In May I sent my full manuscript to an agent who had requested it. In August she responded with a very sweet and helpful email. She told me that she liked the story; it was well-plotted and entertaining. The problem, and her decision to decline representing it came from the fact that that characters lacked depth. She said they felt emotionally distant. She was right.
Thankfully, at the end of her email she mentioned that she'd be happy to take another look at my work at some point. Now, from what other authors have told me, the fact that an agent didn't send me a form rejection letter was a big deal; the fact that she told me what needed to be changed was an even bigger deal, and the fact that she offered to take a look at it in the future was a huge deal! I didn't view her response as a rejection (well, lets be honest, I did until two published authors educated me on the matter). I saw her response as a push to do better. Maybe even a test to see if I was the type of author who would recoil in anger and mutter to myself of how great my writing was and that no one understood. Maybe she wanted to know if I'd take her advice under consideration and work on fixing the issues she found. Either way, I listened to her as well as the published authors.
In October I emailed her to let her know how thankful I was to her positive and helpful response and then I asked her a simple question. I wondered if she'd prefer that I query her again once the rewrite was complete, or just shoot her an email letting her know. Again, she responded. The answer? Email her when I completed it.
Yesterday, I sent that email. Today I wait.
Here's The Question:
Have you had any sort of correspondence with a literary agent? If so, how did it go? If not, what are your aspirations/ fears when it comes to literary agents?
