You Will Get An Answer - No Form Letters For Me

This business has changed a lot since I first opened Greyhaus in 2003. There were more publishers out there that took unsolicited submissions and unagented submissions. Unfortunately, there was a huge rise in writers attempting to become the next Great American Author and the end result is the publishers closed their doors. Unless you had an agent, they wouldn't talk. The problem with this was the "trickle down theory."

While the publishers weren't dealing with this huge influx of writers, the agents were now being bombarded by them. Our submissions went through the roof. As an agent, what is most frustrating is that many of these submissions were for stories that would never work. Some were not marketable, some were simply not finished, some were very poor in quality and some were simply not stories that we were looking for. Here at Greyhaus, I only look for romance and women's fiction, and yet, I am constantly getting submissions for biographies, economic textbooks, histories, political tell-all books and yes, even a few of haiku. All of these require the time to write back and say no.

As an agent though, I will respond. Sure the answer may be a response I give to a lot of other people, but you will get a response from Greyhaus Literary Agency. Along the same lines, I will tell you why you were rejected. It may be one sentence, it may be a full letter, but you will get a reason.

Dear Author,

Thank you so much for sending me the proposal of My Silliest Book. I appreciate being given the chance to read this. While it sounds like an interesting project, I am simply not an agency that represents biographies. I am therefore going to pass on this.

All the best with your writing.

Scott

O.K. That took me 1 minute to write. Due to a lack of coffee at this moment, I had to catch a few spelling errors, but the point is, it didn't take long. This time is even shorter when I keep that standard answer on my clipboard in the computer and can respond to the 25% of the submissions that all fall into that category. I change the title, I change the genre and we are done.

For those that require more time, I am still able to provide a nugget of information in roughly 1 minute.

Why do I do this? The answer is simple. This is a business and with that business, there is an element of professionalism that goes along with it. Someone took the time to contact me, I need to take the time to respond. I simply do not agree with the use of a form letter that simply says you passed on the project without a reason and I certainly don't agree with the premise that if you don't hear from us, it means we didn't want it. I have seen editors do this too. Whether it is an agent or an editor, it just doesn't work for me.

I honestly wish there was a way to provide a full critique of what didn't work in your manuscript. That is simply something that will not happen. What I can promise you though is that you will hear something. And please, take that piece of information, although it might be small, adapt those comments to a future project and send it along. That second or third manuscript might just be the one I am looking for.

Scott