Thoughts As I Read Submissions

I have done this in the past on Twitter but I thought I would take the time and look at the submissions I did on a round of reading and put together my thoughts on what I saw. Hope this gives you some insight...

GENRE	THOUGHTS	ANSWER TO AUTHOR
Misc. projects	Author wanted information on specifics for what I am looking for.	Referred author to website but went ahead and provided some additional information. This author is doing the right thing about trying to find out more about a potential agent. Big thumbs up here.
Women’s fiction	This story had some potential about a reconnection with a prior relationship. The problem here was that the author has added so many other issues for the characters with personal problems and baggage that the relationship and the growth is gone. Along the same lines, this is more in the way of a romance than a women’s fiction since the focus is not seeing the world through the female lens.	Reject
Young Adult	This one is an obvious one. I don’t represent YA. This is actually a pretty common thing I see here at the agency. Apparently a lot of people just pull an email from websites like Agent Query without going to see what the person actually represents.	Reject
Psychological thriller	See comment above. In this case, this is a situation of someone overseas trying to break into the US market.	Reject
New Adult	Although I am looking for New Adult, this is clearly someone desperate to be seen. This person used the form I have for submissions and just clicked buttons just to get the submission through. A) this was not New Adult; B) The author just filled in boxes with information he/she wanted to include and not what I needed; and C) was claiming this one would fit for Entangled. Just a note, “You are welcome Stacy for not sending this one to you!”	Reject
Misc. projects	This person had mostly novellas and songs to be marketed. Hmmmm? Romance or women’s fiction? Probably not	Reject
Fiction	This came across more of a Nicholas Sparks sort of piece. It isn’t really romance or women’s fiction. In this case, we also had characters that were in an adulterous relationship…something I say I will not represent	Reject
Steamy Contemporary	I had read this one before in a contest. The author took the comments from the contest and apparently put it to use. I haven’t seen the manuscript but the changes made in the premise look interesting	Requested full
Contemporary	In this case, the author really seemed to be hooked on throwing a lot of cliché and stereotypes into the story. While the initial premise sounded interesting, when you look at how the story seems to rely on all of those cliché elements, the story now comes across as feeling a bit weak	Reject
Single title historical	There are elements of this story that sound interesting so it will take looking at the project to get a real feel for it. I am worried however, since this is a western and right now, the genre isn’t really picking up the steam that it used to have.	Requesting a partial
Romantic Suspense	In this case, the premise just struggled and came across as a bit unrealistic. Really not into that whole stalker thing	Reject
Women’s fiction???	In this case, the premise itself really didn’t seem to have a focus. I can see how the reader wanted to build this great story of growth and learning on the part of the protagonist, but in the end, the story didn’t seem to be about that person but someone else	Reject
Thriller	Need I say more? I should also add that this author ignored the submission guidelines and just cut and pasted the story into the email. Although authors might think this is helping, this comes across as a clear sign of someone who might not follow editorial direction well	Reject