Appreciation

If you’ve been reading any agent blogs over the last few days, you’ll see that hundreds of writers came out to rant about their bad experiences with agents. After her agentfail post, Jessica at Bookends suggested we take a day to show appreciation for the positive experiences we’ve had.

Recently, after trading emails with one super agent, she asked me to call her for suggestions about revisions for The Bodley Boys. So excited by her offer, I’m sure I was hardly coherent on the phone. But I did take notes and am now reworking my manuscript. She might not agree to take me on when I’m done, but my manuscript is better because of her. (I’d mention her name, but I don’t want to jinx it.)

Sure, I’m frustrated because several agents never responded to partials and fulls (YES!), but I’ve received hand-written responses to queries and a personalized no-thank-you from an agent who was not even looking for clients. Class act.

Plenty of agents and editors blog (Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, Moonrat to name a few). Sure they could spend more time reading our queries or partials, but with every one of their posts, I learn something new.

Kristin Nelson blogged today about Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors, both Websites that provide information on scam agents. Both sites are valuable research tools, and my final stop before sending a query.

I also visit Absolute Write, Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, Query Tracker, Writers Market and Agent Query (see sidebar for links helpful to writers searching for an agent or seeking general information about the publishing process).

So, a big thank you to the many industry people who spend their valuable time trying to help writers.

Have you had an especially positive writing experience you’d like to share?