So, I saw on an agent’s blog yesterday that someone was complaining that all they saw were negative comments lately coming from agents. “ANONYMOUS” was complaining that all he/she saw were posts talking about how rotten writers were out there and that he/she was certain there were many other writers doing great things. There had to be with the number of books being sold out there. He/She then stated that the agents must need a vacation and that had to account for the negative tone.
Well, ANONYMOUS, I will have to admit there have been a lot of comments out there discussing things writers do poorly. These are the things that fall into the category of “what are you thinking” when it comes to my database of submissions. But, I have to say that we learn from mistakes and if we can demonstrate what mistakes others make, maybe you can avoid those and move a bit quicker toward publishing. That aside, here is something just for you – A POSITIVE.
I answered a ton of submissions yesterday after a huge influx of submissions. I wrote close to 30 some odd letters yesterday and those were just from the snail mail submissions that had come in. I haven’t even gotten to the e-queries. In any case, many of the mistakes tended to be the same type and in a moment of a lack of coffee, I sent out a letter with the wrong title for a book. The comments in the body of the letter were correct but the title was screwed up. Now, here comes the positive. The author emailed me back to check on the error and to make sure that she had received the right letter. Her letter was polite and very professional. She thanked me for the comments, the time I had taken and the speedy response on the submission, but just wanted to check.
This was great! While the writing was not what I wanted at that time, it is clear from this writer’s submission packet and certainly the follow up, that she has what it will take to be a professional writer.
Scott C. Eagan
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