Any agent who mis-spells things to me can rightly expect not to be hired, by me.  Yes, agents work for us in much the same way as a real estate agent works for sellers and buyers to get housies moved.  I think a lot of myself, I suppose, but honestly, how an agent responds to my queries is something I use to judge his quality.  Poor or no response = "who needs him, anyway?"  Not I.  My goodness, people with overinflated self opinions are everywhere these days.  I am the only one who is allowed to be all puffed up in my world. 

And, of course, the ones who want a one - page (and are very specific about this) query letter in which you're supposed to give biographical information on yourself, AND enough of your manuscript to make it enticing.

I swear the next one I send out will have a full page about my book and one line at the bottom: "I'm a writer who isn't published yet." Done and done.

Getting published is one very frustrating business.  I wrote my ms without ever doing one inkling of research on how to get published.  I didn't even think about it at the time.  My original motivation for writing was this:  I was attempting to read a novel by a VERY famous author and I was appalled at the weak plot, weak characters and two page chapters (the two page chapters may give away the author).  I put the novel down and attempted to read another one by the same author.  All I could think was that millions of people were buying the work of this guy and it was not gripping.  At all.  I thought I could do as well, or better.  So, I started writing.  86,000 words later, I'm pretty proud of the work.  But, getting an agent...

I've sent out around 50 queries.  During that time, I've second guessed and changed my query letter and synopsis so many times I lost count.  I got a call from an agent, and after spending an hour chatting, he requested a soft copy.  I e-mailed the ms.  A week later, he e-mailed it back after doing a low-level edit.  I made most of the changes he suggested and returned it.  At that point, I was walking on cloud nine.  His assistant e-mailed me the next day telling me it was appreciated that I was willing to make the changes, even though they were minor and didn't affect plot, characters, etc.  She also asked me to mail a hard copy because the agent had three people he wanted to read it.  So, off I go to Kinkos to spend $35 on a beautiful lasered hard copy, place it with care into a priority mail packet, and off it goes.  Two more weeks go by, and I get another e-mail from the assistant.  She tells me the first two readers "really liked it" and they think it would make a good movie script, as well as being published.  But, the third "reader" may take awhile.  Possibly a couple of months.  That was five months ago.  I asked for a status update after three months, and was told the reader had not finished.  I was also told that, since we had no signed agreement, I should feel free to continue shopping the ms around.  I have another similar agent story, but I digress.     

OH, THE FRUSTRATION!! 

 

You learn to grow a very thick skin when dealing with agents.  I had one agent tell me the "voice" wasn't strong in my ms.  Two days later, I had another agent tell me they were impressed with the strong "voice".  Sometimes it's laughable.  I just try to keep improving and keep an open mind.