Bummer!
Okay, I know there are two sides to this story. Happily (it depends how you look at it, work with me here), I don’t know the other side. What I do know is that this puts pressure on our already skint resources. If you haven't heard the word ‘skint’ before, look at a writer's larder and you'll see what I mean.
We have to print several copies of our work and stamp each one not once, but twice so they could be easily returned. (I don't want them returned!) In fact, some agents insist you’re not a proper writer if you 'don’t take the time' to include an SASE in your submission package. Notice it’s now a ‘package,’ not just a ‘letter.’
After all the writing – on a computer with a broken ‘E’ key; editing – in the cold, because the heating bills haven’t been paid; printing – off a cousin’s office printer when her boss stepped out for a ‘meeting’ from which he returned with lipstick on his collar; post office visits – in the old banger with the duct-taped side window; posting – with money borrowed from the weekly shopping budget; we’re expected to wait for nine months for a reply.
Some of this is exaggeration. Okay, most of the last paragraph is exaggerated (apart from waiting for nine months for a reply). But you see where I’m coming from. I asked in one of my early posts on my older blog, 'Do I Need A Literary Agent?' Can you blame me? I’m sure you’ve asked yourself this very thing.
I don't dislike Literary Agents. Honest.

No comments:
Post a Comment