So, it’s been finished for a while. Everything’s Cool – the story of Stan, who is convinced he knows how the world will end, and how to stop it. He’s crazy, but is he wrong? It’s finished and I’ve been submitting to agents.
Which leads me to ask – what’s up with agents?
You send a submission to an agent – you basically put it out there, saying “Here’s my art. I crafted this over a long period of time and I’m, unsurprisingly, very attached to it. I’m asking you to look at it and then either tell me you think it’s good enough, or stomp on my dreams and reject it.”
You’d think that the least the agent can do is reply, right?
Seems not. Agents seem to be increasingly of the opinion that struggling writers are so beneath their notice that they won’t even bother with a form rejection. You even provide them with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. They just need to print off a form that says ‘thanks, but not right for our lists’ or whatever, stick it in the envelope and send it back. Hells, some just send a comp slip that says ‘no’… I’ve had a few of those!
And yet, instead, the poor struggling writer (yes, me) receives only silence. For weeks. And months. Even to email submissions, where the rejection is all of 20 seconds to create and send – “Compose, cut/paste, send.”
I sort of feel that if you are an agent, it’s partly your job to be able to say ‘no’ to people. You don’t get to ignore poor, struggling writers who have thrown themselves on your tender mercies. That’s not cool. That’s pretty damn harsh. Obviously, agents have heavy caseloads and are very busy people. But, an email to say no? I mean, really? Is that so hard?
So, I’m still sending it out. I’m not getting any replies at all, but I’ve decided to look at that positively – I mean, complete silence is not a rejection, right? Right?!
