More and more I'm being sent submissions that aren't really submissions. Rather, they are letters or emails that say, 'I've been doing X and I've made a website. Can you please give me advice on what I should do next?' or 'Can you please tell me how to turn it into a book?'
I've probably said it before but just so we're clear: agents aren't a general advisory service for writers. If I'm not getting letters like this then I'm seeing things like, 'I want to write a novel but I really don't know how. What advice can you give me?'
Well, none. I'm not running a public service. Having said that, I would love to have the resources and time to give this type of advice, if only so that ultimately fewer and fewer people will be in the dark, but luckily I don't have to: writers centres (or writers' centres, depending on whether or not you think it's a centre for writers or a centre possessed by writers) already offer this service.
No doubt agents seem like logical people to ask for advice about writing, but the parameters of our jobs are fairly clear: we work with authors who have already written something (well, most of the time). There is enough information available on the internets for fledgling writers - I'm fairly sure none of that information suggests that agents are the go-to people when you are first thinking about writing something or pre-thinking about writing something. And every one of these letters and emails that asks for advice has to be answered, meaning my submission-reading time gets squeezed (hence this ranty-type post).
So, please, if you are ever tempted to ask an agent for some general career advice and they're not already your agent: don't. There are writers/writers' centres to help you. And the Australian Society of Authors. They're all helpful people. They would love to help you turn your website into a manuscript. And then you can contact me and any other agent you wish.
It's weird that people are making this mistake. If ever you wanted to be super-duper helpful to them I suppose you could put a writer's conference or organisation brochure in the envelopes!
ReplyDeleteI must admit, you're nicer than I would be in responding to those kind of letters! My deletin' finger would be getting one heck of a workout! ^_^
ReplyDeleteSo I suppose emailing you about how to get my twitter ramblings published is out of the question? Lol!
ReplyDeleteI think newbies hold you in extremely high regard. For us lowly, unpublished ones Agents are demigods merely a stone throw from the gates of Olympus or Asgard (whichever you prefer).
While the emails are trying and the questions downright silly, you are AWESOME (which I say to anyone with patience)! Don't ever forget it you demigoddess, you.
Fascinating. I can only shake my head. Crazy.
ReplyDeletelol, I get asked that question a lot too and I'm not even an agent. My advice is this: just write it. Like you said, there's plenty of resources out there to help us along the way -- but we'll get nowhere if we don't write.
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