Agent Bashing ~ Not OK

For all the agents who get bashed by writers, and all the writers who are guilty of bashing agents, this post is for you... It is truly how I feel.

I tend to surf agent blogs a lot because I get good information from them on what agents are looking for. Most of the agents I follow don't even represent my genre, but that is not the point. They give me insight into the writing world, and ideas on how to reach other audiences. I respect all the information I get, because they 'are' in the know.

This is why I find it so irritating when I hear people bashing agents because they get a rejection letter. Yet some of these same people are sending in queries on genres they should not be. No matter how fabulous the novel is, if an agent only takes romance, and yours is sci fi, most likely you will get a rejection.

In my opinion, it is disrespectful to send a query to an agent that clearly does not have interest in the genre. If I were an agent, that would only show me that you aren't serious about writing, or about me as an agent. It isn't that hard to go to the agent's blog or website and see what they are looking for. Make yourself and your novel fit the agent, not the agent fit your novel. It is hard enough to promote books in this economy, and as writers, we need to be flexible.

Most agents only get paid if they can sell your work. This means that even if an agent reads your manuscript, and absolutely loves it, he or she still has to be able to sell it. If the agent knows there are three other books coming out soon with the same type of story line, chances are, he or she won't be able to find a publisher.

Getting a rejection does not mean your writing sucks, or that the agent is out to get you, but it may mean that it is not be the best time for your manuscript. As a writer, I know how hard it is to play the waiting game, and to have someone not like your style, but we can not blame the agents for that.

There are so many things to consider in a rejection, and we should not be taking anything personally. Honestly, if an agent's opinion is so traumatizing, then being in the public eye may NOT be the best idea. :-) We will always have fans, and critics. Having a bit tougher skin seems like a better solution.

If your query is perfect, and your manuscript unique, there are other reasons as to why you may have received a rejection. For instance...

~ The agent may already be representing a novel in your genre, and yours would conflict with what that agent was trying to promote. I don't know about you, but personally, if I had an agent trying to promote my work, I would NEVER want that person also promoting something that is in competition with mine. What would be the point?

~ The agent may have a full plate, not being able to take anything else on at the moment.

~ Another thing to consider is writing style. An agent and their assistants KNOW what writing styles they like, and each of us have a unique one. I like to write in shorter, easy to read sentences, while my husband writes like Oscar Wilde. This does not mean one of us is better than the other, it only means that an agent who enjoys reading Wilde, would probably not enjoy my style even if both writings are in the same genre. Our queries generally show our style, unless we have it written by someone else (which seems a bit dangerous to me), and agents can tell from our query if we would be a good fit.

Most likely, if we receive a lot of rejections, the agents are not the ones where the blame should be placed. We, as writers, are responsible. Our task is to sell our novel to the agent, therefore it is up to us. So please, can we stop the agent bashing already? It is not professional, and only serves to show those agents that they made the right decision in the rejection.

To sum it up, we should be thanking all the agents and assistants that spend so much of their time weeding through the mess of queries they get every day, and for offering insight into how we can improve. They do not get paid to read queries, or write blogs, or edit our queries for us, yet so many still do this. So, from me, and the many others you have all helped, thank you! :-)