brinkett said:
I'm not talking about sending email queries to agents who don't accept them. I agree that emailing a query to someone who doesn't accept them and then expecting a reply is unreasonable.
I'm talking about agents who don't reply to a snail mail query when a SASE has been enclosed, or those who say they accept email queries and then don't bother replying to them.
I do understand the value of time. My time is just as valuable as theirs. If I've taken the time to write a professional and courteous query, provide exactly what they've asked for in their guidelines, and enclosed a SASE or emailed an agent who accepts email queries, then I deserve a reply. Anything else is just rude.
Well, maybe. But having been on that end of the stick, I can tell you it isn't always that simple. It would be nice to reply to everyone, and most agents do their best, but there simply isn't always enough time. Many writers think an agent's job consists primarily of opening, reading, and replying to query letters in hopes of finding new writers, but for many agents there may be one or two hours a week to do this, and there may well be two or three hundred queries. And every week you can't get to them all puts you that much more behind.
In slow times, you try your best to respond to every query, whether it's a yes or a no, but sad to say, there sometimes comes a point where you either have to hire someone else to do the reading, which can defeat the whole purpose, or you just open and stuff rejection slips in without reading anything, which also takes times, or you weed through looking for any that stand out on the outside, and toss the rest. Neither of these is really fair, so you usually do what works best and is fairest for all concerned. . .you open each query, read through, and only respond to the ones you have an interest in.
Sometimes there are just too many wannabe writers, and too few hours in the day, or the month, to deal with them all.
I don't think rude has anything to do with it. Agents need writers, yes, but they don't need hundreds and thousands of queries from writers, most of which have no chance at all of getting a yes, and all of which take more time to deal with than you can possibly find.
Some agents are now doing what many magazines also now do, which is to only reply if the answer is positive. If the writer hasn't heard anyting within a certain time span, usually two or three months, he should assume the answer is no and move on to the next agent.
And I can also tell you this. I could always tell if a query was of the generic shotgun variety. . .which is a query that's exactly like a dozen or more similar queries the writer sent to other agents with only the name and the address of the agent changed. I didn't feel bad at all about not responding to those. Like all the other agents who received them, I figured someone else could speak for us all. I simply didn't have the time.
Your time may be just as valuable as that of an agent, but so what? I don't know why people think this changes anything, or matters at all. The agent is concerned with her time, not yours, and there's never, ever enough of it. How valuable your time is doesn't put one extra second in the week for her. When there isn't enough time to respond to everything, there isn't enough time, and even if your time is worth a million dollars a second, there still isn't enough time.
If you really want a reply, never send generic queries. Show the agent exactly why you decided to query her instead of someone else. Show her you know about her agency, about the books she's handled, etc.
If going snail mail, use good envelopes and good paper so your query will stand out from the two hundred others in that stack that are all typed on whatever was on special at Wal-Mart that week.
Most important of all, write something she'll say yes to. Agents always respond when something worthwhile comes in.
