/too busy/whatever.'

It's not only burning bridges with someone the agent has rejected (I think that should, in general, be a consideration - I know of more than one person who was what they considered unprofessionally rejected, later went on to be very successful and would never entertain working with that company, house, whatever.), but possibly with others. The 'Bewares...' section on AW is kind of testament to that and the same happens in person. If someone asks about an agent and three people pop up and say the agent seemed interested, requested a full and was never heard from again, the person may pass. It's not likely to be a huge number of people but

J.Reid said:

I read all my own queries. The assistants and interns may read things to make sure aliens don't arrive in Chapter 14 before I take a look, but if I request a full, it's cause I read your query and want to read your novel.

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What is it about Chapter 14?

Maxx said:

What is it about Chapter 14?

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I'm sure it's the aliens that are more concerning than anything about Chapter 14!

Ms Reid doesn't represent aliens. (That's the SF sort of aliens, in case that was less than clear!)

My levels of feedback improved as my manuscripts got better. First book was all forms and one nonresponse on a full. Second book was a mix of silence, forms, and personalized feedback. With my third book, which got an agent, I had personalized responses from pretty much everybody. I do know of several agents, however, who only send forms for full rejections, for reasons mentioned above like time constraints and angry authors.

Maybe this is petty, but I never requeried anybody who didn't respond to a full request after I nudged. I don't expect a ton from somebody who's not my agent, but that seems like common decency. Even a form is fine, just to be able to cross them off the list and move on.

ETA: Yikes, I didn't realize this thread was from 2013. Oops!

Wow, zombie thread!

My track record for not responding to fulls and form Rs seems to have only gotten worse over four manuscripts (despite an increasing number of requests). So, I don't know.

Every time I query, there's always some requested fulls that go unanswered. It does seem like it's getting worse.

Lots more rejections too (at least for me.)

I do think it's getting worse, because agents are getting tired of being hassled by the writers they reject. Many now quietly withdraw, rather than outright reject, because they've found it lessens the abuse they receive.

Sad times.

Old Hack said:

I do think it's getting worse, because agents are getting tired of being hassled by the writers they reject. Many now quietly withdraw, rather than outright reject, because they've found it lessens the abuse they receive.

Sad times.

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One option (not a perfect one, but better than nothing) would be to send rejections from an un-monitored email account.

Undercover said:

Every time I query, there's always some requested fulls that go unanswered. It does seem like it's getting worse.

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Same here. For my most recent manuscript, I've got a requested full and requested partial that the agents acknowledged receiving, but never responded to after that.

Angry Guy said:

One option (not a perfect one, but better than nothing) would be to send rejections from an un-monitored email account.

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Wouldn't work.

Agents' email addresses are easily available. Rejections go out, abusive emails come in to all the agency accounts. People send ugly things in through the post. They wait outside the building hoping to catch the agent as she leaves the office. It's horrible what some writers will do. The stories I've heard.

Old Hack said:

Wouldn't work.

Agents' email addresses are easily available. Rejections go out, abusive emails come in to all the agency accounts. People send ugly things in through the post. They wait outside the building hoping to catch the agent as she leaves the office. It's horrible what some writers will do. The stories I've heard.

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Human nature never ceases to unpleasantly surprise me.

It seems to be common courtesy to send at least a form rejection after a submission is requested.

At least, the writer isn't left in limbo about the submission and can update the R column in the spreadsheet of submissions.

As for feedback, I wouldn't put much stock in it from something that's been rejected. All it is is that particular agent's opinion, better to move on to the other agents you're querying until you meet up with the one who shares your vision.

Unless, the feedback says something positive such as IF you change the name Louis to Lionel, I will represent you. Then that is a different story.

Of course, nowadays, most agents won't reply to a submission saying go back to English 101, or best you find a new career and leave publishing to writers. We'd expect if writing was that horrendous, a desirable, knowledgeable agent wouldn't request the ms in the first place.

Marian Perera said:

Same here. For my most recent manuscript, I've got a requested full and requested partial that the agents acknowledged receiving, but never responded to after that.

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This happened to me. I received a request for revisions on a full manuscript, took all the notes and a solid month of overhauling the story to accommodate the agent's wishes, and then proceeded to not hear a single word, not even an acknowledgement that the revised manuscript was received. I'd rather a one-sentence rejection than total silence, for sure.

Old Hack said:

I do think it's getting worse, because agents are getting tired of being hassled by the writers they reject. Many now quietly withdraw, rather than outright reject, because they've found it lessens the abuse they receive.

Sad times.

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This is absolutely true. You can usually pick up the vibe of someone who may react badly, so it’s smarter/safer to keep it vague or — I hate to say — not respond.