Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Logic of Literary Agents

After last week's 'Queryfail' on Twitter, in which literary agents spilled the beans about the daft and desperate query letters they receive, The Guardian reported yesterday uber-agent Jonny Geller as saying this:
'The fact is that publishers, and lots of agencies, have stopped accepting unsolicited manuscripts, so how is a writer meant to get into publishing? I can understand [authors'] frustration [with Queryfail], but I think the more help given the better.'
Now let me get this straight. Prospective authors need help in writing the letters that 'lots of agencies' won't even consider nowadays?

That's a bit daft, isn't it? Or maybe it's the desperate logic of agents who feel they need 'help' in discouraging authors from sending unsolicited stuff in the first place...

(Can't find the Guardian link, I'm afraid.)

3 comments:

Sheenagh Pugh said...

Yes, it didn't seem logical. And the practice of these agents quoting from other people's letters without permission in a public space doesn't inspire confidence.

Elizabeth Baines said...

No, it doesn't!

jdsanc said...

I followed query fail and found it very interesting. It was a rant, funny, informative, interesting, but mostly a mere glimpse of the gobbly-gook they sift through on a daily basis.
There's going to be another one April 17th.