Last October I took a Writers Digest boot camp. A real, live literary agent was going to read and critique the first ten pages of my book. I signed up. To prepare, I checked out the agency website and carefully read the bios for all of the agents participating in the boot camp. I selected the agent who seemed most aligned with my manuscript.
The first part of the boot camp was for me to submit my first ten pages directly to the agent. She would come back with specific feedback that would help me improve my story. The agent made some excellent suggestions for improvement. She also said that my pages were a “fun read” and that I had a “good voice which was half the battle.”
I was very encouraged and made the suggested changes to my entire manuscript. I sent them back to her for final comments. She said that I’m a good writer and storyteller. Wow! I was delighted. After making some final refinements, I sent an email to this agent asking if I could query her. She is closed to uninvited queries. She replied, “Do query.” I did. That was October 2022.
Her agency in its submission guidelines says that if an agent doesn’t respond to a query in four weeks, send an email asking for a response. In November, having not gotten any response, I sent an email. I sent another in December, and a third in January 2023.
Silence
I understand that she’s very busy. She goes to conferences, peddles books, and is active on social media. I can understand that it’s easy to forget a former boot camp participant who she invited to query. It’s very different on my end. I thought that she would be a perfect representative for me. I imagined that we weren’t total strangers. Since she said that she liked my first ten pages, I hoped she would want to read my manuscript.
I never thought she would ghost me.
A constructive rejection would be a big help. Maybe my subject matter is wrong for the market. Maybe my characters aren’t likable enough. Tell me. I’m very willing to learn. The problem is that silence isn’t very helpful. Common courtesy would dictate some kind of response. Her agency promised a response within four weeks. All Igot was silence.
I’m not being unreasonable. I put more than a year into my project. This agent was the one literary professional who actually spent time with my first ten pages. I deserve more than being completely ignored.