I’m kind of surprised I have to say this, but some of the agents for a day are being excessively harsh with their rejections.
Please cut this out.
If some of you were real agents you’d have a pitchfork wielding mob outside of your office by now.
There are real people behind these queries, so please, not only is conducting yourself professionally part of this game, this is a supportive community, and I hope that everyone posts their suggestions as politely as possible and are as humane in their rejections as they would want a real agent to be.
Now, back to the contest.
Anonymous says
Okay Nathan,
Point taken,
Agent XXX
Is there anyway we can do this again sometime?
PurpleClover says
Many apologies.
I will redact my sarcastic comment and the one that was questionably sarcastic. 🙂
Sophie W. says
Honestly, I’m not surprised. I *am* looking forward to the big reveal at the end of the week, when we see which novels have been published and/or represented. I think it’ll open quite a few eyes.
Keri Ford says
Sorry anyone if I’ve offended you! I was giving short one to two sentences at the end of my rejections (that wouldn’t have been included had I been an agent) to try and offer advice for when you query real agents. No snark was meant by me and I do apologize if I came across as so.
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! says
Yep, I’ve noticed some really nasty remarks by certain “agents” on the blog in order to try to be funny. Not cool, not funny, not professional at all.
Justus M. Bowman says
Good call.
Anonymous says
It’s very helpful and insightful when people list the reasons why they did/did not reject a query, after their “official” rejection letter.
There’s no need for these comments to be mean, but I think it would help everyone to see some respectful comments on why these queries are being rejected.
Myra says
Question:
I’ve read a couple of queries that are intriguing, but are books that I would be unable to represent because I avoid sorrow at all costs.
Can we reject the query but suggest they sent it on to “xyz” agent? Is this something agents do?
While I avoid sorrow, I’m all about encouragement.
Rick Daley says
For me part of the fun is in creating a professional form rejection and MS request.
Superfast says
Thank you so much for your submission. Unfortunately, I don’t…
Oh, sorry. I kind of got into a groove there.
kdrausin says
To Rick,
I was going to email you but since the subject has been brought up…I love your rejection letters.
Kdrausin
Lea Schizas - Author/Editor says
Honestly, this contest will not prove much only because most writers do not actively participate in other areas (besides their own books, marketing, promoting)to understand the time crunch and organization that goes into agenting and the publishing world.
It will show them the skill it takes to weed out possible good queries and then to read the first few pages to grasp a writer’s voice. Other than that, the point being about answering/sending out even generic rejections, will still be unanswered. A form letter can be massed emailed to writers whose work has been rejected.
As an exercise to wear an agent’s hat – they will get to see the work involved, this I agree with.
QuerySubmitter says
So far, I’m finding it pretty funny. Fact is, if you get 50 comments and only one says “such and such, you idiot” I think it says more about the commenter than the query.
jjdebenedictis says
Gotta say I agree with this…
I was shocked to see writers putting such a nasty spin on what being an agent is about. Ho-lee, but I would have cried if I got some of those rejections.
TheDivaAgent says
Dear Nathan,
Fine. I’ll play nice as long as You understand that I AM A DIVA, no matter what. I’ll be a nice, DIVA, though. Hmm… that’s a bit of an oxymoron.
The next time we do this, can we please allow for snarkiness? It’s so much more fun. And, to any who may have been offended by the Diva’s posts, no insult intended. Truly. As Nathan mentioned early on, these are outstanding queries. I, as divalicious as I am, have been quite surprised at the number of rejections I’ve seen.
Yours,
The Diva Agent (though not an agent in real life)
Anonymous says
Sorry, that was probably me. I thought we were supposed to include our “official” response to the writer but also share with the group our reasons behind the response – however visceral they may be.
litenup_rach says
Wow, Nathan… adorable and a compassionate heart to match… I think your ‘interruption’ is proof positive why your blog gets its rave reviews and HUGE bloggership.
Keep being the change, Nathan… perhaps the real world really can be strong and powerful and still have a heart.
Gabriele C. says
I’m with the Diva here. Why not warn people it could get snarky here next time, so those who don’t like that won’t submit and then feel hurt. One learns more by the reasons why a query doesn’t work than by the fact people reject it.
Says someone who got snarked by Miss Snark when her blog was still active. It helped me to improve that NiP.
Gabriele C. says
*learns more from …..*
I haz gammar, just not on Mondays. 😉
Nathan Bransford says
gabriele-
That’s just not what this blog is about.
Nathan Bransford says
Oh, and for the record I wasn’t offended by Diva’s posts — she was satirizing agents, not authors. That’s fine by me.
Anonymous says
From Muckraker:
I ditto Anonymous above. I hope I haven’t seemed at all mean, and apologize to anyone who might be offended, but may have misunderstood the point of the exercise. I thought it would be helpful to include reasons why the query failed for me, which might be helpful to the writer. In an effort to be clear, I might be being too blunt.
micatsc says
Interesting! On most query crit sites a little snark is the order of the day, so I guess I’m used to it. Glad I waited to post rejections/requests until later. I would’ve been interested to see the “why rejected” from everyone else, though.
niesp says
It’s possible that some agents are being as honest in their rejections as they would want a real agent to be.
Gabriele C. says
I understand, Nathan.
It’s one of the reasons I don’t actively participate in the query fun. I know I would press Send on snarky remarks before rethinking them. 🙂 The second reason is that I can’t judge anything Romance-reated, and there are a number of queries for that sort of novel.
Nathan Bransford says
I know the queries will appreciate the individualized feedback provided that it’s offered constructively. Just err on the side of politeness. Some people have crossed over from constructive to just mean.
Anonymous says
Seriously, how can people throw a fit during Agentfail about disrespectful agents and then turn around and DO THE SAME THING?
QuerySubmitter says
And just to be clear, my amusement in no way means I’m discounting comments. There have been some excellent points made and I, for one, fully intend to revisit my query based on this exercise.
Jenn S. says
Echoing Anonymous 10:54–I may have been too straightforward in my post-rejection letter explanations. There’s no reason we all can’t be truthful without being respectful.
lesleylsmith says
Yes, this is tricky. I’ve been trying to give constructive criticism in a positive way. If I’ve offended anyone, I sincerely apologize. Since this is an exercise though I do think authors would benefit from at least a little feedback. However, that’s probably NOT realistic.
A Gent says
Dear Everyone,
Hope I didn’t offend anyone. Meant to be both constructive and have a good time while doing it. But since I don’t want to run the risk of being a meanie, I wont.
All the best,
A Gent
Lucy Ammunition says
Dear Anyone I might have offended,
Please forgive me. If I made out of line comments, I was commenting more about my own ineptness and lack of understanding of some of the material.
I am truly a fish out of water here and this contest is proving that to me.
I think anyone who sent in anything is very courageous and commend them for contributing to this blog.
Anyway, if the finger was pointing at any of my comments, I apologize profusely.
Sincerely,
Lucy Ammunition
Fictitious Agent
Yat-Yee says
Thanks, Nathan. Another eg of your commitment to building a supportive community.
Being honest doesn’t mean one has to be mean and disrespectful.
Dara says
Apologizing for any snarky comments made 🙂
jane doherty says
I’m blunt. Can’t help it. I hope you don’t take that as offensive; it wasn’t the intent.
Laurie says
I’ve been reading along until now and this interruption actually surprised me because I haven’t seen anything truly mean thus far.
I have been adding a bit of feedback with my rejections because I thought it might help the writer – BUT – I would never want to hurt someone or make them stop writing.
So if I did offend someone, please accept my deepest apologies.
I’ve been in several writing groups over the years and in my experience the ones that are too nice don’t help the writer at all. Constructive criticism is what makes the writing stronger.
That said, now I know why agents send out form letters. Not only does it take alot longer to explain why a query doesn’t work, but no one wants to feel mean.
This has been highly instructive. Knowing I can only pick five is making me reject some that might in fact be quite good.
If I were a real agent, I would request the first five pages with all queries, because query writing seems to be an artform of itself and not necessarily a representation of whether the actual manuscript is worth pursuing.
TheDivaAgent says
P.S.
A thought has just occurred to the DIVA. The thought is this: My snarkiness, and I am snarky, was not a reflection on the quality of the posted queries. It was, instead, a reflection of how agents and publishers make writers feel. This feeling engendered the animosity behind queryfail. Writers do work hard. For our troubles, more often than not, we are ignored or treated with the disdain of a form rejection. The message sent is that writers are commodities. Well, the system is as it is. This exercise is not a part of the old system. As part of a new system, however, it can help authors fine tune areas where there may be blind spots. I’ve been helped enormously. The DIVA has already apologized to writers who may be offended, but I should apologize to Nathan. As an agent representative, you are actually the one being skewered with the poisoned postings. I just want you to know that you’re one of the good guys, at least in my book. Yeah, you’re a little soft-hearted, but we all have our flaws. 😀
The Diva Agent
selestial-owg says
I’ve been offering feedback. I hope none of it has been offensive 🙁
hannah says
Exactly what Anon 10:58 said.
All I’m going to say is I know some mean people will be surprised at the reveal.
Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy says
“There are real people behind these queries, so please, not only is conducting yourself professionally part of this game, this is a supportive community…” One can only assume some of these perpetrators were just a few weeks ago ranting about how rude and abrasive many agents were. Oh, how the mighty have fallen from grace. Delicious
reader says
Yikes, I thought we were supposed to give comments on “why” we were passing, otherwise how does the querier know what we really thought?
I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I’m really sorry if I’ve done so.
Nathan, to clairify, do you NOT want us to give our reasons?
Melissa says
Hi,
I’m with Keri Ford. I was offering thoughts at the end of my rejections, but I was not intending to include them with the actual rejections. I wanted them to add to the discussion, but I can see that some of them might have been hurtful to the writers of the queries. I wasn’t intending that at all. I apologize to anyone I offended.
Melissa
Rick Daley says
I like this blog for its lack of Snark.
For those who crave the maximum Snark in their query reviews, I recommend Evil Editor (www.evileditor.net).
Nathan,
EE did a writing contest last week with queries made entirely of rhetorical questions. You’d be sure to laugh once or twice, unless your head explodes first.
Laura says
Dear Nathan,
Thank you for your query, but this subject does not apply to me.
Hee. Dude, your job is HARD. I’ve already learned something VERY important: it’s not like an agent says, “oh, that’s interesting…” I’m seeing that the agent has to fall in love with the work to have a chance at selling it.
There are some great queries out there that I just don’t think I’d love enough to batter down doors and bug editors about.
Agent Laura
jnantz says
I haven’t followed everyone’s yet, because I was blessed enough to have my own query posted and I’m revelling in the feedback…fact is I wouldn’t even have picked my own query (and I won’t when I go through all 50 later), but the personal comments people are making are T-R-E-M-E-N-D-O-U-S-L-Y helpful. In fact, I can only think of one truly “snarky” response, and I got that it was DIVA playing the bad agent moreso than saying everything in my query sucked, so I found it morbidly funny.
Truth be told, I hope no one else is getting truly hurt here, because I think the feedback has been helpful and I hope that people whose queries are posted later will get just as much help. Folks, please continue to post feedback if your busy agenting day allows! Maybe just put it in a slightly more professional voice so Mr. Bransford doesn’t get mad.
😀
thelifter says
Nathan:
I just read this, so please forgive my excessively mean rejections. I’ll try to make them constructively mean from now on.
Regards,
Mr. Snark.
hannah says
An open suggestion–I think people should think twice before commenting on the quality of the manuscript. You’ve only seen the query. You can say “your query doesn’t make your hero’s motivation clear” without saying “your hero has no motivation.”
Anonymous says
I’d like to add that I was mortified at my comments when I went back and read them.
Somehow, in the being “pretend agents” I lost the fact that these were real queries. I thought there were only three or so real ones (the already successful ones) and that the rest were just made up ones.
I am so sorry.
I was wrong.
I’ll never do it again.
What I thought was just having fun wasn’t funny at all.
Belinda Frisch says
This experiment is totally enlightening and I am pretty shocked anyone has time for snark.
To me, I feel like I’m shopping for the perfect “something”–I’ll know what I want when I see it.
There are so many good ideas here, but I wouldn’t request what I wouldn’t love to read. It makes me really believe the whole “it’s not you, it’s me” sentiment.
I’ve only managed to get through 15 on top of my work day and have already gained new perspective on the form rejection.
Blessed are the literary agents for their patience and wisdom! Thanks, Nathan, for this opportunity. I don’t know how you do it 🙂
L.C. Gant says
I noticed the very same thing in some folks’ comments as I read them, and it made me sad.
I don’t understand how some writers could brutally criticize agents in #agentfail, and then turn around and ridicule their fellow writers even more than the agents did! Seems a bit hypocritical to me.