I sympathize with this so much! It does suck to hear "business is happening!" and then...you still never get your turn. I do want to extend a lot of compassion to everyone dealing with *gestures vaguely in 2020*. COVID and police brutality especially. That includes agents who have to balance a lot right now. It is also true that the discussion around agents becoming slower to respond predates most of this. COVID is only being made worse. I've heard agents talk about things taking longer, I've heard it from writers, and I've experienced it myself. It's emotionally exhausting to get excited about a request, then go onto Query Tracker and find out the agent habitually ghosts! I am a little worried that "ghosting on the full" is going to become a professional norm, even though it is harmful to writers. It keeps us emotionally on the hook and often it bars us from subbing to someone else at the same agency (yes, I know you can pull a full, but that's an intimidating prospect). Don't even get me started on agents who request material but only read it if another agent offers (grump, grump).
Point is, yes, things are slower, that really sucks, but I think we can still keep these issues (respectfully!) in the conversation. For the sake of a healthy professional ecosystem. Compassion is key.
And to throw agents a bone, editors are slow af too.
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I sympathize with this so much! It does suck to hear "business is happening!" and then...you still never get your turn. I do want to extend a lot of compassion to everyone dealing with *gestures vaguely in 2020*. COVID and police brutality especially. That includes agents who have to balance a lot right now. It is also true that the discussion around agents becoming slower to respond predates most of this. COVID is only being made worse. I've heard agents talk about things taking longer, I've heard it from writers, and I've experienced it myself. It's emotionally exhausting to get excited about a request, then go onto Query Tracker and find out the agent habitually ghosts! I am a little worried that "ghosting on the full" is going to become a professional norm, even though it is harmful to writers. It keeps us emotionally on the hook and often it bars us from subbing to someone else at the same agency (yes, I know you can pull a full, but that's an intimidating prospect). Don't even get me started on agents who request material but only read it if another agent offers (grump, grump).
Point is, yes, things are slower, that really sucks, but I think we can still keep these issues (respectfully!) in the conversation. For the sake of a healthy professional ecosystem. Compassion is key.
And to throw agents a bone, editors are slow af too.